- Looking after a mountain bike is really important.
In order to do that, you're going to need some tools.
Now tools can be very expensive
and of course we've got a huge array of tools
at our disposal here to show you how to use them all.
But you need to start somewhere.
So, today I'm going to break it down for you
and we're going to make a modular tool kit.
That's going to be the base of tools that you need
to get started working on your bike.
Some of these are going to be suitable for use
in your home workshop and some for out on the trail.
So before we get started looking at the individual tools
we're going to break it down into a few little sub-categories.
Now you got classic workshop spector.
Stuff like this, right.
You're not going to really take these out on the trail
with you for doing maintenance.
These are for doing bigger jobs at home.
You need to identify the sort of jobs
that you're comfortable doing before you go
spending money on the tools.
Because it could be unnecessary to start with.
Then you get trail tools.
For example, this is a Topeak Alien,
it's actually got 31 tools on it.
It's a crazy sized tool.
You can do actually most things to be fair, with this.
Although, as your skills develop as a mechanic,
you're going to need more specific tools
that are easier to use in different spaces on the bike.
But to get started with,
you could arguably start with a trail tool,
and of course that can stay in your riding bag
or you can use it in your garage at home.
And then the final choice of course is
a dedicated workshop toolkit.
Now you can buy these from Park, from Topeak,
from X Tools, there's a whole number of different brands
that offer different levels of toolkit.
They come in their own case with a number of tools.
Now these are really good value for money
but quite often they'll come with a lot of tools
that you might not necessarily need on your bike.
For example, cone spanners and things like that.
That suggests you're going to be doing more advanced stuff
like adjusting the cones on your wheel axles
and things like that.
So, take a little step back for a minute
and we're going to look at the bare minimum
to get going.
And of course as your skills develop
as you start looking after more things on your bike,
you can add things to your toolkit.
Both home and on the trail.
Now, first things first, you're going to need
a set of Allen keys.
Now most mountain bikes are covered in Allen key bolts
to do almost any job on your bike,
you're going to need a set of Allen keys.
Now how you get started is up to you.
There's a few different ways you can do this.
Of course this workshop star Allen key set
they're very expensive,
in comparison to buying a multi-tool equivalent.
Now this is actually, probably about 20 years old.
Just to show you by comparison,
I've had this for a long time.
That's what they look like now.
So it's quite dated but still,
it shows that buying a good motor tool
is worth it because all of the edges are nice and sharp.
And the thing that I love about a multi-tool like this,
this is dedicated Allen key set.
I use this in the workshop at home and I keep
it in the back of the car sometimes as well.
And I can use this on the trail.
So it actually represents great value for money.
A dedicated trail star tool however is a lot more compact,
and although it has more tools on it,
they're not quite as good for working on your bike
in a home environment.
They're more a case of being able to nip up a bolt or two
if something comes loose while you're out in the trail.
I do recommend getting some kind of trail motor tool.
However, it's not going to be used that much as it daily.
If you just want to save some money in the first instance,
get yourself something like this.
This has a six, it has a five, four, three
two, two and a half.
It has all the essentials on there to look after your bike.
And in addition to that, you will need
an eight millimeter Allen key.
Just get a single one, you don't need to get
a whole big set of these things.
Those two items will be able to look after most things.
They're small enough to take on the trail with you
and they're good enough to work home on a daily basis.
Saves yourself a bit of money and then in time,
you can add to your home kit
and you can add to your trail kit.
And next up is, if you can afford it,
a trail multi- tool.
Now I recommend trying to keep one of these
in your riding bag or on your bike for example.
I have a bottle case that actually houses this tool
on my particular bike here,
this is a Topeak ninja tool.
Now the great thing about these is
they're always on your bike or they're always in your bag.
So in the eventuality that something comes loose,
could be a disk rotor bolt,
it could be your saddle clamp,
literally anything, you can take care of it on the trail.
You don't need to fret about taking
your Allen keys from home out.
Again you need to be able to afford this
in addition to a home or a more portable multi-set
of Allen keys.
So you do need to factor that in.
If you're going to get one of these,
make sure it has a chain tool on it.
One of my recommendations in building your first
modular toolkit, is to have a chain tool.
But a chain tool is a very specific tool
that you're not going to need to use that often.
So you can actually save yourself a bit of money
by getting a trail tool that has a chain tool on it.
It's good enough for occasional use at home
and it's going to get you out a bother
when you're on the trail.
This one is very minimal,
it's got just about what you need on there.
Like I say, it's going to get you out of trouble.
It's definitely worth trying to put some money aside
to get one to keep with your riding gear.
Next up tyre levers.
You're going to get a puncture at some point.
You will need to take your tire off.
Now some tires you can take off by hand,
others you're going to need a tyre lever.
