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Seems to be never ending.
Quick link pliers. Well you cant get them damn things off without them, so can't do without.
And a bearing/BB/Headset press, well also pretty much a needed necessity there, but many jobs you just seem to do without then one fateful day suddenly find the need to buy something else.
Fitting a new fork. So now I need something to press in the star nut" and probably would be better owning a crown race basher on thing.
* The star nut setting tool appears to simple be a bit of a handle with one end having a bit of threaded rod sticking out, so I suppose I could turn a handle, set in said bit of threaded rod and hopefully that will do the job.
But its a crown race thingy i feel i now need to buy, even though I'll probably only use it once or twice a year. Another 15-20 quid 🙄
Anyone else get sick of suddenly finding theres yet something else they need, or annoyed that companies keep coming out with specialized tools that you can bodge around.
The star nut fitter is awesome, trust me. Crown race can be done with a bit of pipe unless it's a cane creek 40.
I quite like making my own tools. Star nut setter and various crown race whackers shown below.
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Getting slightly out of hand once it gets to framebuild jigs....
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Star nut setter's a nice-to-have but a bit of M6 threaded rod does the job just as well- thread the star nut on from the "top" so that the rod sticks through it a bit, drop it in, the rod sticks out the bottom of the steerer and can be used to keep it straight. Add a couple of nuts and a washer to the bottom end if you're feeling fancy to give it guaranteed centering. I think I do have a star nut tool but I'm not sure where it is.
Headset press = rubber mallet, unless you're really hamfisted. I had a headset press and I have a 12 ton workshop press, but I fit headsets and pushfit BBs with mallets and most bearings with sockets and hammers or a vice
Quick link pliers are one that you can easily live without but they do make the job so much easier that I wouldn't be without them, for the few pounds they cost.
After years of sockets vice and hammers I finally bought one of those vast eBay bearing press kits. Felt extravagant but it makes hubs and linkages a joy now.
I remember an interview in MBI in the early 90's with a chap who was head of shimano's cycling development - he said his ambition was that all maintenance on a MTB should be able to be done with 3 or 4 allen keys.
Brake piston setting tool.
I've done it for years with a large flat blade screwdriver, but the Park PP1.2 make it much more satisfying.
Headset press
I'm still on hammer, bench and some old skirting board off cuts. Fine every time 😀
The blind bearing puller has made hubs and suspension bearings significantly less time consuming
Brake piston setting tool.
AKA Yellow Pedros tyre levers.
Last year I decided I really wanted needed a bench mounted sanding belt and sanding disc tool. Bought one of those generic belt & disc sanders last week. 5 seconds into sanding the very first piece of wood (and despite already knowing I'd need some sort of dust extraction) felt very foolish for thinking I could use the thing in my shed and still have a nice shed to spend time in (bike maintenance, exercise, making things etc). So decided to sand the head of a M12 dome headed bolt flat. Sparks flying everywhere. It'll be used outside I think, much like the mitre saw and angle grinder.
I have a shed load, literally, 3 headset presses, a compartment dedicated to various BB tools including shell facing tool, Hope facing tool for IS mounts that's practically obsolete, several torque wrenches if I include preset ones, way too many Allen keys including socket ones in 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" sets, 3 cassette locking tools, one for QR, one for 12mm axle and my very first one that works for Rockshox fork caps, so many/too many tools to list, decades worth of tools, it's getting ridiculous.
I resisted the urge to buy spinning T-handle Allen keys, only just though.
Tools you say ...
There's also a truing stand out of shot and various multi tools scattered around, oh and in the cupboards there's brake bleeding kits (DOT & Mineral), suspension servicing stuff and various other tools that won't fit on the board.....
Bottom bracket tools - at the last count it was something like 10 - often bought to remove a dead one, consigned to the bin and replaced with something else…
A long M6 bolt held with pliers whilst being hit with a hammer has been my emergency star-nut setter more than once. BB tools are a nightmare for me, especially as most of them aren't made of tool steel, just aluminium which really isn't up to being used full time (feeling lucky i've been able to avoid T47, as the engagement depth is a **** up just waiting to happen).
