Hey everyone and welcome back to another Tuesday tip where in this video we're going to be talking about the essential tools of BMX
So at first glance a freestyle BMX bike might appear to be a little bit
Complex in the tools that it might require to take apart put together or maintain something on the bike
But when you take a little bit closer of a look at what it actually takes to do these things on a BMX bike
Things are not quite as complicated as they may first appear
So with that let's get into the essential tools for BMX. The first thing that I want to talk about are
Allen wrenches Allen wrenches are something that if you ever work on your bike
You're most likely going to have to use whether it's a size eight, six five or four
These are the most common allen wrench sizes in this park tool AWS 11
for example contains all four of them plus a three millimeter and a ten millimeter that all fold out very
conveniently in this small package all of the tools that will be shown in this video are going to be Park tools because I represent
Park Tool and well
Just shout out to Park Tool because they make the best tools for working on
Bikes now if you have brakes or you plan to put brakes on your bike
You will need other Allen wrenches than what are contained in the AWS 11
But that's something that we'll talk about later
the next tool that I want to talk about is
something to take off and put on your wheels with and for that I use a
four-way or you can use a socket wrench with extensions and the proper size sockets this
Mq-1 from Park. Tool also has a socket wrench driver on it
This is a three-eighths driver
which I have an eight millimeter allen wrench socket on it as well for my front wheel and this has a 19 millimeter a
Fifteen millimeter and a 17 millimeter which is covering all of the different potential sizes for your wheels within
BMX which is why I really like this tool
So between the Allen wrench size is mentioned and the tools necessary to take off and put on your wheels the vast
Majority of what you're going run into in need in working on your BMX bike are going to be covered
But there are a lot more
Tools that are essential to working on your BMX bike
The first one that I'd like to talk about is the chain breaker
Because if you ever buy a brand new chain, and you want to put it on yourself, you're going to need a chain breaker
There's no getting around it
It is the easiest and most
Efficient way to take extra links off of a chain as well as put on certain chains that don't use conventional
master links after that
You're probably going to want a pedal wrench to put on and secure your pedals
If you have pedals that use the conventional pedal range sizes
Sometimes they use Allen wrenches or sometimes they have both these are all essential
The next one that I want to talk about is a spoke wrench
If you ever plan on working on your own wheels and not paying someone else to do it when you can learn how to do
It yourself. You're probably going to want some sort of spoke wrench after that
I would highly suggest getting a few tire levers to make your life easier when putting on and taking off tires from your bike
Because while you can take them off without tire levers, sometimes it's extremely hard if not impossible
to take tires off without using one of these and you definitely
never want to use a flat head screw driver if you can avoid it after that is something that's not quite as
Essential as everything that we've talked about up until this point so far depending upon the situation that you're in
Wrenches of various sizes can be lifesavers in certain situations and can be downright
necessary or
essential to working on your bike
This is something that I would recommend everyone
Has in their toolkit because you never know when it might come in handy
so that pretty much covers it when it comes to the tools that are
Absolutely essential for BMX and the vast majority of situations
You might encounter in working on your BMX bike
But what if you have brakes?
There are certain other tools that are required and absolutely essential for working on brakes as well
The first one that I want to talk about our Allen wrenches of other sizes than the ones that I've mentioned previously
these sizes would include things underneath that four millimeter size sizes like two millimeters or
2.5 millimeters and sometimes three millimeters. These are covered by the
AWS 10 by park tool this has all the sizes from
1.5 to 4 on one side and also has 5 and 6 on the other side
this is perfect for
Everything needed to work on your BMX and brakes
the next thing that you might need or definitely will need in working on BMX brakes is a crescent wrench or
a few different wrench sizes to fit the different things that you'll need such as barrel adjusters or
caps for your brakes to adjust your spring tension
And of course if you're going to have brakes you're going to need something to cut your cables with so you're going to need some
Sort of cable and housing cutters to cut your cables and work on your brakes
Net just about covers it for the brake side of things and really the vast vast
Majority of what you're going to need to work on your BMX bike
There are a few other fringe tools
But let's talk about those
After we talk about what I actually carry in my bag on a day to day riding basis
So obviously I carry something that gives access to both loosening and tightening my front and rear wheels in the form of this
Mq-1 from Park Tool that we talked about earlier. It says all of the sizes necessary for either of my wheels
I also carry all of the sizes of allen wrenches that I could
possibly need for my entire bike and my brakes as well as a
smaller crescent wrench for working on my brakes or anything else that might arise that this could be used for as well as
some tire levers or any flats that I might encounter as well as a chain breaker for any situation or
Anyone who might need it while I'm out riding and then I carry a spoke wrench with me at all times
This isn't the one that I keep on my key ring, but I have my keys right now
But I carry a park tool spoke wrench on my keys with me at all times
just because I can put it on my key ring and
why not have it if I can't have it and I'm someone of the mindset that I don't want a session to end if
It doesn't have to so I probably carry more than I actually need to
But I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it
So those were the tools that I carry on any giving riding day for any situation that might arise to need them
but what are those tools that I talked about earlier that are on the fringe that aren't totally
Essential but you still might need at some point within your riding career and working on your bike. The first one is obviously
Some sort of hammer. I wouldn't say that this is
absolutely essential but there's no harm in having one and there will be a use for it at
Some point in working on your bike
another thing is
screwdrivers some sort of flat-head screwdriver
I wouldn't say a Phillips head is ever really necessary unless you have a Phillips screw of some sort on your bike
But flathead screwdrivers can come in handy for prying things and just in general
It's always good to have a flathead screwdriver
around even if it might not be for BMX reasons another tool that is totally on the fringes and
isn't
100% essential for BMX specifically because we don't care as much but
absolutely comes in handy when you have one is the wag tool or
wheel alignment
Guide from Park Tool. If you don't know what a wheel alignment guide is for your bike
It's how you can tell if your hub is
Centered in your rim so that whenever you put your wheel on your hub
isn't off to one side and your rim off to another side and it just
Comes in handy if you have one or have access to one one more tool that I would say isn't totally necessary to own
yourself but is
Absolutely essential to have access to is a bottom bracket
Installation to if you've never used one of these then I'm sorry
use one and you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about because it
Prevents so much struggle and effort in time installing bottom brackets and it makes it so much easier
than the alternative which is
One of these if you've never heard of it or used it look it up and thank me. Later
and the last thing that I want to talk about that definitely will come in handy but isn't absolutely essential is
some sort of
Truing stand. This is the Park Tool ts8. It's what I used through my wheels does an absolutely
Fantastic job
Especially for BMX. It does exactly what we need it to and if you do ever purchase a truing stand
this is an investment that you're never going to regret making is something that always comes in handy for both you and
Any of your friends who might want to use it now, of course
There are tons of other tools out there that I didn't cover in this video
but that doesn't mean that they're not worth checking out or looking into I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to
Park Tool for always having my back in
Providing me with the tools necessary to work on my bike and show you guys how to work on your bikes properly
so if there's anything that you guys want to research or check out Park Tool makes
Just about any tool that you could ever imagine and lots of tools that you could never imagine
for working on bicycles
So check those guys out in the description below or at park tool blue on Instagram
And with that being said that's going to wrap up this video on all of the essential tools for BMX
I hope that you found it useful
If you did, let me know in the comments down below if you're new here
I make tips and tricks videos and just like this one every
Tuesday, so hit that subscribe button down below
I also make BMX news videos on Fridays and other types of riding videos and streams throughout the week
I want to thank you guys for choosing to spend your time watching my video and I really hope that it helped you out
And well, thank you guys again for being here and watching and we'll see you tomorrow for another video
Again, and goodbye
You