Get yourself three and get yourself sort of
the plastic nylon type because they're much harder to break.
Try and avoid the Mesa ones at all costs
because it can damage the rims on your bike
and it can also damage your tires.
I say get three because,
one will normally do it.
Sometimes you need two with a stubborn tire
and you're going to lose one.
So get three and you're safeguarded.
Next up is the Torx T25.
Now, although not that common around the whole bike
you always see it in the form of disc rotor bolts.
Now of course this is slightly different
to using an Allen key.
Very similar although you'll notice some people
might call it the star key or something like that.
It's called a Torx head basically.
Now it might be sensible to get yourself
a multi-tool that's got a load of them.
But in reality, you're probably only ever going to need
the Torx T25 on your bike.
Some brakes do have slightly different sized ones.
On formula brakes for example have a lot of different ones.
But my top tip to get started is check the kit
that came with your bike,
it's quite likely that it might have one of these
little Allen keys in.
Now these are known as a bit more like
a throw away Allen key,
they're harder to use because they're much smaller
but you've got the all important T25 on there.
You get these with various different brakes as well
if you bought your brakes after market
and they will suffice for the time being.
Just be careful when you're using them with your disk rotor
because the size of them,
if you slip you can take the skin off your knuckles.
So if you can afford it,
get yourself a dedicated one.
But you can get away with one of these to start with.
If your bike does happen to have a lot more options on there
then save yourself the hassle in the long run
and get yourself the multi-tool with it.
Because once you buy one of these,
you'll never need another one.
Now getting yourself a spare master link
that is the right compatibility for your chain,
I think is an absolute essential.
Because you will be unfortunate enough
to snap a chain at some point.
And if that happens out in the trail,
you will use your trail tool
to get that broken link out of the way.
And then the most sensible thing to do
is get one of those master links and tape
it onto one of your hoses near the handle bars there.
If you stay using your bike and it happens on the trail,
you've got it there to fix it.
If it happens at home,
you're obviously going to be working on your bike.
So it's always where it needs to be.
Now in this case I got a 12 speed one to suit
the 12 speed Shimano chain.
It's taped on.
You can obviously get eight, nine, 10,
11 and 12 speed options.
Get yourself a couple.
Keep one in your riding bag,
keep one in your bike,
keep one at home.
Wherever you need to
but definitely it will save you,
if you're biking at some point,
if you keep one in your controls in your bars.
Next up is another absolute essential,
is a pump of some description.
Now the best option of course would be to have
a mini pump to keep with your bike and your riding gear
and to have a floor pump for home.
Of course this is double expense.
You can't take the floor pump with you,
so the best way to start is by having
a compact pump, you can take with you.
This one is excessively small
but it's a double action.
That means it pumps on both
the compression and the rebound.
So basically you get in the double inflation action.
It works really well.
I can get mountain bike tires up to a high pressure
quite comfortably without too much exertion.
Works great, it's got a little protective cap
to keep mud from entering there,
if I store it on the bike.
And it's good enough to use at home as well.
Of course in time, you want to be upgraded into
a floor sized pump because they're much easier,
much faster to use.
And the fact it just takes all the hassle out of it.
If you're going to do that.
I definitely recommend checking out the tubeless
compatible options.
They have a charging chamber built onto the pump.
The reason for that is you can inflate the charge in chamber
and you can release all of the air in a single hit
to inflate your tubeless tires.
So at some point you're probably going to want
to upgrade to tubeless.
However, there is another option.
If you've already perhaps if you've been given
a floor standing pump and it doesn't have one
of those chambers,
you could invest in one of these.
So this is essentially just the canister bit,
you pump the air into here and using this lever
you release it in a single hit.
Just like the ones they built on the pumps
but this is great if you already have a pump.
Or in my case, you can use it with a mini pump.
You can pump this out with a mini pump
and you can use this to dump the air straight
into your tires.
It also makes a good portable option
if you're going on a bike all day for example.
Or to keep in the back of your car
if you're out on the trails, stuff like that.
A decent mini pump is going to get you going.
And of course in time you're going to want to upgrade
to more usable stuff, on a daily basis.
Especially if you start sharpening and changing your tires.
A mini pump becomes hard work when you're doing that.
But for initial inflation and topping off on air,
absolutely fine.
Next up is something to keep your tools in.
A cheap tool box, something like this
old Stanley one.
Don't actually know where this one came from but it's
a pretty good offering.
Nice and cheap.
It's got compartments so you can keep cables
and bolts and other bits and pieces in there.
And it'll keep all of these tools in one place.
You're not going to lose your stuff.
That's great for storage at home,
perhaps in your shed or in your garage.