What you need is a lathe and ideally a mill, then with a few odd bit and bobs of scap you can make what ever tools you need.
AKA Yellow Pedros tyre levers.
I've only got the pink ones.
Quick link pliers. Well you cant get them damn things off without them, so can’t do without.
Most come off with Gerber type serrated nose pliers, it's all I use. Squeeze at an angle with the serrations gripping the right area each side and they come off easily.
TBH bearing or headset presses, crown race and lockring tools etc are setting yourself up for decent home mechanic work, money well spent I think.
You can make a headset or bearing press pretty easily. For fitting many hub bearings I use the vice with a block made for the job plus old sockets of the right size. Line up and press slowly, a more pleasant process than using a hammer.
I made quick link pliars by filing the nose of mrssirromjs long nose pliars. She didn't really appreciate it but was soon forgotten!
I remember an interview in MBI in the early 90’s with a chap who was head of shimano’s cycling development – he said his ambition was that all maintenance on a MTB should be able to be done with 3 or 4 allen keys.
Interesting. How did that work out for him?
But its a crown race thingy i feel i now need to buy,
Assuming its a sealed bearing headset - just cut a slot in the crown race and push it on by hand, so it works exactly like the Hope (and others) ones.
Presses, yeah, lots of presses. Big one, little ones. You can never have too many variations of bits of metal on a threaded rod.
Bitd when IS brakes were a thing, I always used a facing tool when building bikes up. That was quite satisfying, cutting away metal to get perfect caliper alignment.
Nowadays the hanger alignment tool seems to get a lot of use.
Star nut setter is good, along with quick-link pliers - essential.
Recently though a big roller-cab to keep it all organised has made the biggest difference to work space.
haven't bought a new tool in over 10 yrs (nice thing about not having new bikes) though I did make the fox ips (sic ?) valve adapter by drilling though a grub screw and soldering in a basket ball needle into it.
You're missing a Rapid Racer Bearing Press:
I have had other's but none as good and wouldn't be without mine, gets used regularly.
BR
JeZ
What you need is a lathe and ideally a mill, then with a few odd bit and bobs of scap you can make what ever tools you need.
Oh yes!
Headset presses are ridiculously priced when you consider that they're just a machined rod and press with a thrust bearing. The hardest bit to make is the quick release for the bottom press.
Having been a woodworker/furniture maker, a kitchen fitter and a pretty keen home car mechanic over the years i've built up quite a tool collection. I've got two roll-cab stacks full of hand tools, a big metal cupboard full of power tools, 2 x pillar drills, a wood lathe, bandsaw, etc.
I can still never find the right tool for what i'm doing - and currently don't have enough space to really use it all properly.
Im identical, and a furniture maker too.
No matter the job, I always seem to find myself needing some tool or piece of machinery i don't have and feel I must buy it, even if it's for that one application.
As such I've also amassed such a collection of woodworking(and some engineering) tools and machines to the point it takes up more floor space than i have and it ends up being stored somewhere else.
Last time I bought a really big chippings extractor,so big in fact I'm musing putting it in the room next to my workshop and core cutting through the dividing wall so i can feed the extraction hose/tube through.
The odd thing is im grumbling about buying a race press* and/or a star nut setter, but I've no problem justifying a drum sander, which I'm hoping Axminster tools will accept my offer of £900 for.
* @JonEdwards
Thats an excellent idea. I always thought Hopes split race was a much better idea than trying to hammer it on or get a blade under it to lever it off, both of which are problematic without the correct tool.
I resisted the urge to buy spinning T-handle Allen keys, only just though.
Pffft. Call yourself a mechanic?
I love spinning my T-handles.
With Shimano 12 speed, Middleburn, Hope and Raceface cranks between bikes, my latest is collecting chain ring spider tools, to go with bottom bracket collection....
