10 Essential Tools for Your Home Workshop

Having a floor pump at home is essential. With it, you can check the correct pressure of your tires and re-inflate them if necessary.

Your floor pump must be suitable for the different types of valves you will be using.

 

There are mainly two types: 

1. Presta valves

- Used for road bikes 

2. Schrader valves (similar to car tyre valves)

- Generally intended for mountain bikes, city bikes and mountain bikes

 

Many models are compatible with both systems, but check that your pump is suitable for inflating the valves on your bikes. Floor pumps that come with a pressure gauge are also useful for fine-tuning tyre pressure.

Having a set of Allen keys is crucial for cyclists, as they are required to make adjustments or make some common fix on almost every bolt on your bike.

Although a multi-tool kit is more commonly brought on rides, we advise you to have a set of separate Allen keys in your workshop. This is because the L-shaped design of these keys are more suitable for reaching places that would be difficult for your multitool.

PRO-TIP: If some parts of your bike are carbon, invest in torque wrenches. They are certainly a little more expensive, but having them reduces the risk of weakening your seat tubes, stems or hangers by excessive tightening.

Think of the pedal wrench as a fairly large Allen key, but with a much longer arm lever that provides you the strength you need to tighten or loosen your pedals!

This tool is inspired by physical law: the longer the arm, the more force you have to make the same effort.

With this tool, you can regularly grease the axle of your pedals or replace pedals automatically, for example.

Over time, the spokes of bicycle wheels loosen after use. In the case of off-road use, the wheels can even buckle due to spokes de-tensioning under the strain of repeated impacts.

The spoke wrench (sometimes referred to as a spoke 'key') allows you to adjust the tension of your spokes and correct uneven tension.

Replacing your cables without proper cable cutters is a real pain!

Whether damaged or worn out, the rubber part of your cable housing tends to shrink over time and the excess wire casing needs to be cut off.

For optimum operation, invest in bike-specific cable cutters which finely slice your cables and sleeves, without pinching or damage. It will be much easier to slide in the cables through the housing.