The Most Essential Bike Maintenance Tools


When you own a bike, it won’t be long before you start to realize just how important bike maintenance is. If you don’t maintain your bike properly, then it won’t last as long. In fact, the small issues that you’re ignoring will very quickly become big problems. Luckily for you, putting together a collection of bike maintenance tools shouldn’t take too long. In fact, it may not even involve that much money.

On this page, we want to introduce you to some essential bicycle maintenance tools. These are the ones that you absolutely should have in your collection. With these bicycle repair tools in tow, you should be able to clear up most issues with your bike.

Important Bike Maintenance Tools You Should Have

In this section, we’re going to go through the various bicycle tools and accessories that you should be buying.

Remember, you should always ensure that you buy the best bike maintenance tools that you can afford.

While we know that it may be tempting to buy cheap bicycle tools, they never last all that long. This means that they may fail when you need them the most.

1. Hex Keys

No matter what bike you own, we are positive that there will be some sort of bolt that requires a hex key. Therefore, a set of hex keys are going to be a staple addition to your tool arsenal.

As with wrenches, later on, you’ll need to ensure that you purchase metric hex keys. Even if you purchase your bike in the US, we can virtually guarantee that it will have metric bolts.

2. Screwdrivers

Screwdrivers will be your next addition when it comes to bicycle maintenance tools. You don’t need anything too crazy here as there’s unlikely to be that much on the bicycle that requires a screwdriver.

However, at the minimum, we suggest the following:

  • Flathead screwdrivers
  • PZ1 and PZ2 screwdrivers
  • TX25 screwdrivers

If you want, you could buy a screwdriver set with replaceable heads. This way you don’t have to carry around a whole set of screwdrivers.

Instead, you carry around one handle and you can replace the head whenever you need to do something a little bit different.

It isn’t going to be the best quality around. However, you won’t be using the screwdrivers enough to justify a huge purpose.

3. Wrenches

Wrenches are going to be vital for any bike maintenance kit. As we said before, you’ll want to ensure that they are metric.

We find that a wrench set that covers between 6mm and 15mm should be fine. In fact, you may not even need the set to go as high as 15mm.

There are some people that will purchase an adjustable wrench. While you can do this, we find that they aren’t that brilliant for bikes. They tend to be a bit too thick, and this can make getting up close to the bike frame a bit too difficult. 

You should try to purchase a set of combination wrenches. This means that on one end of the wrench you have your typical U-shaped open wrench. On the other end, you have a closed ring.

4. Bike Repair Stand

Ideally, you’ll want to have something that can hold your bike in place while you’re carrying out work on it. This means that you are going to need to be investing in a good bike repair stand.

Now, a bike repair stand isn’t 100% necessary. Some people will just have somebody else hold their bike in place while they are working on it. Even leaning the bike up against a wall will do in a pinch.

However, we love bike repair stands or wheel truing stand as they will allow you to walk around the bike and carry out work without having to move the bike position every few minutes.

5. Chain Brush

Your chains are going to get filthy. We guarantee that. If your chains start to get filthy, they will get one step closer to just breaking.

We suggest that you get yourself a good chain brush. This way you’ll be able to wipe down the bicycle chain when you get back from your ride.

6. Tire Levers

Tire levers are incredibly cheap, and they are a vital piece of kit for lifting tires off of a bike wheel. Get a couple of these.

You may even want to carry some in your ‘on the road’ kit, coupled with some spare tubes. This way you’ll be able to carry out simple repairs while out and about.

7. Floor Pump

You need some way to pump up your tires. Make sure that you purchase a floor pump with a pressure gauge.

This will help to ensure that your bike’s tires are always at the right pressure.

8. Needle Nose Pliers

Needle nose pliers can work for a variety of jobs on the bike. For example, they are going to be an essential piece of kit when you’re working on your drivetrains.

However, you can also use them for all sorts of pulling and bending.

9. Cleaning Kit

You may have to put together the cleaning kit yourself.

The following can help to keep your bike in great working order, and it can even fight a bit of rust:

  • Microfiber cloths
  • Chemical rust remover
  • Wire wool
  • Nail polish (for covering up cracks in the paint)
  • WD-40
  • Grease
  • Various rags for wiping the bike down

10. Puncture Repair Kit

Sure. This isn’t a bike maintenance tool as such, but no serious cyclist should be without a puncture repair kit.

You need to be able to ensure that any punctures can be repaired nice and quickly while out there on the road. The last thing you want is to be walking that bike back, right?

Conclusion

There are plenty more bike maintenance tools that you can probably add to your collection.

However, everything we have detailed here is a great place to start. Over time, you’ll be able to increase the number of tools that you have.

For example, you may want to add wire cutters, chain pin removal tools, etc. However, that’s when you’ll be creeping into doing serious maintenance of your bike.

Shailen Vandeyar

A proud Indian origin Kiwi who loves to plant trees and play with my pet bunny when not out doing about every kind of biking and experiencing the occasional tumble. Ready to share the ride with you.

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