Henry: Hello, and welcome to the GMBN Tech. Doddy and I were talking the other day about
some of our favorite tools that often fly under the radar. So, we each drew up a list
of five tools that we think are some of the unsung heroes of the toolbox.
[music] Doddy: Like Henry, I love using tools on bikes,
pretty clear here. That's what we do at GMBN Tech. I could go on to talking about the Allen
case with little spinners on, I left these pro ones. This pre-loading tool for a Shimano
crank, my strap wrench that I love, internal cable routing, any of this stuff, but I want
to talk about some tools I don't normally talk about today. My first tool is this. Now
I'll get to this in a second. A few years back, I had this, you see, it says "Avid"
on it. It's for cutting hoses and hydraulic brakes,
a bit like a miniature cigar cutter. Yes, it's a very cool tool, but that's all it does.
Although it's still brilliant and does it all, since then Park have come out with this.
You have a cutter built on here with a replaceable blade, that in itself makes us a good tool,
but it also has the attachment here with a little miniature vice for holding your cable
hose for putting it insert straight into the end of those hydraulic hoses. This is so useful.
I use this on bike builds. I use this when trimming down hoses on new bikes to get them
nice and neat. To be honest, it's just not a tool that really
springs to mind when you talk about popular tools, but this makes a job easier. It's so
nice to use. Therefore, this tool goes in my top five tools without a doubt HBT1.
Henry: If you've ever cut down a fork steerer, or maybe a set of handlebars, you'll know
that you can leave quite a sharp edge with a hacksaw. That's where this rimming tool
comes in. It takes off any edge on the inside or the outside, and delivers a really good
finish. Doddy: The classic tool you would need for
trimming down a set of handlebars or a steerer tube on a bike would be a hacksaw and some
kind of saw guide. Now, these are brilliant. They work. It's a very accurate guide for
getting the correct cut, but in truth, I just don't like using hacksaws. That is a great
tool. There's nothing wrong with it. You see this in bike shops everywhere. I like a faster,
neater approach, and I like a pipe cutter, to be honest.
This one's actually brand is Syntace, but I'm sure it's just a generic pipe cutter.
It's got a changeable blade on it, which I do change here and there. It's also got a
little tool here for just deburring, the inside of the steerer tube when you cut them down.
This is amazing. I love this tool so much. I've lost track of how many steerer tubes,
I've cut with this over the years. As you can see, we're taking the paint off where
the steerer tube has been letting in on here. It does a great job. As long as the plate
on here is nice and sharp, you don't need to fall down the outside of the steerer tube
because it does such a good job of the cut. You literally just run this around the inside,
and it's perfect for installing the star nut. That is such an easy tool to use. One extra
thing about it I particularly like over using a hacksaw is it creates almost no mess.
Henry: My next submission are these Mini Knipex. They are great for suspension internals, where
places can be quite hard to get to, and parts can be quite smooth. They're also great with
things like truing up brake rotors, but the way they've secured that place is something
of a pista resistance, for me is actually as an extravagant, slightly expensive set
of cable and crimpers, they deliver right finish. Although they might be, like I said,
needlessly extravagant, I haven't lost a cable lens since, so that's worth noting, but joking
aside really, really good at it. I always find myself reaching for them. Could
a set of pliers done the job as well? Yes, admirably, but any excuse to use a tool as
nice as this works for me. Doddy: Next up is probably my most beloved
tool. I've got a set of three of these. Calvin from Park Tool actually gave me these. They'd
actually put my name on them, which is really cool, but that's not why it's my favorite
tool. Having a pick is completely invaluable to me. I need this all the time. I could be
using this for lifting out circlips. Once I've used circlip pliers on the inside of
a suspension damper or something like that, or could be using these for any number of
jobs where I need to be pointing at small parts when I'm filming.
I think everyone should have some kind of fine pick, because you can use these for a
variety of things on a bike where you might be tempted to use something bigger and more
clunky, like a screwdriver. It's not really fit for purpose. These can be used to lift
out garter seals, the little springs you get on seals on suspension forks, literally anything.
An added bonus of these particular ones is it's got magnetic end. So, if you're working
with small parts hard to pick up and you've got greasy hands, you can pick them straight
up, or as I recently showed in fixing up the shed bike for taking bearings straight out
of the hub without having to delicately scoop them out, they just stick to it. Brilliant
piece of kit. Not necessarily a tool that mountain bikers would think that I might like,
but that is probably my favorite tool, and it's not even a specific bike one.
Henry: This is the cheapest tool on the list, namely because they often come free with bikes,
but the toe strap is so good because what you have here is basically, in my mind, a
big, meaty, reusable cable tie which can be good for any number of jobs. I mentioned in
a previous video how useful these are when you're installing tire inserts, because you
can attach it at one point, and it stops you just chasing the bead around as it continually
pops off. It can be fastened securely in one place. They're also very useful in brake bleeds.
Another place I like to use them is by attaching the rear wheel to a work stand when working
on the dropper post. It means the bike is held securely and isn't going to roll anywhere.
