ESSENTIAL TOOLS
VITAL BITS AND BOBS FOR THE TRAILSIDE AND YOUR HOME WORKSHOP
On the bike
What you carry on a ride should depend on how far you’re happy to walk with a broken bike! If you’re doing bike park laps or riding at your local, you may not even bother carrying tools. However, a big day’s riding or a multi-day trip will require careful choices. As a bare minimum, we
At home
The first tool that’ll make your life easier is a fastinflating, high-volume track pump. You can go old-school and get a simple one, or buy one with a high-pressure chamber for inflating troublesome tubeless tyres. If you’ve already got a decent track pump, then a tubeless inflator is a good addition to your tubeless set-up kit.
A big-ticket item, but arguably the best investment you’ll make for home spannering, is a workstand. Get one that’ll last and is strong enough for heavy bikes, in case you ever add an e-bike to your stable.
Next, we recommend investing in good quality Allen and Torx keys – a full set of Allens and a Torx T25 recommend carrying a multi-tool (check it fits all the bolts and parts on your bike), a chain breaker
(a separate one is often easier to use than one on a multi-tool) and a mini pump (with spare tube and/ or tubeless plugs). If you’re going farther and are carrying a spare cable, a pliers-style multi-tool is great for cutting cables and pinching end caps. will cover most of your needs. The benefit of full-size keys is that you can safely apply greater force without them slipping and rounding-out soft bolt heads. Generally, the more you spend, the better engineered the keys will be.
On the topic of bolts, a mini torque wrench won’t break the bank but will save money in the long run, as parts won’t break due to over-tightening.
Finally, we’d add the following to the tool list:
Snips (cable cutters) – great for all manner of cutting, from zipties to cables and brake hoses.
Pick – one of the most overlooked tools; useful for cleaning out brake bleedport caps, guiding internallyrouted cables and more.
Quick-link pliers – an absolute godsend when you’re trying to remove and change chains.