At Home Bike Tools to Have

At home floor pumps are such a good thing to have for any house hold that owns bikes. Being able to reach for a pump that can quickly and efficiently keep your tyres at a good pressure, while being easy to attach with a large gauge really helps. Tyres that have good pressure are less likely to get punctures and this is a great skill for even the kids to know. 

Always keep a few spare tubes at the ready in your at home tool space.  Have tubes that match each bike wheel in the house.  This makes replacing a tube a quick job and keeps you on your bike rather than waiting for when you can get around to buying what you need.

It’s practically impossible to get a tyre on and off the rim of your wheel without tyre levers to help. So if you need to get to your tube, to replace it or patch it, you must have some levers to assist you.  The general come in sets of 3.  If they are bright in colour they are easy to spot and keep them stacked when you’re not using them so you don’t lose any.

Really hand little kit to have if you are using standard tubes.  Tubes can be repaired and re-used extending their lifespan and saving you money.  Either repair as you go or wait to have a couple and do the repair job all at once.  Again this is a good task to teach kids or teenagers.

It is essential to lube your chain after any type of clean and it is just good practice to keep your chain well lubed.  Having a couple of lube bottles in your bike space will make this simple task easy.  Have a cloth on hand to wipe away excess.  A lubed chain will perform much better for you.

A clean bike will perform better and last longer.  Keep what you need gathered together in a bike cleaning kit that sits with your bike tools and you will clean more often. Have cloth, brushes, chain degreaser, bike detergent (in a spray bottle) and your cleaning will be simple.

A range of Allen Keys is a great at home tool set to have.  The longer length helps with leverage to loosen or tighten hex bolts.  The shape gives you options depending on your access to the head of the screw you want to work with.

If you don’t have access to a huge range of tools at home it can be a good idea to add a bike specific multi tool to your options.  This gives you the ability to work with most parts of your bike, the small screwdriver can be really handy.  This tool can also be carried in a tool kit by anyone in the family taking tools with them on a ride.