The Tools

You might be asking yourself a question. Why not let the LBS do the work so I don’t have to buy all these tools?

My answer to that is, eh, just do it. You’ll learn something, use your hands and have a little, frustrating at times, fun. Your LBS may not have all the tools you need, but should have quite a bit so you can get started there!

General purpose tools:

Tool	Why you want it
Tall Bike Stand	I use this middle of the road bike stand for pretty much everything in my videos. If you can swing it and go more expensive with a higher end one like Park Tool (which has lots of angles and permutations) then do it. I sometimes wish mine had more, but at the price point it is great. There are a lot of others to choose from as well.
Short Bike Stand	This one is great for working with your bike on the ground, say to put in a seat post. Also, it’s great taking with you on trips since its size makes it easy to fit in your vehicle and is quick to use as a lunch break bike stand.
Nitrite gloves	Get some cheap Nitrite gloves for brakes and grease and such. I used to just use my hands in which case I can clean off with Lava or equivalent, but the gloves really do come in handy. Get 3x as many as you think you might need. They protect your frame from grime and also corrosive stuff like Dot grease. If you don’t want purple or blue, you can get just about any color that makes you feel good.
Grease	Some general high performance grease that repels water will work wonders on your bottom bracket and any other bolts you got!
Lava	If you ever worked on tools or toys then you probably already. have some. This is pretty good stuff for taking grime off your hands. There’s a lot of quantity options, but generally keeping at least 1 bar at your disposal is recommended.
Shop towels	Get a couple rolls of these cheap shop towels. They soak up oil and do a great job when wet. They don’t leave the same lint as your average paper towel either. You can use clean ones to lay on your frame to protect it while doing sensitive work like bleeding brake lines.
Muc-off	This is great stuff if you want to clean up your bike components in pretty short order without too much effort. I get a quarter and dilute it in a spray bottle. I’d recommend getting the squeeze bottle so you can refill and dilute your own with a larger quantity. It goes fast so dilute it to make it last longer, but works great.
Allen wrenches	You’ll use allen wrenches for a lot of small jobs like handlebar levers. For most everything else, I use a quality torque wrench. I use the 10-piece foldable set from Park Tool as well as an equivalent larger set. If you are going hog wild like some folks I know, you can get even fancier with this set.
Torque wrenches	This is where it gets fun. You can get the typical “clickable” mechanical torque wrenches. Those work great. Or you can go with what I have, digital torque wrenches. Actually, I have 2 of them one for smaller NM work and another for larger NM work. They readily let you switch between Nm, Lb, etc. The smaller one I use regularly. The larger one not as much, but when you need it, it comes in handy. The smaller only goes up to 20Nm so I got the larger one later when I needed more torque.
Scissors	For zip tie cutting, scissors are scissors, yah, but don’t use your partners’ scissors get a nice pair of your own and save it in your work area.
Sharpies	Same with sharpies, just get yourself a pack. You’ll use it. I use the silver one for making tiny marks on cable housing and the black one for marking up baggies of components so I don’t forget what’s what.
Zip lock baggies	Don’t steal your partner’s bags. Get your own for storing things like your brake pads and using a sharpe to write “front brakes”. Get some sandwich bags for smaller components and tools and larger ones for things like crank arms.
Storage containers	These are useful for putting all your baggies in while working over the course of days or weeks. Something like this low-quarter low-profile stacking clear bin is perfect.

Pedal specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Pedal wrench	You might be able to use regular Allen keys depending on your pedals.
Crank set wrench	Boy oh boy I didn’t have this, but wish I had in hindsight. This would have made taking off the drive-side crank arm so much easier. I broke a standard allen wrench and it took me over an hour to get it off. This thing would have made it a cakewalk I bet.
Bottom bracket wrench	I have a bottom bracket wrench that I used to take off my bottom bracket.
Bottom bracket nut	I decided later to also get a bottom bracket ratchet/torque wrench-compatible 3/8″ drive nut for my torque wrench so I could tighten it down to the right Nm spec. Torquing to the right spec by hand is not something I’m comfortable with. So if I were you, I’d go with a torque wrench and only the attachment and skip the flat handle bottom bracket wrench.

