Why are Park Tools so expensive?

[pete75]

A question on here had me looking at headset presses. Park do this at about 50 quid . It looks little better than the home made length of studding and large washers many of us use. https://www.evanscycles.com/park-hhp3-h ... s-00103461.
The company might argue that the price is because they're high quality tools but Cyclus, also a quality brand, do the second press for around 40 quid. It's a much more sophisticated tool. https://www.bike-components.de/en/Cyclu ... ess-p4013/ The closest Park equivalent, the HHP-2, is getting on for £150.

[landsurfer]

Tool prices, once you get over a standard of quality, become jewellery.
Snap-on are a case in point.
Park have a reputation amongst Cyclists as quality kit.
But remember what quality means, fit for purpose at lowest price.
People will pay a premium just for the name.
All my cycle clothing is Decathlon.
Is Rapha worth the > x10 premium over Decathlon, of course it's not, but people like to spend their hard earned money .... on what they want.
Clothing or tools. Choice is good.

[fossala]

Most Park tools are under £20, I built up mine overtime whenever I needed a new tool. I just bought a octalink tool https://www.parktool.com/product/bottom ... ool-bbt-18 and I know it will hold up for years, only cost £10.

[andrew_s]

The way I look at it is...
a) In the beginning, there was the Park HHP2, sold mostly to bike shops at a fat profit margin. Anything that mostly only bike shops buy is expensive.

b) Cyclus come along, look at how much the HHP2 would cost them to make (or buy from China), think "I bet we could sell shedloads to home mechanics at €40 to 50", and start making them. They were right too - I bought one.

c) Park look at what Cyclus are selling, but don't want to undercut the HHP-2 and damage their bike shop sales, and come up with the HHP-3 as what they can sell at the the same price as the Cyclus, at the same profit margin as the HHP-2 (managers & accountants don't like it when numbers go down). They also advertise that it will press BB30 & BB86 pressfit BBs, which it will, at the cost of having no centreing so it won't press anything reliably straight.

As well as the Cyclus, Wiggle/Chainreaction are selling a similr X-Tools BB press, at much the same price as Cyclus.

[robgul]

It's quality/durability/longevity that marks ParkTool as the leader - yes the SRPs appear high but most items can be found at substantially less cost.

Some alternative brand tools just don't cut it .... we've snapped two alternative "known brand" chain splitters in the last week - we've ordered a Park replacement.

.. oh, and the blue ParkTool handles look pretty good on the shadow board

Rob

[mercalia]

It's quality/durability/longevity that marks ParkTool as the leader - yes the SRPs appear high but most items can be found at substantially less cost.

Some alternative brand tools just don't cut it .... we've snapped two alternative "known brand" chain splitters in the last week - we've ordered a Park replacement.

.. oh, and the blue ParkTool handles look pretty good on the shadow board

Rob

well I have snapped a so called superior Park tool cable cutter - one jaw broke - so much for quality

[landsurfer]

Park Tools chainring female bolt holder ... more useless than a useless thing on St. Useless Mass Day

[keyboardmonkey]

It's quality/durability/longevity that marks ParkTool as the leader - yes the SRPs appear high but most items can be found at substantially less cost.

Some alternative brand tools just don't cut it .... we've snapped two alternative "known brand" chain splitters in the last week - we've ordered a Park replacement.

Rob

When I finally got round to owning a workstand it was a Park Tool PRS-20, the cheaper and heavier version of the PRS-21 (both since discontinued, though). My thinking was that if I was going to get a stand it might as well be a very good one that would last. Then I seemed to set about buying almost exclusively Park Tool kit for much the same reason, plus...

... the blue ParkTool handles look pretty good on the shadow board

Rob

(Except that I'm worried about having my garage broken in to, so I have most of my stuff in a huge tool box (Draper, in sort-of Park Tool blue) kept in the house.)

Park Tools chainring female bolt holder ... more useless than a useless thing on St. Useless Mass Day

Ah, yes. I added one of these to the basket recently to qualify for free postage. I've since read a few reviews that reckon they're not up to much

Not all Park Tool kit is created equally, it seems. Speaking of reviews...

well I have snapped a so called superior Park tool cable cutter - one jaw broke - so much for quality

There are mixed reviews for the Park Tool CN-10, so when I convinced myself I needed a good quality cutter for cable housing I got one from Knipex. I would also avoid Park Tool's range of SD screwdrivers (I recommend Vessel Megadora for a cross tip screwdriver), and their Allen keys are made by Bondhus AFAICT, so - if you can cope with the red colour scheme - Bondhus are a less expensive, good quality option IMHO.

[markyp]

I had a 1/4 and 3/8 snap-on ratchet wear out, originally bought over 30 years ago. Had absolutely no issues with having the mechanisms replaced by the snap-on 'rep' free of charge. So, one benefit of spending ludicrous amounts on tools!!

Tool prices, once you get over a standard of quality, become jewellery.
Snap-on are a case in point.
Park have a reputation amongst Cyclists as quality kit.
But remember what quality means, fit for purpose at lowest price.
People will pay a premium just for the name.
All my cycle clothing is Decathlon.
Is Rapha worth the > x10 premium over Decathlon, of course it's not, but people like to spend their hard earned money .... on what they want.
Clothing or tools. Choice is good.

[thirdcrank]

At one time, I'm pretty sure that Sheldon Brown said that Park Tool were over-rated. IIRC he mentioned their quality control. I have a set - actually three spanners rather than the normal two - of Park Tool cone spanners. These are the very slim, double-ended type. I have three because one end of one of them is the wrong size, to the extent that not only will it not fit the intended cone - as stamped on the spanner - but when compared with a correct one it's visibly wrong.

I've just looked at SB for the quote but it now says

Park ® Tools (sic) The leading U.S. manufacturer of special tools for the bicycle trade ...(+ website)

Perhaps somebody has mentioned legal action.

With many things, you often have to pay top whack to get good stuff, but shelling out does not guarantee that everything pricey is top notch. Brand image.
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PS Come to think of it, I obviously have four rather than three, it's just that only three are the right size.

[pete75]

I had a 1/4 and 3/8 snap-on ratchet wear out, originally bought over 30 years ago. Had absolutely no issues with having the mechanisms replaced by the snap-on 'rep' free of charge. So, one benefit of spending ludicrous amounts on tools!!

When I worked in engineering snap off tools were renowned for living up to their nickname. Brands like WIlliams, Gordon , Bedford, Hilka and Elora seemed much stronger and sturdier.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Park can argue what they want, but their tools aren't especially high quality.

[drossall]

I've always liked Park Tools. In the old days, you bought the Campagnolo tool if you wanted a really good one (BB tools, headset spanners, cone spanners and so on). Now, I buy Park.

I did have trouble with a pedal spanner. I got a stuck pedal, and the Park spanner seemed quite soft and its jaws spread slightly, which was unexpected. To be fair, my Campagnolo pedal spanner had already failed on this one.

Park replaced the tool without question, and this one removed the offending pedal.

[Lance Dopestrong]

I've a drop forged Tent spanner modified on the bench grinder for pedals.

[Brucey]

park tools do come with a half-decent warranty. This adds to the cost of the product but also its value.

cheers