3alarmer 

...I was just suggesting to the guy who buys tools for our coop that he buy us some of these:



Which are incredibly useful as a one wrench fits all thin wall socket for both crank bolts and pedals.


He tells me they haven't been made or sold for quite a while now....

Anyway, here's a thread to share your favorite forged unobtanium bike tools.

Maybe someone out there in the world of manufacturing will stumble across it,
and decide to reproduce it for sale to grateful Freds around the world.

fietsbob

Park stopped making the fork alignment reference tool

The version of Campag's T wrench that had a 5 & 6mm allen for the handle,
Campag is just 1 size allen + the 8mm socket.

Park, the short wrench .. 15 for pedals, and either a 32 or 36 for headset tightening.

the cool tool ..

HillRider

Yeah, I still have one of these (the 15x32 version). I bought it to pack with my S&S coupled travel bike to install pedals and/or adjust the 1" threaded headset.

I also have the Park CCW-2 14/15/16 mm 6 mm hex key tool 3alarmer pictured above. After I bought it I never used it since thin wall sockets on a ratchet worked better.

Finally, do 2 and 4-prong Sun Tour freewheel pullers count as obsolete? Mine are genuine Sun Tours, not Park's version.

Wilfred Laurier

headset wrenches might not be extinct
but are certainly endangered

oldskoolwrench

Here's a couple:

VAR Cantilever brake tool (to hold the pads against the rim - can be used with centerpull brakes also):



The plastic curve shaped tools used to set Shimano Exage series cantilever brakes (I couldn't find a picture of one).

fietsbob

It was a one off , my father , retired from machinist to the war machine making,
turned out a Pressure Lubricating tool for Sun Tour's New Winner Pro Freewheels

my design Idea .. that had their lube and purge hole on the inside ,
the part that threads onto the Hub.

the production of the freewheels of course ceased.

3alarmer 

Maybe you don't rebuild a whole lot of older pedals, but it works very well for them
because, unlike a thin wall socket, it has an open head, so you can put a 12 mm
wrench on your pedal cone lock nut at the same time you hold the cone in place.

In our particular co-op situation, it's just a lot handier to have one tool in your apron
pocket than a ratchet and three sockets......but that also makes things more prone to
wander off into the Land of the Lost.

3alarmer 

I remember these, but have never owned one.

3alarmer 

We've started using these.....they work pretty darn good, much better than an ordinary Crescent.

LesterOfPuppets

Surely too thick for a headset cone.

LesterOfPuppets

We just got a couple of these. Not shiny like the olde ones, though.

3alarmer 

They are thinned quite a bit more than the Crescent, perhaps not as much as one would
choose in designing a headset wrench, but enough that they are usable on most of the
cones and locking nuts I've encountered.

I looked, but cannot find a jaw profile image to link. They work, pretty much.

MichaelW

Pamir Hypercracker. No current tool works as well.

DOS

Crank pullers being threatened as well by extracting bolts.

reptilezs

park bt 3. great for cranking on crappy tourney derailers

reptilezs

these are made by irega in spain and are very high quality

JohnDThompson 

Especially nice ones like these:

JohnDThompson 

The best 3rd-hand tool made, IMO. Not just for cantilevers or centerpulls.

JohnDThompson 

Don't forget the double-ended (22mm/23mm) Park CCP-1 crank puller:

Wilfred Laurier

another thing that makes headset wrenches useful is
being able to use them on addball bottom bracket fixed cups
and since they are flay they can be clamped in place
the same as you can do with a bb spanner

the channel lock adjustable
which certainly looks like a sweet wrench
would not be able to do this
due to the tapered jaws


old headset wrenches 1
chanel lock adjustable 0

HillRider

I tried that once and found headset wrenches aren't strong enough to take the torque needed to remove a tight fixed cup. The opening started to spread before they loosened the cup. There is a reason real fixed cup wrenches are fully boxed.
And both are threatened by cranks with built-in spindles.

LesterOfPuppets

Here's a phone pic of the RW1, new and old:


2013-06-14_06-32-48_731 by Wheel Deals Vancouver, WA, on Flickr

rootboy 

These were handy

wrk101

+1 Double ended Park crank puller, both the CCP1 and early CCP2 had the dual head.

My other favorite is the Sugino BB tool kit (two tools). One had a fixed cup wrench on one end, lock ring tool on the other. The other smaller tool is a pin spanner for many of the vintage bb.

They do pop up on the used market all of the time.

The other tool I miss are the old style Park cone wrenches. They used to be nice chrome wrenches. Maybe I just like the chrome, whatever, but I prefer the older cone wrenches over the new ones.

3alarmer 

Yeah.....I have a couple, one of which I resurrected from bent handle death to
living again with an appropriate length and thread bolt, ground to a usable tip
on a bench grinder.

Just not enough of the larger diameter threaded cranks around any more, I guess.