slowster wrote:As a general purpose tool I like the Knipex Pliers Wrench. The 150mm size is much heavier (170g) than some of the lightweight multi-tools, but it is a much more useful tool:
- Parallel jaws properly grip spanner flats, unlike ordinary pliers which often have the potential to damage fastenings with their serrated jaws. - The way the pliers work ensures that fastenings are gripped by the flats with no play or looseness which might result in the corners being rounded off - Very wide opening jaws (27mm on the 150mm version), so it can be used for everything from tightening a presta valve core to a pedal or a solid axle nut.
Although it's not designed primarily as a pair of pliers, I've found it useful for awkward tasks like gripping the tabs on BB7 disc brake pads to twist and remove the pad, and to crimp the metal brackets supplied with SKS mudguards (for which the parallel closing jaws are far better than pliers), and I've read of others using them to bend warped brake discs.
I have a sawn off and much filed down little spanner for my SKS mudguards, which I tuck in the neoprene pouch with my multitool. Two inches long and filed thin, but does the job perfectly.
Not sure of the quality but it might depend on how often you use it and what you have to grip. I got a really small pair of Boyz Toyz pliers tool (similar to link below) about the size of a Leatherman Micra as a secret Santa present. The limit was £5 and as well as the tool I got a bottle of red wine! https://www.etwist.co.uk/products/detai ... -in-1.html
+ 1 for the Swiss Army Knife. I have a Victorinox Handyman which has a very neat set of pliers. In any case, it's always in my pocket so it's not so much a cycling item but part of my life. Very pocketable, unlike a Leatherman (though I've also had one of those) which to me is more of a toolkit item, or best kept in a pouch.
If you need pliers to deal with just a pump, better get some geet big proper uns to deal with all the other seized bolts and screws of larger heft about your cycle!
Don't keep them in yer back pocket as they might get bored and have a nip at your maximus.
Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
As I posted up thread tools fall into two catagories often/daily used tools and seldom/one off/just in case tools. The former are better being as high quality as can be afforded which will pay back their initial cost many times over.The latter needn't be such high quality items. Obviously it isn't so clear cut as I mention and sometimes poor quality tools can be more of a hindrance than a help and in extremis can be dangerous,the individual needs to weigh up when and how they'll use any tool and whether it will satisfy their own needs satisfactorily. Leatherman make some fine multitools as do Knipex make the finest pliers,but one needs to ask one's self does the application need such an investment to sit in a saddlebag 99.9% of the time or would a lower quality item do the job just as good for the amount of use it'll see?
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
If you have a car, you may find a handy one in the toolkit if it has one, they open out so they would grip a nut as well, the one on the left is from a Toyota, the smaller one would be perfect.
slowster wrote:As a general purpose tool I like the Knipex Pliers Wrench. The 150mm size is much heavier (170g) than some of the lightweight multi-tools, but it is a much more useful tool: ...
I carry a lezyne mighty/mini morph pump I think it is called with a Schrader valve, with Presta's I carry a couple of small brass adapters which simply screw on the presta. They sit in with the puncture kit and are cheap to buy.
I have a leatherman which has been with me for years but I was told by a friend in the police that as it had a locked blade it was illegal hence I leave it in the bottom of my pannier on the bike or in my box when fishing. Would I really be risking a problem if found by the local constabulary?
roberts8 wrote:I have a leatherman which has been with me for years but I was told by a friend in the police that as it had a locked blade it was illegal hence I leave it in the bottom of my pannier on the bike or in my box when fishing. Would I really be risking a problem if found by the local constabulary?
It's worth looking at the actual law, which is rather surprising. https://www.gov.uk/buying-carrying-knives In practice you're very likely to have "good reasons" for carriage that are accepted by the police officer. It being with other tools might help. But my multitool comes out of my work bag when I'm travelling in London and similar.
Jonathan
Last edited by Jdsk on 4 Feb 2020, 5:53pm, edited 1 time in total.
roberts8 wrote:I have a leatherman which has been with me for years but I was told by a friend in the police that as it had a locked blade it was illegal hence I leave it in the bottom of my pannier on the bike or in my box when fishing. Would I really be risking a problem if found by the local constabulary?
It's worth looking at the actual law, which is rather surprising. https://www.gov.uk/buying-carrying-knives In practice you're very likely to have "good reasons" for carriage that are accepted by the police officer. it being with other tools might help. But my multitool comes out of my work bag when I'm travelling in London and similar.
Jonathan
I thought any blade hadmto be 3inch or longer to be illegal to carry,or have I got that wrong I carry the smallest Swiss Army penknife about with me everywhere I go.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
colin54 wrote:If you have a car, you may find a handy one in the toolkit if it has one, they open out so they would grip a nut as well, the one on the left is from a Toyota, the smaller one would be perfect. P1120560.JPG
They were standard in motorcycle tool kits as well.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
