What are the tools that you must acquire for basic bike home repair?

Wheels of Happiness

I had the following tools and they are near my bike

1.   A bike stand where you can raise the bike and do your repairs

2.   Hex wrench:   2 to  10 mm.  Most usable are 4, 5, 6.

3.   Torx wrench:  set.   You often use T 25, 30 and 40

4.  Chain cutter tool

5.   Hand pump

6.   Patch kit (P40.00 with about 5 patches, glue, and sandpaper

7.  Rubber mallet

8.  Spoke wrench

9.  Long nose plier

10  Sharp cable cutter

11.  BB removal tool

12.  Bearing removal tool

13.  Press fit for bearing

14.  Rubber mallet

Some of the tools can be in folding multit tool  Many of the bike mechanics use a lot of this for convenience

The YT video suggests other tools.

When you disassemble your crank, be sure to watch your FD adjustment

Wheels of Happiness

This post always neglect this and after a crank disassembly, the FD could not shift the fd to the large chain ring  More specifically the crank has not been tightened well or got loose when this post used the bike.  All this post had to do were:   1.  tightened the crank bolt,   2,  loosened the high adjustment screw of the FD adjustment screw.  

It seems that with Campy super torque crank has this common problem.  It does not fit most of the BB and there seems to be about 1 mm of play - hence the need for wave washer.  But still there seems to be some side to side movement that is why sometimes the chain falls off.   The video maker recommends using loctite to fix the crank.

Its all very detailed and all complicated that is why many just let their mechanic do the job;   pay them well and let the mechanic do the worrying.    That is why I had to bring the 10 mm hex  crank bolt tightening too.  

Removal and reinstallation (swap) of Campy crank bearing 6805 5 mm

Wheels of Happiness

The Pinarello bike all ready had lateral movement on the crank,  While Mario serviced this about 6 months ago, long time has a way of saying the bearing is old and needs replacement.   From the video, I saw that the crank need 6805 (24 mm) but has to be 6 mm. Most that are available online is  7 mm.  The original bearing is Cult and cost $100      

My first problems are the tools:  the 10 mm removal tool, the puller and the press fit.  No hammer, no drift as per video.

1. For the 10 mm hex, my difficulty was that the short end will not fit into the crank so it has to be a long arm to fit  None is available at DIY or Wigo.  So I thought of fitting a 10 mm socket at the short end of the hex and use that to remove the nut.   And so I did.

2.  For removal and installation, I had the bike mechanic nearby do the job  Paid him P100.00.  I did not have to buy the tools

Lateral movement solved

Being a biker trains you to really do a lot of repairs yourself

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines
October 15, 2017

Being a biker trains you to be a Mr. Handyman.  Kasi if you have everything that goes wrong with your bike to be done by the mechanic, you are in for a lot of abala and expenses.  Sometimes all you need is patience, focus, pair of pliers, allen wrench (hex) and a little understanding of mechanics of the bike.

Today:   I fixed the following on my bike:

1.  Tightened the cables for the front and rear derailleur of the Sava MTB and the Bianchi road bike
2.  Removed the grating sound of the rear derailleur of the Bianchi (a little 1/4 turn of the low screw of the RD)
3.  Adjusted the cables of the Sava MTB so that it can shift to the biggest rear sprocket (34)
4.  Put loctite on the crank tensioner bolt so that it wont fall off again (as it has several times)

I also washed the bikes and removed the grime from the chain ring and the sprocket.

In the house I was the handyman, the DIY guy:

1.  I replaced the LED bulb outside the house on the western side;
2.  Replaced the bulb of the lighting fixture inside the house