Imagine you were starting up a bike workshop, nothing much more advanced than adjusting and servicing bikes. What toolboxes would you recommend?

kinda thinking along the lines of the Birzman one here

anything better quality/better specced for the price? Or course there will be a few traditional tools to add in, but for an all round bike workshop on a budget it should be OK?

Thanks

🙂

Sorry, that’s not very helpful.

Your own bikes or others? I rarely touch Park, their quality’s variable but their pricing isn’t… But in a pro workshop I think people like to see lots of blue, not everyone’s happy with “I use these £3 wire cutters instead of £40 Park cable cutters because they work better”, they want to see the “right tool”. Shims from the private stock of Baron Krupp…

£400 won’t do a full pro workshop because of the speciality tools, facing kit etc, but it’d do the day-to-day kit from pretty much any manufacturer you choose I reckon.

On a more serious note, I might be more tempted by hand picking the tools I thought I was going to use most and buying top-quality ones of those.

e.g. At the bike shop I used to work for, there was the most amazing spoke key that I’ve never seen anywhere else that was a complete joy to use. Every other one is a slight disappointment.
Obvious one is allen keys.

Then skimp on some of the larger, heavier spanners. Some very cheap, perfectly good ones around.

Then get some of the rarer things sorted like a wheel jig, headset press, facing/reaming tools, to make sure all bases are covered.

Even basic servicing of other people’s bikes is going to involve swapping headsets, trueing wheels and cleaning out bottom bracket threads.

Oh and a good hammer/vice.

On a more serious note, I might be more tempted by hand picking the tools I thought I was going to use most and buying top-quality ones of those.

e.g. At the bike shop I used to work for, there was the most amazing spoke key that I’ve never seen anywhere else that was a complete joy to use. Every other one is a slight disappointment.
Obvious one is allen keys.

Then skimp on some of the larger, heavier spanners. Some very cheap, perfectly good ones around.

Then get some of the rarer things sorted like a wheel jig, headset press, facing/reaming tools, to make sure all bases are covered.

Even basic servicing of other people’s bikes is going to involve swapping headsets, trueing wheels and cleaning out bottom bracket threads.

Oh and a good hammer/vice.

Agreed, multiple ones.

If you want a really nice STEEL toolbox to put your tools in, I’m thinking of making this commercially

Tools not included (they’re mine)

i dont see 360 quids worth of specialist tools in that birzman box – some nicely branded standard tools mind you.

your money could be utilised better imo.

Don’t buy boxes or sets unless you really like everything to match. Make a list of the tools of need, and see what’s available – Pedros do some fantastic Allen keys, for instance, and Bondhus folding sets are identical to the Park folding sets. Halfords pro spammers are excellent.

Really, though, you won’t get much for £400 – you could outfit a basic workshop, but that’s it.

Also don’t forget a good workstand.

Take a bike apart to its componant parts and then put it back together. Work out the tools needed.

Buy everything else on a need-to-have basis.

You could even farm out the tasks that need expensive and/or rarely used tools.

I thought you meant toolbox not box OF tools…
I must be a gear snob after all

ta.

helping a charity spec up their workshop, as you do. They’re looking to service bikes in the local community and do some basic bike recycling.

They have a budget of about £1k, but that needs to include for some consumables too, which in themselves come to around £300.

There are basic kits that contain more tools for less, but the birzman feel nice in the hand for the kit. I don’t particularly like park much, as they’re hit or miss, but would top up a kit box with some of the other bits they’d use, like decent cone spanners and a good adjustable, some pliers etc..

I’m including for a stand and basic truing jig too.

It’d be nice to be able to pull together half decent tools from everywhere but it’s likely to be more expensive and over budget.

fun fun…

As it’s a charity, maybe ask a supplier/manufacturer for cost/trade price stuff?

Loads of pretty good hand tools available (halfords pro, draper expert). Only buy cycle specific makes for cycle specific tools. The Lidl hex/torx T-bar set I bought for about £8(?) are as good as the pedros ones (having used both).

So did I beaker. I have one of these, £249 for the box without any tools in it.

Thanks all for comments.

I’ve got it all sorted now. mix and match of various bits. The organisation I do some work for has a couple of trade accounts, but more often than not the online prices seem to match the trade+vat we can get.

ta

Very nice Mister P lovely for a race setup

birzman can be had for much less at

bike-discount.de

Blimey ifcfan – £200 instead of £360!

Thats where i ordered mine from was here within a week, pleased with it for £200 wouldn’t have paid the £350 it seems to be everywhere else

see for 200 quid that kit actually becomes good value.

wear well an all – we got fed up replacing worn park stuff(busy workshop) at park prices and the birzman stuff lasted just as long.

yep, spotted that, means I can add in much more than I thought. 🙂