Fork specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Star Nut	This is what goes into the fork steerer tube about 1″ down. It has opposing force to the top cap bolt. This piece along with the top cap bolt is what compresses the bearings and such on the head tube and takes out the play “the pre-load.”
Star Nut tool	I didn’t have to drive a new star nut into my fork since it was set in at a good 1″ depth already. However, at one point I did make a mistake and the LBS figured out I had over-torqued the top cap and pulled the start nut up and scored the inner part of the steerer tube on the fork. Evidently I did not have enough of a spacer height between the stem and the top cap and therefore the top cap wasn’t pulling “up” and therefore doing any pre-load whatsoever. Mistake learned. That same star nut was pushed back down the steerer tube using the star nut tool and all was well with life again.

Shock and fork specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Shock pump	I’d go ahead and step up to the locking shock pump to eliminate lost PSI as you engage/disengage your shock pump. But at first, to save $$, I had this one that works fine. If you go with it, maybe test it out and go over your PSI because you will lose a little while disengaging it. There are so many options you can search for a great deal.

Cable specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Shifter cable for your dropper	A cable like this should be fine or you can step up with something like a Shimano brand kit. You will need a new line, but it’s just a regular “shifter cable.” Meaning it’s just one of those thin braided looking silver wire lines not something special for a dropper post. You won’t be able to re-use your existing line because you will have to cut off the crimp near where your lever is to thread it through the cable housing. And once you cut it, the end will be frayed so a new line will come with a rounded end you can easily thread through a new housing cable.
Hydraulic cable housing cutter	Get yourself a nice specific hydraulic cable housing cutter like the one I linked or even this one from SRAM. It made a nice 90 degree sharp angle cut for me. I didn’t have to use pliers to round off the end or anything.
Housing for dropper cable	If you picked up a braided shifter cable without a package that came with a cable housing, you can pick one up like this for your dropper post line that will run through the frame.
Shifter cable braided line cutter	Get yourself a nice cutter to cut the dropper post braided wire cable. I made a mistake and used old wire cutters and really botched it. I had to get a new cable as a result because I flared it so bad.

Wheel specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Floor pump	Get a good one with a solid floor base to put your shoes on while you pump. If you don’t want to spend too much money, you can pick up something like this from Park Tool.
Compressor	I recently got this and it made sealing my tires a breeze. With a floor pump it’s possible with new tires, but tiring and challenging to say the least. Plus, I use it for my car tires which is really why I got it.
Tire levers	Get 2 of these to make taking off your tire easier. You do not want to mess around with screwdrivers like we used to do as youngsters. Our rims on these bikes are far more expensive.
Presta core removal tool	This will make it easier to get the presta valve out.
Stanz	For adding in fluid in your tubeless setup. Picking up a syringe will help make it easier to pour it into your tires directly or through a presta valve.
Rim tape	Get the right size for taping up your expensive rim going tubeless.
BB Preload Adjuster Kit	I broke my BB preload adjuster from over-torquing it and had to buy a new one
Spoke wrench	Occasionally you will want to tighten your spokes so pick one of these up.

Chain specific:

Tool	Why you want it
Chain	I do love my high quality gold chain for some bling.
Cassette	More unnecessary bling with this gold cassette.
Chain whip	This makes taking off the rear cassette so much easier.
Cassette locking nut	This makes taking off the rear cassette so much easier. It’s an opposing force to the chain whip.
chain measuring tool	To measure chain stretch. This is how I learned my chain was worn out.
Chain link tool	To separate and close the magic link while taking off and putting on chains.
Chain cleaner	I either spray on some Muc-Off or sometimes I use this which works exceptionally well

Brakes specific:

Tool	Why you want it
SRAM Code RSC Brake Pads	I use the louder metallic brake pads vs say the quieter ceramic. I think I read something about how they are more powerful or more durable than ceramic. It didn’t matter too much because I used metallic before and they work great.
SRAM HS2 and Centerline Rotors	I decided why not and put on a new HS2 rotor on the rear which is apparently thicker and has a better design for heat dispersement. The Centerline is on the front. Both are 200mm.
SRAM brake bleed kit	The bleed kit has all the stuff you need like piston blocks and DOT fluid. I guess if you are using Shimano it will have the mineral oil you need.
SRAM Dot grease	This will be used for greasing the barb and olive onto the hydraulic line. The LBS told me I could use any old grease I have sitting around, but I decided to use the real thing.
SRAM Code RSC housing cables	I replaced the hydraulic cable housing for both front and rear. In hindsight, I could have left the front alone as it wasn’t going through the frame, but it ended up being a good learning step.