Customer Reviews

Brand New! Home Mechanic Bike Bicycle Tool Kit!

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Like you, I wanted to work on my bike and I wanted to save some money. I happened upon this set and bought it after reading the reviews. Sure there were a few bad ones but one guy listed all the repairs that he'd done with the set and others had said that the tools were fine for the price. Ultimately, I bought the set and chocked the bad reviews up to bike snobs. Now, I suspect that the "bike snobs" were the real reviewers because these tools are so bad that I just can't imagine how anyone could have anything positive to say about them. I give you my word, I have no private interest in whether you purchase this set or not, I normally don't even write reviews but this set was such a rip-off that I feel obligated to leave some sort of warning.

The repairs I wanted to perform were simple; I needed to remove a lock ring and cog from and old hub and put them on a new one, remove a worn chain and replace it with a new one, switch out my pedals and tighten up my crank arms-- easy stuff, all stuff I've done before albeit with someone else's tools.

The wrenches are all made with this really soft metal so most of them will buckle before removing a stubborn nut; the spanner broke as I was trying to remove the ring, and the chain breaker looks impressive but something is wrong with the threading and you'll all of a sudden wonder why this pin that's never been such a problem before seems inexplicably stuck. Took me almost 20 minutes of struggling like this before I realized that the resistance was not being caused by the pin but by the tool itself! Out of the whole set only a few of the tools will be salvageable, like the adjustable wrench-- which I haven't tried yet but how could anybody possibly screw that up? Then again this set has surprised me with its awfulness on five distinct occasions (all during the same project) at this point; which actually brings me to my next point:

I just don't see how these tools can be this bad. It seems like a great deal of thought would have to have gone into making a set so crappy. It surprises me that the price isn't at least a little bit higher to reflect the hours of brainpower that must have gone into designing a tool set that literally disappoints in every conceivable way.

I am not angry, more amused and I view this as a lesson learned. I went over to my local shop this morning and purchased a few real tools and it made the whole project so much more pleasurable. It occurs to me that not only can using tools like this make the job harder but it can be dangerous: one does not expect a wrench to snap when he is putting pressure on it, who knows where the tools or your fingers will end up? Fortunately, I avoided sacrificing a finger tip and skinned my knuckles on some spokes instead.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not claiming to have used every tool in the box, maybe the ones I haven't used are all perfect, but seriously, if you decide not to heed my advice please at least be careful because, man, these is some crappy tools!

I found this same set several places for more money, as far as i could tell, due to some company putting their name all over the tools. If you're ok without the branding, get this basic tool set and save $20. Not the best set out there, but for the price you'll be abel to do everything you wnat to on a bike to long enough to decide whether or not you like working on bicycles!

I've had this tool kit for a month now, and it has served me well. I've serviced my hubs, changed cogs, tightened the lockring on my track cog, serviced the headset (threadless), changed chainrings, removed the cranks. I haven't had the need to remove the bottom bracket yet, but I'm pretty sure I can do it with the tools provided. I'm sure are better tool kits out there and better tools, but for someone like myself who is just getting started working on my own bike it's a good starter kit.

very great value, has all the basic tools needed to take your bike completely apart. I am very impressed with the quality, with one exception: the chain tool is very poorly made, the crank slips off because it is not glued correctly but crazy glue fixes it right up.

This is a hobby quality tool kit. Probably you would not buy this if you wanted to open a bike repair shop, but to do repairs and maintenance on your own bicycle at home, it is hard to imagine a tool kit this comprehensive at such a good price. It is really hard to name a tool that is not in there. You can do any repairs on many types of bicycles using this kit. Truly a great buy. I'm sure it will serve me well for many years.

Even a "home mechanic" knows the difference between junk and good tools. These are junk. The type of tool you would find at the 99 cent store. Not the kind of tools sought by the serious mechanic that wants to do quality work with quality tools.

The tools in this kit are rather crude. At least some of the tools are crude to the point of being not, or barely, functional. For example, even brand new, the sockets tend to drop off from the driver. I expect with any use, the sockets won't stay attached at all. I have not tried all of the tools in the kit yet, but I'm expecting the worst.

came very quickly and is a good price for the number of tools you get. doesnt have specialized tools for bottom brackets other than the standard type, no wire cutters. quality isn't very good, i wrecked 2 tools today as i basically swapped every component from my bike for new ones with these tools. case is crap, go buy a tool box from home base.

i would struggle to find another bike toolkit that has the same number of parts. the only problem is that the parts are slightly off (especially the headset wrench sizing).

I bought this kit because it was significantly cheaper than the other bicycle tool kits and it seemed to have the exact same things. So far, I've only used the pedal wrench, hex wrenches, and chain breaker.

Pedal and hex:
They worked fine for me.

Chain breaker:
The other reviewers say the chain breaking tool was cheap but that was not the case for me. The quality was great. The sizing of the threads were another matter. The threads were a bit too thick so my road bike chain didn't fit properly in the slot. It was doable, but a hassle.

My mountain bike chain however, was taken apart and put back together cleanly.

Overall: (so far)
I'd recommend this product to people beginning to get into bicycle maintenance. It may not be the best set of tools, but its cheap enough for you to learn what everything does so that you'll know what a quality tool will feel like.