Quality of bike related tools ie chain tools

[Ian Raleigh]

My son ruined my old cyclo chain de-linker on his modern BMX! I've had it since 1983 and was very reliable until the
stupid son got a spanner on it to try and push a chain pin out and snapped both lugs which hold the chain in place.

He said sorry and got me a black Draper thing which cost him £20 looked good but the pin soon got bent,
so I complained to the shop about the pin bending, shop asked me what type of chain was I trying to split,
told him its a KMC 9 speed lightweight chain! Ah he said ther'es your answer there!! The chain pins are mushroomed
and super hardened, thus' being very difficult to push the pin through with a standard de-linker and can bend
the pin, he offered to refund my money and also purchase a very big professional tool costing some £45,
Told him not a chance so got my money back ASP.

 

[JeRkY]

Icetoolz crank extractor over the crappy park ones any day of the millennium. But it has to be said if you want to split a chain, Park is the only way forwards!

 

[David B]

Might be on my own here but IceToolz aren't bad for the price................

Shaun.

IIRC Dad has a long IceToolz spanner which is for threaded headsets one end, pedals the other. Never had any bother with it.

My own toolkit is mostly Park and Cyclo, no issues with either. Then again, for BB removal and headset top nuts I use a thumping great adjustable spanner bought for the measly sum of a fiver from Kirkgate Market in Leeds 9 years ago - certainly got my money's worth with that one!!

David

 

[mattsccm]

Re:

Why do people buy pedal spanners?
They are usually thin and bend.
bog standard15mm spanners does the same job or better.

 

[The History Man]

I need a new chain tool so should i get the park ones? My cyclo has bent after 40 yrs service man and boy. The new cyclos don't look to be the same quality?

 

[mattr]

Re: Re:

Why do people buy pedal spanners?
They are usually thin and bend.
bog standard15mm spanners does the same job or better.

no they don't, pedal flats on a good number of pedals are far too narrow for a standard metric 15mm spanner.

Best trick is not to tighten them up too frigging much, they don't need 500Nm

 

[mattr]

Biggest issue I've found with tools is no single manufacturer is consistent. They all make some crap tools.

VAR has been the best I've found so far, still broke a spanner.

 

[David B]

Re: Re:

Why do people buy pedal spanners?
They are usually thin and bend.
bog standard15mm spanners does the same job or better.

no they don't, pedal flats on a good number of pedals are far too narrow for a standard metric 15mm spanner.

Best trick is not to tighten them up too frigging much, they don't need 500Nm

To aid removal, flats on the pedal spindles in the first place are always a good idea. Early incarnations of Time ATACs didn't think that one through.

David

 

[Johnsqual]

Re:

Does anyone ever actually use the allen key holes on the inside of newer pedals? I never seem to be able to get enough power, so I usually end up just using a pedal spanner anyway?

Also, with some old Lyotard pedals the flats are even too narrow for a
narrow pedal spanner so I have to use a cone spanner, which is not exactly ideal since they are not really strong enough.

And don't get me started on French bloody hubs. Why did some manufacturers find it necessary to design the hubs/freewheels so that you have to take the whole bleeding hub axle off just to remove the freewheel. Grrrrr...

 

[Johnsqual]

Re:

Oh, yeah, another thing, Tackx stuff is crap. I bought a Tackx bottom bracket tool for a Campag BB. The shop bloke assured me it was also
ok to use for cassette lockrings. No it isn't - the tool doesn't fit over the axle. And the tool only has a crappy narrow surface for the spanner flats. Slipped spanner and gouged knuckles, anyone?