Evening all

I’m after a decent quality (not made of cheese or silly expensive) set of the above.

Whats a good option please?

I quite like my Bondhus ones. I believe they make the Park Tools ones, and they work well and feel nice in the hand, although a quick Google suggests they’re no longer the cheap option.

Having said that, it’s occasionally annoying to have T handles and not have the option of a shorter / more leverage handle. Park call this a ‘P handle’ although that doesn’t seem to be industry-wide.

P handles often called power keys too, i’d recommend Facom as a good option.

In my mind, these are not tools to skimp on. If you are serious enough to want to move on from L keys to T handles then spend the money on nice ones. I have Beta 951s, which were £50 quid for 8/6/5/4/3/2.5 but are a joy to use and fit bolt heads just lovely. Plus the top shaft slides in the T which makes access easier.

I actually prefer my Wera L-keys to my Ts

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wera-05073593001-Hex-Plus-Mulicolour-Ball-end/dp/B009ODV0OE

Second the above comments. If you want to go up from a basic set don’t scrimp – get the best you can now and if you look after them you’ll never have to buy again and you’ll be able to rely on them. A high quality set doesn’t cost much more than an average set and isn’t much at all when you compare it to the price of a new rear mech or similar.

I have also found that the T handle ones aren’t as useful in the smaller sizes – larger sizes are very useful but the smaller ones I find can be a bit big and cumbersome for getting to a lot of small bolts.

I have a Proxxon L-Handleset which has been really good.

I find the ball ends on the longer arm useful and the short arm with a standard hex fitting gives a safer purchase for the additional leverage available

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=130633860090&alt=web

These are the dogs to use ,I’ve also got some Snap-on but these feel nicer to use !

Actual Allen ones have been good for me — later ones have plastic handles, I have one or two with chunky metal handles, great feeling of solidity. LBS swears by them..

I’ve had a surprising amount of use out of my hex keys (but I ride a motorbike too)

I have a Teng Tools set, very pleased with them. They’re just over £30 on amazon at the mo – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teng-TTHEX7Metric-T-Handle-Drivers-Pieces/dp/B000Y8HLNC

<unexpected option> My main set are Draper Experts that I bought for peanuts about 10 years ago. Draper have totally random build quality and these just happened to be right at the top end of that. The current version may not be as good though, can’t speak for that.

Teng are generally expensive for what you get but that looks a good deal to me.

The snap on set that I bought last year have not worn well at all. I’ve had them about a third of the time I had my park ones and I’ve had to go back to my park ones because the snap on ones are so worn.
The best ones I’ve got are a set of L shaped Allen ones. They’re years old and have lasted really well. Just not as convenient to use day in day out like t handle ones are.

My dad was an engineer and he got me a load from his works about 20+ years ago. I still have the odd one of them and they still look brand new. I have no idea what they are made of or who made them but I’ve never used any better since!

The Beta hex drive stuff is usually pretty good and wears well personally I don’t like the ball ended versions as they damage the cap screws if used a lot.
The beta 96t set is about 40 quid

Plus 1 for wera hex plus set

Top notch keys.

Park make ( or at least did make) 2 ranges of keys. Cheap ones usually witha. Form of blue on which were utter garbage

And their rebranded bondhaus keys which were great.

Those Tengs look good and are slightly cheaper on http://www.toollineuk.com (who I’ve never used).
Along with the Torx set, they come in at £52.88 delivered.
Although I can only think of 3 torx sizes I’d need so might be better to buy individually.
hmmmmmm