Campagnolo allan keys?

[Mick F]

Yawn. Yawn. Yawn.
I can't believe this thread has got to 12 posts.
What kind of bike owner doesn't go out and buy a set of hex keys?

But what set of Allen keys has a 7mm included?

Absolutely!

We had a Fiat 500 a few years ago and I wanted to fit new pads to the front brakes.
Can't honestly remember if the callipers needed 7mm or 9mm .............but I reckon it was 7mm ............... and I had to buy a complete set of Allen keys to do the job.

I have a complete set now - every single size, both Imperial and Metric though I had to go out and find a set that had them.

[Richard D]

I’ve been reliably informed elsewhere that anyone who owns a Ford Escort and changes their own brake pads will know the pain of not finding a 7mm hex key in a standard tool box.

[Jdsk]

Can't honestly remember if the callipers needed 7mm or 9mm .............but I reckon it was 7mm ............... and I had to buy a complete set of Allen keys to do the job.

Yes, 7 mm is common on car brakes.

And individual 7 mm keys are widely available.
https://www.google.com/search?q=7mm+hex+key

Jonathan

[Mick F]

Ok then, it was 7mm .................. but WHY?
Could have been 8mm of course.
If they'd wanted to be really awkward, they could have been square instead of hex.

Had a Peugeot 205 for many years, and the sump plug was a square socket-head. Luckily, I found some square section bar that fitted and bent it to a right-angle.

[Samuel D]

Ok then, it was 7mm .................. but WHY?

Good question with appropriate emphasis.

I know nowhere in Paris, a fair-sized town, that stocks a 7 mm Allen key. None of the big-box hardware stores do. The small car-parts shops don’t either. You’d need to find a specialist tool supplier or something.

Of course it’s easy enough to order online.

This size, 7 mm (and the 3.5 mm that was mentioned upthread), is a so-called second-choice size. It’s not included in first-choice sets because the size increments are chosen so that for every fastener, there’s clearly only one size that will both fit and engage the flats. Any size too small is intended to spin harmlessly in the head of the fastener. Careless mechanics might otherwise use a size too small and, finding some engagement, wreck the fastener head or tool or both.

I’ve come across dumb sizes on car brakes, too. Actually, cars in general have got out of hand. You need just about every whole-number metric size of hex socket and spanner from about 8 to 19 mm, and that’s before you get into the big stuff like axle nuts, hex-socket heads in bizarro sizes as discussed, Torx, External Torx just to be awkward, triple square / XZN (are they even strictly the same?), and other whacky spline stuff. You’d think we were driving race cars by all this theoretical optimisation. The Germans are the worst as usual.

[Mick F]

Samuel, nicely summed up.

I bought a full set of Allen Keys from B+Q, just for the 7mm.
I was happy to buy the lot though, because you never know when you are going to need these intermediate keys ............ let alone a full set of Imperial too.

I'll dig them out of the shed in the next day or so, and list what sizes I now have.

[julianm]

7mm is a pretty common size on brake caliper pins - any motor factor or Halfords will have one. Hope it works!

[speedsixdave]

All of this stuff is less of a problem nowadays of course when individual allen keys are available off the web in a range of prices and qualities. Des49 mentioned the 3.5mm allen keys for Delta brakes - these were seriously challenging to find in a pre-internet age. When I finally found a hardware store capable of sourcing one I bought four and still have them labelled up in my toolbox. And as SamuelD notes, if unlabelled they are hard to tell apart from 3mm and 4mm keys so easy to lose or misuse! Not a great engineering solution, but then they were used on Delta brakes...

[bigjim]

Gosh this thread has roamed about a bit. I ordered a 7mm off the net for £2 this morning. Just been out to the bike and find, it's not Campag. When I bought this bike it was Campag throughout. Struggled to read the writing on the stem and assumed, like you do, but should'nt, because of the key size. Anyway turns out it's a Milremo Course which is an Italian design. So fingers crossed the 7mm fits.

[Brucey]

Rebour drawing of an engraved Milremo stem

nice article about Milremo parts (which were rebranded parts from a number of different manufacturers) here

https://bertinclassiccycles.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/milremo-andre-bertin-and-ron-kitching/

cheers