Good tools?!

[j.silvs]

Since doing servicing etc. for myself I am now looking to get some decent tools which will make the jobs a bit easier.

Got around £50 for a decent tool set that will be able to do most maintenance jobs such as servicing, fairing removal, wiring etc.

Any recommendations?

[Musketeer]

There is no toolbox for 50 quid that will come with everything you need.

I bought 150 piece Halfords set, then more sockets, more wrenches, more of everything.. and I keep buying more
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Current Bike: Yamaha XSR900 Previous bikes: Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, Aprilia RS125 2-stroke

[Skudd]

Time is the best way to build up your tool kit.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[j.silvs]

Ok, well for £50 wheres the best place to start?

This?: https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_241771_langId_-1_categoryId_255215#tab3

[Al]

Your going to be looking at something around the draper/halfords price range but doubt you get a complete decent set of everything.
Maybe buy a socket set with the common metric sizes, a few useful screwdriver and a range of allen keys then just add any extra bits as you need them.
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Yamaha FZR400RR 3tj
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[Pete.]

[The Artist]

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=282065&highlight=

[Musketeer]

I personally would spend a bit more to get a decent set. Later you will have to live with what you've got

But saying that I haven't used some sockets from my set at all.. I probably used only about 75%.

But even with decent set you will find quickly that you may need some more tools... i.e. my 150 pc set come with 6mm and 8mm hex Allen socket, but in order to sort brake calipers in my Vauxhall Astra I needed to get 7mm one... Or standard 5mm hex Allen key socket was too short to use it with my torque wrench when playing with intake manifold bolts, so I got a long version

And that's how you eventually build your own perfect set of tools
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Current Bike: Yamaha XSR900 Previous bikes: Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, Aprilia RS125 2-stroke

[clancy]

Halfords professional toolkits are very good for the money, lifetime warranty too

Otherwise I'd buy a used set of eBay
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KLX 300r

[Northern Monkey]

Wait til halfords have one of their regular sales. About 6 weeks ago I picked up the £100 professional socket set for £50.

[Teflon-Mike]

With £50 the best place to start is the humble hand tool.
Forget socket sets; forget multi-bit screw-drivers; forget anything 'posh'.

NUMBER ONE most used tool in the box... the 10oz ball Hammer.
2/ TWO Decent sets of metric sized 'combination' (ring one end, jaw t'other) spanners. 8-17mm is most used range.
Why TWO sets? well when you are twizzling the nut on the end of something.... whats going to be holding the bolt head still?
Go machine-mart and get thier pro-grade life-time warranty type stuff, and so far you will have spent about half your budget.... which would have just about got you a cheap socket set that would laugh at anything particularly stubborn, and or be as likely to let you slip of fasteners and round them, and or chew heads up, and or skin knockles, and or... well list goes on....
THREE - screwdrivers. In fact, three, is probably about the right number... three cross head, three flat. Small, Medium and Large.
Chuck the rest of your budget at these, get as good as you can get, and IF possible, get Japanese Standard Cross heads... you'll probably struggle, but a propper phillips head is close enough... WARNING not all cross-heads are equal! And using the WRONG cross-head on motorbike screws is Second top reason for them getting chewed... first of course is ham-fisted mechanics not taking care to keep them straight in the screw and or using brute force over ignorance.
Last on the list, if you have any money left in your budget....
IMPACT DRIVER... its a heavy screw-driver type thing; usually with a socket head to take the sockets you don't yet have, or the usually supplied screw-driver bits. Handle is a chunk of metal, but the shaft is on a very mild spiral, so when you BASH the handle with... Number One tool, the 10oz ball hammer... it gives it a little tweek in the right direction, as well as bang the bit hard into the screw and apply a little shock to the shaft. BRILLIANT tool for the more stubborn and or chewed fastener. Saves a lot of cussing and swearing and skinned knuckles, and even Cheapo £5 jobbies can do a decent job.
Next on the list when you have some more money, is a box to put them in. Till then... well, any old recepticle will do...

I bought my first tools over thirty years ago; and it was SPANNERS, I still have most of them, and they are STILL the most used tools in the box.

People reach straight for the socket set, and SO many believe that sockets is the be-all and end all of tools, but SPANNERS, are wonderful devices.

Force is applied directly; you learn feel through them.

They are sized to the bolt-heads they fit, so that bigger fasteners get more leverage, littler ones less, so you dont struggle undoing big-uns and end up stripping your fancy ratchet smacking it with No1 Tool or hanging a six foot scaffold pole on the end; nor do you end up shearing small studs, wacking them up as tight as you can with the ratchet that has handle long enough to do up stuff three times the size!

You can SEE what you are working on in the jaw, and SEE when the spanners not straight to it, or if the bolt is spinning in the nut you're doing, etc.

You cant erroniousely switch the ratchet the wrong way mid undoeyuppey.... wonderful way to waste an afternoon... ratchet alternating between doing and undoing at half turn intervals!

