JacobLee 

Hey Everyone,

Does anyone know anything about this set of combo wrenches? Why 32/24? The brand is Elite 9509 heat treated steel made in Italy.

Thanks!

Iride01 

32 mm is the size of the nuts on the threaded headset on my Raleigh and probably many other threaded headsets with 1" steerer tubes.. You'd have to have two wrenches and one has to be thin.

HillRider

Iride01 is correct, 32 mm is the common diameter of the threaded nuts on a 1" threaded headset and you need two wrenches, one to hold the top race in position and the other to tighten the lock nut against it. I'm not sure what the 24 mm fits. I've seen a 32/36 mm combination for 1" and 1-1/8" threaded headsets and 32 mm/15 mm for the 1" headset and a pedal wrench.

JacobLee 

Yep, the 32mm side is common, but what is the 24 for?

GamblerGORD53

24 mm is probably for a BB or hub adapter tool. My Rohloff tool seems to be 23.5 for some oddball reason.
My Phil BB tool is 7/8" / 22.2. I resized ends of 2 headset wrenches for these.

severs1966

24mm used to be a common size for adjustable cups on cheap bottom brackets. You hold a 24 mm spanner in one hand and a lockring spanner in the other. The lockring spanner has another 32mm on its other end, so you have two 32mm spanners, because headsets used to have an adjustable "nut" and a locknut, frequently the same size.

It's one of the things that used to annoy me intensely, that an object requires two of the same size spanner. A good example used to be cantilever brake stirrups, with two 10mm fasteners, one on each side ("bolt" and nut). Would it have killed them to make it 10 and 11, or 10 and 12, so a normal set of spanners would be enough? No, you are forced to buy more than one of the same sized spanner, or use a spanner and an adjustable spanner.

In my case, a huge adjustable spanner is a very useful tool, so I had one headset spanner (32mm) for the locknut, and one thin "proper" headset spanner for the adjustable "nut".

And don't get me started on those Shimano headsets in the mid and late '80s with the castellated/"flower shaped" nut and locknut.

JacobLee 

Ha! Thanks for the insights!

I guess I can be glad that the 24mm wrenches fit none of my bikes or removal tools! Also, I could only find that brand of spanner for sale in the UK.

Yeah, one of the great improvements made by threadless headsets and v-brakes was the ability to adjust everything with a 5mm allen! I’ve been working on lots of vintage stuff recently, and it’s interesting to be reminded of how many tools were required.

Thanks again!

severs1966

This has been more than made up for by the explosion in number of different bottom bracket standards nowadays, plus the suite of tools needed to sort out hydraulic disc brakes.

And while we are discussing this problem, what's with derailleur hangers? There are dozens, if not hundreds, of different shapes. And disc brake pads, of course, just as bad. It must be hell trying to keep stocks of such things in bike shops.

HillRider

Another component that requires two of the same spanners is the Dura Ace FH-7700 rear freehub. The locknuts are not the common 17 mm hex nuts but round nuts with a serrated outer face and cone wrench flats on the inboard side. You need two 14mm cone wrenches, one for the lock nut and one for the actual cone. The front hub (HB-7700) is a similar design but at least uses a 13 mm cone wrench for the cone and a 14 mm cone wrench for the locknut.