Bicycle tools

[thecriscokid]

I'm on the 15+ yr program as well. I would be carefull with that piston tool. Either use it with an old set of pads or be really really careful not to contaminate those fresh pads. I will always pull my pads and use a good 'ol 8mm wrench to press the piston in.
As far as Der hangers go: Every time you do a der adjustment or replace a hanger. make sure you have a true rear wheel and then align that hanger every time against that true wheel. Very subtle, soft movements with the alignment tool as to not break anything. You would be surprised to see how many "new" hangers are not aligned and cause way too many issues.
I would just go ahead and send that tire lever thing back. what is that?

[4x4mike]

They're funky. The blue park levers are the only levers I use. I've only broke one. For the price of the big silver one you could buy the blue ones and stock your tool box, apron and camelback/seat bag.

[Corey]

You missed two of the most important tools made by anyone - The derailleur hanger alignment tool and the chain checker. No mechanic worth their salt would ever, ever, ever attemtp to adjust a rear derailleur without first checking (and adjusting) the alignment of the hanger. When I was a full time wrench, I used that tool 10 times a day.

Thanks, I will more than likely get those later.
I have free tow day shipping via Amazon.

By the looks of it you've dropped some money on the tools. Personally I would have gotten craftsman wrenches and sockets. As you work more on bikes you'll find you don't need a ton of tools you just have to know what you're doing.

Dropped some serious coin this past weekend, but I wanted these for future use.
As far as Craftsman, already own two nice sets.
One HUGE metric/standard set in my home I have had for some twenty or more years, and a smaller all metric one out in my FJ in the cargobox for working on the rig in the field.

I like to keep my tools separate and not have to grab from one area to go to another area.
A man can never have enough tools.
With this Park set now, I will not have to dig through the other tools.

The Park P handled hex wrenches and metric wrench showed up today, they look pretty nice.

[Flounder]

You would be surprised to see how many "new" hangers are not aligned and cause way too many issues.

I managed a shop with 11 full time wrenches and one of our new guys with over 9 years on his resume grabbed a hanger alignment tool and said, "what the heck is this thing?" You should have seen the looks of shame, amazement, confusion and laughter on the faces in the room. The first thing someone said in response was, "Dude, do you know how few hangers ever make it out of the box with any sort of alignment at all! Get to know that thing!"

All mechanics have their loves and hates. I did a summer wrenching for the Citroen-Citer pro team in France and our head mechanic would thump you with a pedal wrench if he saw you with a three-way allen. Now that I think about it he never said why.

[Corey]

Amazon orders have all shown up, the last of the Park tools came in today.
From the left:
Shop tire tool
Set of metric open/closed wrenches
Torque wrench 26-132 Inch-Pounds, 1/4" Drive
socket/torx/allan wrench set for the torque wrench
P handle allan/torx wrenches
Disc brake tool
Compact allan wrench set for the hydro pack (also have one in the Topeak bag made by Topeak
15 mm pedal changing wrench



Not sure if I will need the bigger torque wrench or not.
This should keep me busy for awhile

Also got a nice Craftsman three drawer tool box to keep it all in.
Need to line the drawers and top area first with non slip padding so nothing rolls around.

[Funrover]

Purdy!!!

[Corey]

Now if my FJ Cruiser was Voodoo Blue ...

That rear hanger dealybob, I will have to look into that too.

My LBS will be having some classes later, I especially asked about how to bleed/change the disc pads on hydraulic brakes.

[Corey]

You missed two of the most important tools made by anyone - The derailleur hanger alignment tool and the chain checker. No mechanic worth their salt would ever, ever, ever attemtp to adjust a rear derailleur without first checking (and adjusting) the alignment of the hanger. When I was a full time wrench, I used that tool 10 times a day.

Is this the tool?
derailleur hanger alignment

Friend of mine just got back from his LBS after having a problem shifting, and they found a few things out of whack with his bike, but they fixed it.

[thecriscokid]

I did a summer wrenching for the Citroen-Citer pro team in France and our head mechanic would thump you with a pedal wrench if he saw you with a three-way allen. Now that I think about it he never said why.[/QUOTE]

That's kind of funny, I wonder why??
I mean, back when bikes had cantilever brakes that was the perfect toe-in-and-tighten wrench
I had some serious withdraw symptoms when the Tri-allen changed from the aluminum center to the round plastic center. Thank goodness Pedros came out with one. It definitely lost some usefulness after the brakes changed though.