Doddy: Quality sockets. Now, this is not just a bike thing, this goes with anything in life.
You get different style sockets, you get six-sided sockets like this one, and you get the more
traditional stuff. In fact, you can see on this one, I've actually ground the top of
this because, at the time, I wanted to get a better fit and I didn't have access to a
six-sided one. The six-sided one's always going to be a better fit when you're using
them on top of suspension forks for moving the air leg and removing the damping components
on the inside. Now, RockShox Forks used to use this system,
but now they've actually changed it, they're using a cassette tool which is arguably a
better interface, but still on Fox Suspension Forks, you need to be using a six-sided socket,
and it can't have a chamfered edge, it has to have a flattened off top.
Now, I saw these when I was at Eurobike a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with
them. It's just a socket, it's an anodized socket with a flat edge on it. I do them to
suit all of the forks in the Fox range. It's the most almost an unnecessary tool, it's
a luxury tool to have, but it's so nice to use. Every time I use them, I smile because
of how snug the fit is. It's nearly impossible to slip with one of these, which is why I
guess that they make them. Of course, it says what's on there as well,
32, 28, 26 millimeter, lovely bit of kit to use. Now, you don't obviously have to get
one of these, you can flatten off one of these by using the same process I did on this one.
A bench grinder flattened off the top of a six-sided socket, and it will fit brilliantly,
but that does take a bit of time. You can buy them already machined down or if you really
want to put your hands in your pockets, you can get the Fox ones.
From my point of view, they're just a lovely bit of kit to use, and they make working on
forks which I do quite often, and nicer job, it's got to be good.
Henry: I don't know if fanatical is the right word, but I'm certainly very keen to know
the exact pressure of the air in my tires, it helps me fine tune setup. I think having
consistent tire pressures is a really important start when you want to start fine-tuning your
bike. Now, an electronic pressure gauge such as this is a great tool to make your bike
feel more consistent, and it's certainly something I genuinely would have a hard time living
without. This is my last submission, and it's something I've talked about before because
it's not only very versatile, but, sometimes, it's actually the best tool for the job, and
it is a mini ratchet set. The T-handled Allen keys often are the go-to
tool for so many parts of our bike, but when area and movement is restricted, then one
of these ratchet sets can be the best thing. Think about places like your saddle clamp
or indeed for your bottle cage bolts. Honestly, these things, once you start using them, they
really do feel like doors are opened as you can work on your bike in an unrestricted way.
One job that used to take a long time can take a matter of seconds.
Doddy: These fine little snips are essential. This is another tool I use so much because
I'm using cable ties for a lot of things, I try and trim them down to be as flush as
possible. I don't use blue ones on the bike, I've just got them just because you won't
see black ones as well when I hold them up. They get a really good finish, but they're
also good for just using as general snips and a whole bunch of things, but I can't tell
you how good it is to have something that can really flush cut on a bike, they do make
working on them that bit easier. Again, that is not an essential tool, that's a tool I
love using. You may well have another set of these at
home, different branded ones, it doesn't really matter whatever they are, these ones have
to be Park that we work with, and they're brilliant, and they work great. However, a
friend of mine called Finn runs a suspension company called Fork Factory Suspension, and
I noticed in one of his posts recently, he had one of these. I saw it, and I had to have
it. This is purely for tightening cable ties and trimming them off neatly. It's almost
completely pointless, but it works so well. It's such a joy to use. I had to have one,
it's only cheap. There's not many places on a bike I would actually use it, to be fair,
because I don't think you need to tie things that tight with them, but it's really good
if you've got rattling cables or if you've got internal cables maybe on inside and down
tube that rattle, where they exit the frame, you can actually hold them together without
damaging the cables with this. It'll stop them rattling on the inside of the frame.
That is brilliant alone. You can also change the cutting point on these
by just making an adjustment down the bottom here. It's cool, isn't it? Tools are kind
of cool in a weird geeky way, and that is brilliant fun to use. I guess the one other
place that is beneficial to use, although you can get the same result when you pull
them tight and come with a pair of decent snips, is mountain mudguards. When I say mudguards,
I'm talking about this sort of thing, the flaps, basically. They're not really a mudguard,
just keeps a bit of spray out of your face. Now, when you mount these onto your foreground,
it can be quite hard to pull them tight because of where they are. With these, you can get
them completely flush, trim it off and they actually look neat on there. It's a great
system. Check them out. I don't think they're dear. I think this one was about 11 quid,
online, from someone called Gocableties, something like that. There's loads of cool tools out
there. More importantly, I would love to know, and
I'm sure Henry would as well, what your favorite tools are. They could be bike-related. They
could be nothing to do with bikes, but if you love using those tools, let us know in
those comments what they are and use a #favoritetools. We want to hear from you, here at GMBN Tech.
Don't forget to ask any questions you might have about some of the tools we've been showing
off and talking about. As always, don't forget our content around. We love you guys being
involved in what we make here at GMBN Tech. Until next time, see you later.