It also it means, if you're going on a bike holiday
with your mates or something like that,
you can take the whole selection with you in the car.
Again all of this stuff would fit inside one of those
and of course you still got the bare minimum options
you can take with you on your ride.
The whole point is, it's a modular system
so you can use this in different ways.
And you can adapt to it.
There's loads of different options for tool boxes out there.
You might feel like you don't want something like this.
You might feel like you want to just keep it inside
a riding bag, that's absolutely fine.
Now this is where things get a little bit more specialist,
although I would say this is really valuable to get.
It's a cassette tool and a chain whip.
A reason for that is they're two of the most
consumable parts of the bike, the chain and cassette.
They're going to wear out constantly.
If you're having to pay labor charges at bike shops,
all the time to change these.
Really it's a very simple job that you can do at home.
By all means, support your bike shop with servicing
and other stuff but this really is a five minute job
to change a chain and cassette.
You get one of these tools,
you might question the cost of them to start with.
But you'll never need another one,
they're the same basically.
So get yourself one of those.
And to use the tool obviously you're going to need
a chain whip to hold the cassette in place.
The tool under is a lock ring on there.
Now you got a couple of options here.
If you already have a vise at home,
perhaps your parents or your dad has
a vise in the garage.
You can actually just put that in the vise
and sit the wheel on it.
So you won't need any additional tools.
Failing that, you'll need an adjustable spanner.
Something big like this is something ideal to do the job.
Or perhaps you've already got something
lying around the place like a set
of locking pliers or something like that.
Actually that's all you need.
But they are the two key parts to changing your
chain and cassette, along with a all important chain tool
that's on your trailer tool already.
Next up is a valve core remover.
Now the valve core is the part the runs
on the inside of the valve.
Now when you're pumping up your tires,
on occasion you're going to damage that.
In some sort that's going to happen inside the trail.
If that gets damaged you're going to lose your air pressure.
So you do need to be able to change that component.
A new component itself, that is the valve core
and it goes on the inside of the valve.
This is side by side for you so you can see that.
Now if you have hold any tubes,
it's worth going through these and removing the valve
cores before you recycle the tubes.
It does mean, they will come in handy
and you keep those in your tool box as a spare.
To remove those you will need a valve core remover.
It's quite a simple tool,
it just allows you to unscrew the valve
and doubly makes it really easy to top tire seal it up.
If you're going to convert to tubeless.
A little tip for you,
is when you upgrade to tubeless valves,
when you get a tubeless kit.
Look for some tubeless valves that actually
have a valve core remover built into the valve cap.
Super useful and given the fact
that it's quite an occasional tool.
It's the easiest and cheapest option
because you're buying two for one there.
However, as we always say here at Champion Tec,
the correct tool is the best one for the job.
And as you start working on your bike more,
it's going to make life easier.
But choose a valve that has got a valve core remover
built into it to start with.
And finally, the last tool,
and in fact it's a really, really important tool,
is a set of cable cutters.
Now I was actually resistant to buying a set of these
myself when I first started out.
What I used to do is change the cable myself.
You go and buy a cable for a few quid from the bike shop,
change it, set the gears up and I'd coil it up
basically there.
Because I couldn't cut it at home with a pair of pliers
because you end up sort of splintering the cable there.
Then you'd have to go to the body shop
and buy them like, make them a cup of tea
or buy them some biscuits or something
to get them to cut it.
It worked out, it's much easier just to get myself
a set of cable cutters.
And I recommend you do the same.
Don't buy cheap ones.
Get yourself some decent cutters
and never use them for another job except for cutting
the inner and outer cables on the bike.
Keep them as they are and they'll last you
a couple of decades at least.
I've still got my original set at home
and they're only just starting to go a little bit bad now.
After probably, 20, 25 years of use.
That's pretty good value for money if you ask me.
And it does mean, you're able to perform
a real good routine maintenance job
without outside help.
You will need to change your cables
on your bike fairly frequently.
More so if you live in a wet climate
like we do here in Europe.
So there we go, that is the bare bones
of a modular toolkit.
Something that's going to help you work on your bike at home.
Keep you going when you're out on the trail
and just deal with day to day stuff.
Of course as your skills progress as a bike mechanic,
you're naturally going to want to get better tools
and more specific tools for the job.
But that's where it starts.
You don't need a lot of tools.
And if you absolutely needed to
and the worst case, you can do it with just
a single trail multi-tool.
Although, like I said at the beginning of the video
they do make it a big harder to work on specific
parts of the bike.
If you can, just try and work on something like this.
Working on your bike is fun and it keeps it in good order
and saves you money at the end of the day.
It's not a bad thing.
But thanks for hanging around.
Don't forget to subscribe and all the usual stuff.
See you soon, ta-ta.