Bike Tool Shed

This is my collection of tools, spare parts, random clothes and other things that are vaguely to do with bikes and have been lying around for years. You can tell how long someone has been cycling for the amount of cycling junk they have accumulated. Amongst here are so many nuts and bolts I’ve completely forgotten what they were used for, but, you dare not throw them away.

Ideally, this would be my entire bike part / tool shed but it’s actually spread out to three different locations (and probably loft as well) so it’s even harder to find what you want.

As you can see I do go through periods of organising vigour. In particular I love putting nails in walls to hang tools on.

I’ve always been a bit useless at bike maintenance. I tend to take it in to a bike shop for anything serious. However, the last occasion cost me £180, and they put on a chain that was too short. I had to take it off and put a new one. I should have taken it back and complained but I’m too British to get worked up and actually complain.

The tool shed is a collection of former parts that never quite made it. I have about six cycle computers in various states of comprehensiveness. I made a rash choice in buying two Cateye Vectra 5 function (with no time). They are useless for what I want and failed to sell them on ebay. I also have about six pairs of time trial oversocks. The thing about oversocks is that they look good (and maybe even save you the odd second) but, if you wear them on more than one occasion they will develop holes in the soles. So I keep buying new ones, but, can’t bring myself to throw away the old ones. You just never know when you might need a thin pair of oversocks with holes in…

Note the scales for weighing bike components. When building a hill climb bike, you like to know the weight of bike components. For some reason, bike manufacturers are reluctant to display weights (when it is something everyone wants to know) and if they do publish weights it often is wrong. I don’t know why they have collective amnesia in this. Anyway, you can use these scales to see how many grams are lost by shaving the length of brake block to be shorter. (I kid you not, and it was 2 grams if you are interested)

The most useful tool is always superglue. You can fix 50% of household maintenance problems with superglue, and it’s pretty useful for the bike and components too.

Two things that take up a lot of space here are two heavy waterproof / goretex style jackets. They are pretty good at keeping the water out. But, if you cycle over 50% of your heart rate, you will sweat like the proverbial pig, so I never actually use them. But, because you spend £80 on them, you can’t throw them away.

Anybody want some aluminium tribars heavily cut down for standard size handlebars.

Related

• Bike Maintenance for beginners