NOR do you spend ages trying to work out which way is doey-upey, and which way undoey-upey, turning the wratchet round and getting it all inside out and back to front between putting socket on and getting it on the bolt!

Ratchet wont slip, or strip... you dont have a ratchet!

They are simple; and they do the job, without fuss and are HUGELY under-rated!

And GOOD ones are cheap, as in £10 a set cheap; and good ones are accurately sized and have the strength in the jaws not to bend open so they chew stubborn fasteners.

BEST place to start on limited budget. SIMPLE SPANNERS.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[WD Forte]

On my old Honda theres only a few sizes I use regularly
8-10-12-14mm with occaisional use of the 17 and 19mm for say wheels or engine bolts
Most of the other sizes just sit there unused even when working on other stuff.
The beemer uses a lot of hex head bolts

If you want to go for quality over quantity, it may be worth doing a quick survey of what you need and start from there and just buying what you'll actually use.

A decent multimeter is a must IMO
Some good screwdrivers too
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bikers smell of wee

[yampug]

aldi currently has a decent socket set on sale having seen someones at work i was quite impressed by the quality of the ratchet and sockets

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-24th-october/product-detail/ps/p/95-piece-wrenches-and-sockets-set/

[Teflon-Mike]

Multim-Meters are a gawdsend... but on tight budget, even though you can get a very serviceable analogue one for under a fiver.... for most automotive electrics?

A spare bulb and a couple of bits or wire woks very well as a 'volt-meter'

No light = No Volts
Dim = less than 6v
Bright = Good 12v

For continuity? Add a two more bits of wire to take volts from car/bike battery, or battery charger... which would be the tool I put ahead of multi-meter in the priority list TBH... propper 4A charger, not a mA optimate type conditioning unit, but good battery charger.

High Tension Electrics? Yeah... thats what you have 'mates' for init? "Ere, Bob, can y' just hold this spark-=plug lead for me while I kick it over?"..... if they jump.... you got High Tension Well it worked in my day... got em nearly every time!

On your own? Spare-Spark-Plug and a jump lead. Clip metal bit of spare sparker in the jumpers crock-clip; other end on a good earth; then watch for a spark... much better than trying to lay the plug against the engine casing, or as so often, waved around in thin air, unearthed, "Oh I have no spark..." and lots of worrying over coils and electrics when in fact the carb was clogged!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[ninja_butler]

Increase your budget to about £110 and after Xmas take a look in Halfords at their socket & spanner sets. Every now and again they sell them at about 1/3rd off and you get a lot for your money even at full price.

If you don't own a Halfords Professional socket & spanner set, you're probably the last person on BCF who still doesn't have one.

[Pete.]

[MC]

[yampug]

[WD Forte]

I may have suggested 'decent multimeter' meant expensive
I dont
While you can get one for under a fiver on Ebay
About £20 will get you one thats quite adequate for bike stuff
with reasonable accuracy.
It will allow you to do simple voltage and resistance (continuity) checks
and help you get/keep the bike running

Rather than fumbling with the rats nest of wires and hoping for the best, a wee bit of systematic testing can often pin down a fault pretty quickly
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bikers smell of wee

[Pete.]

You can get one that's adequate for basic bike checks for three quid new. No sense paying more for something seldom used. Other than that a good used analogue meter can be had quite cheap.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[G]

I'm glad I spent extra on on VC99 (fluke copy) - about £25, but the capacitor tester alone has saved me a whole load of hassle when compared to the cheap ones.

But yes, for the majority of bike stuff, the £3 are probably fine.
Hell, a battery and a spare 12v bulb are probably fine too .

[iooi]

I still use the 1/2" Draper set I got back in 1978. Think it cost me all of £5. Has all the metric and imperial size's needed.
Except of the + 20 m/m which you only need once in a blue moon.
Yes its been added to with a 3/8" drive set.

So get what you want and just add as you need.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[Scythe]

As said before, the Halfords pro range is good starter. I bought one of the most expensive ones, they have sales on regularly which makes them brilliant bargains.

You do find that you will sometimes have to buy other tools but I get them as I go along now.
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2009 Yamaha YBR125 -> 2000 SV650S -> 2005 Kawasaki ZX6R 636

[crazymotorbik...]

Hey,
What i did was to buy a large tool box then bought quality tools for the jobs i came across. Slowly you build up all the tools you'll ever need and even some obscure tools you'll use once in a blue moon.

I now have a couple of fairly comprehensive and quality tool kits. One for electrical work and one for mechanical work.

Try to stay away from silverline, am-tek etc IMHO and experience these tools are nothing but use once and throw away items.

PS Xmas is on the horizon add a good set of spanners etc to your list

Cheers,
Shaun.

[G]

The big silverline 6-32mm spanner set is decent quality and an excellent range for the price - pretty much the only spanner set you should ever need for a (metric) bike.