I also seem to collect Hope hub adaptors, seem to have ended with up with about 10 bloody lots...
So I bought a press fit BB kit. Worked fine on my RaceFace one. Does it work on a DUB piece of shite? No! Does the other bearing removal tool that sits behind the BB cup and you whack with a hammer? NO!
Sodding DUB needs ANOTHER bearing press tool.
No wonder people won't buy bikes with press fit shitty BB shells.
(Like this)
Just bash it in with a block of wood
I need a breaker bar for my SRAM cranks that seems to need to be done up as tight as it's possible without the use of actual power tools and or Jesse Ventura. And a bearing removal kit, which I don't want to do becasue I've a Specialized and that means double blind bearings in a carbon swingarm, and frankly it's giving me fear.
tabletop2
Just bash it in with a block of wood
Removal tool being the operative word 🙄
No need for quick link pliers. A scrubby shoelace is all y'all need...
I use an allen key socket in an extension bar and a hammer to guide/knock in a star nut.Circlip pliers work well for chain links.
With Shimano 12 speed, Middleburn, Hope and Raceface cranks between bikes, my latest is collecting chain ring spider tools, to go with bottom bracket collection….
For Shimano I've ended up with a tool for direct mount chainring, BB tool for HollowTech II BB-52, and another BB tool for the MT800 one. All about the same size. Wanted to remove external ringed centerlock rotors from some OEM wheels to sell, also about the same size, none of them work.
I bought a 2ft, 1/2” breaker bar at a car show for the wheel nuts on my camper. Lifesaver when a local asked me to service their 20 year old roadbike with a square taper sealed BB with alloy cups that had never been removed…nnnnrrrrggggghhhhh…aaahhhhhhh
Having been inspired by this thread I'm now the proud owner of a Hope HTTSPOT.
@noeffsgiven, I have a pdf of the instructions from Hope but still none the wiser as to what the figure 8's and slotted tube are for, should I presume they are spacers for the axles going onto 150/160mm mounts and the slotted tube thing is maybe a lefty mount?
I even have a crown race facing tool. Was a real hassle finding a shop that still had a 1inch cutter so I bought one.
Rather surprisingly I have used it on three separate occasions.
My new favourite tool.
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crown race basher on thing
I made one from solvent weld pipe and straight coupling, serms to be a perfect fit
Yeah solvent weld and even push fit works unless it's stupidly tight.
Only thing better than buying the right tool is being able to make it yourself.
Star nut install was a breeze. Dome headed bolt with a nut on it to tighten it so there was no chance of it damaging the star nut threads while i was bashing it in, and pretty much went in straight.
Crown race was problematic though. It turned out to be the instrumental part of the block lock headset, and no way did it want to come off. I think to get that type off you need a pro tool, just basically so it doesnt damage it.
Solution was to forego swopping the fork until such times as i can get a 2nd block lock crown race to fit to the lyric rather than the almighty faff around of trying to get it off, then fitting to the lyrik, then off the lyrik when the fox comes back and refitting to that. Simplest thing seemed to have 2 races.
Then just a case of faffing around setting up the brake.
I had fitted the new(tech4) brake and a new hope wheel to the lyrik prior to taking off the fox,thinking it would be quicker to set up the new stuff so just a simple matter of fitting the fork and the brake is centered, but thanks to the weird crown race i needed to start it all over again. Pain in the bum, but at least the new wheel is installed and the new tech 4 V4 brake, which is a pretty impressive i must say.
Weird race. But Im thankful i could at least get one. They dont seem that common a part to find in the UK.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144479427260
@squirrelking, that slotted tube goes over your 12mm maxle, just like the tool slides directly onto 20mm maxles, although I had to contact Hope about mine as is was slightly undersized and wouldn't slide on, they sent me a new tube in a couple of days, as for the rough steel figure 8 thingies, I've completely forgot or never knew in the first place 😀
Cheers, I've not actually used it in anger yet but I'll figure the rest out. Completely forgot about 12mm 🙄