Home Bike Shop Essential Tools

I bought my house because of the detached garage. It’s a beautiful space with a faux slate roof, heat, air conditioning, water, and lots of light and power. My lathe, knee mill, and TIG welder are the crown jewels of the shop, hiding possibility and precision not revealed by their age and patina. Beyond the thousands of pounds of cast iron in my shop is an eclectic collection of bike tools I’ve acquired over 20 years of wrenching on bikes. So you could say I know a thing or two about setting up a home bike shop.

While not everyone needs a shop full of big machines helpful for making frames, every mountain biker should have enough tools to perform basic and routine maintenance on their bike. There are many cheap bicycle tool kits available, but almost all of them are made of soft cheap steel alloys and include many tools you’d only use on your grandpa’s 1975 Schwinn.

If you already spent thousands of dollars on your bike, it doesn’t make sense to ruin your parts with a tool that saved you five bucks. So here are the essential tools you’ll need to set up your home bike shop and keep your bike from needing significant repairs a little bit longer.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish with just a set of metric hex keys. I really like this set of Bondhus Wrenches. They’re colored for easy identification and made of hardened tool steel, meaning they’ll last for ages.

The star pattern of torx is highly resistant to stripping and gives your wrench a secure purchase with the bolt. Torx bolts are becoming more ubiquitous in the cycling industry, and I am here for it. Having a good set of Torx Keys is essential for any home shop.

The T25 is the most common size used in cycling, and it’s worth getting a T25 bit so you can mount and remove rotors with a drill. But, again, I recommend Bondhus wrenches.

You can extend the life of your drivetrain enormously by replacing your chain at regular intervals. These days you’ll mostly use your chain tool when cutting your new chain to length, but it’s still an indispensable tool. The full-size chain tools feel nicer in your hand, but the advent of quick links means you won’t use them frequently. The chain tool I recommend is the Park Tool CT-5 mini-chain tool. It’s compatible with everything and is small enough to put in your pack for huge backcountry rides.

A tool I use all the time is my quick link pliers. I find it easiest to deep clean my chain off my bike. So I’ll take off my chain every few weeks for my cleaning process. Of course, you can use some twine in a pinch, but for ease of use, I recommend some quick link pliers like these from Pedro’s.

A good set of cable cutters is worth every dollar. It’s a joy to use cleanly cut cables and open housing. To be really pro, grind the ends flush on a belt sander or bench grinder.

You’ll need all of these consumables to maintain your bikes effectively.

With just a few quality tools, you can do most of the maintenance on your bike. When you eventually face a task that needs more tools than what I’ve listed here, it’s either an opportunity to buy more tools and learn or support your local shop. A win-win.

What are some of your favorite tools?