10 Essential Cycling Tools

Cycling Weekly

17/04/2025

Top 10 essential home workshop tools and how to use them

Transcript

00:00not everybody can have access to a full bike shop specced workshop in their own home and if you were

00:12to have every single tool that's needed to work on bikes you're gonna need a pretty big space and

00:17more importantly a really big wallet but there are some tools or types of tools that we feel

00:23are the essentials that everybody should have in their collection and with these you can pretty

00:28much strip down a bike or do any home maintenance jobs so here's a rundown of those tools

00:38probably the number one tool or type of tool that everybody needs is the humble allen key or hex key

00:45now a good set of hex keys means that you can pretty much do any maintenance job on the bike it is the

00:52most important type of bolt head that you find on bikes and so therefore you need to have certain

00:58sizes now most kits go from about a two millimeter up to an eight or a ten millimeter but the most

01:04important ones are four five and six you can buy them as separates so obviously you can have separate

01:10ones like this these are really really easy to use in the workshop or you can buy them as part of a

01:15multi-tool and obviously everybody carries multi-tools so you'll see that you'll have these at all times so

01:22those are the two types that you really should be looking at if you're going to do things at home

01:27then separates work better if you want to do something whether you're out and about or just

01:32have the convenience then a multi-tool with hex keys on there is an essential

01:42now Torx keys are those funny star-shaped tools that you see that a lot more bikes are starting to use

01:49they're a bit of a safer option if you're a bit ham-fisted when it comes to maintenance because

01:52they're less likely to round out and what you'll find is that more and more expensive components

01:58tend to come with this type of bolt the most common size you find especially if you use disc brakes is a

02:03t25 but often a kit will have everything from a t10 up to a t30 but t25 is the important one to make

02:12sure you've got in your collection if you're planning on doing lots of maintenance jobs when

02:21it comes to looking at your cables then you'll know the importance of having a good set of cable

02:25cutters so a good set of cable cutters will allow you to cut any type of cable perfectly straight and

02:32perfectly accurate allowing you to make sure that your gears and your brakes are going to be working

02:37spot on most tend to be sprung loaded and what you'll find is they have very very sharp cutting

02:43edges some will have then a little tool that you can use to poke the hole back in the cable just in

02:50case it does get squashed a little bit but the main thing that they do is they cut perfectly straight

02:55and they shouldn't really squash your cables at all

02:57okay so this next one isn't technically a proper workshop tool but you cannot survive without one

03:09you need to make sure you've got a really good track pump if you want to keep your tyres inflated properly

03:16and as anybody has tried to pump up a normal road tyre with a little hand pump you'll know how hard that can be

03:22a good track pump will make an absolute doddle of the task

03:27when you swap in tyres and tubes around then you'll find sometimes that those tyres are very

03:36very hard to get off and this is where a good tyre lever comes in obviously if you can avoid using

03:42tyre levers that's the best solution but if you can't if you've got a really really tight setup then

03:49good tyre levers will help save your fingers and will help save your rims and your tyres themselves

03:56there's loads of good tyre levers out there the important thing is that they're strong enough

04:00and stiff enough to be able to cope with taking the tyres off but soft enough in terms of not being

04:06able to damage any delicate carbon rims or expensive tyres you can get different styles of tyre levers and

04:13some have different widths so it depends on which style works best for yourself these are two very

04:19very very common styles and you'll see that they come in sets so if you're finding that the tyre is

04:25really stubborn you might need to use more than one to do the job

04:34one of the most important things to do on your bike when it comes to maintenance is to look after

04:38your chain because that is the one bit that can let you down more than anything else and also if you use

04:44the chain for longer than its life expectancy you can wear out those expensive chain rings and cassettes

04:50so the next two tools i will recommend are tools that will help you to keep on top of chain maintenance

04:57number one is a good chain checker this is a very very simple tool that you use to measure how badly

05:04worn your chain is they only cost a few pounds but can help save you hundreds of pounds if you use it

05:10regularly you literally put it on top of your chain and you can see how much your chain is stretched and how much life is left

05:18so a very very simple but effective and essential tool the chain checker then if you do need to change your chain

05:26you're going to need one of these a chain tool and a chain tool will be the only way that you can cut

05:33your new chain down to the correct length and in most respects to be able to actually connect the chain

05:40properly so you can buy chain tools in different sizes and different shapes if you're going to use

05:46one at home you want to go for a good workshop one this will make it a much easier job to do

05:52and can be used on several different types of chains from six speed seven speed eight speed nine speed

05:5810 speed 11 speed to 12 speed a good set of screwdrivers is going to help make gear maintenance a

06:08absolute doddle so you're going to need to have a good set of screwdrivers when it comes to adjusting

06:14your limit screws for example and obviously there's a few other different areas on your bike that you will

06:20require these you can get phillips screwdrivers and obviously the standard flat heads and there's

06:28also something called a jis which is a japanese industrial standard screwdriver which shimano

06:33use for their rear derailleurs and for their front derailleurs but you don't necessarily need to have

06:38that just a very good set of crosshead and flat head screwdrivers a decent set of pliers is then going

06:51to help you with those little fiddly jobs especially things like cable routing and when it comes to putting

06:58cable crimps on the ends of those cables as well you can get different types of pliers but our perfect

07:04ones to use for bikes are the needle nose pliers this means you can really get into those tiny little

07:09hard to reach places and you can do all of those essential jobs they can double up as cable cutters

07:16as well so if you've got cable ties or anything else that you want to be able to cut then a lot of

07:21them do have the facility to do that as well and last but by no means least probably the set of tools

07:31that are the most specific in the entire list and those are the tools you require to take your cassette

07:38off and put a new cassette on there's two tools that you need you need a cassette tool and a chain whip

07:45so these are ones we have here again they come in different styles this is park tools version so

07:52rather than a normal type of chain whip this grips hold of the cassette on both sides and means that

07:59you can loosen it without the whole thing spinning you will then need one of these little tools here

08:05and an adjustable spanner to be able to actually do the job itself this then is used if you want to put

08:11your new cassette back on you can buy these with handles built in or as it is like this a very

08:19simple small effective tool that you use with a spanner set so that is the only specific tools on the

08:27list really everything else is something that you can use for multiple types of jobs so there you have

08:33it a simple rundown of the 10 most essential types of tools that every rider needs to have

08:40now if i've missed anything out or you think there's another tool that you think is an essential

08:45for everybody to have please put it in the comment section below and don't forget to like and subscribe

08:50and more importantly click on that notification button to keep up with our latest releases but until then

08:56we'll see you soon

Category

Transcript

Recommended