What hex and torque wrenches do you recommend?

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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Roel W
Posts: 943
Joined: Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Belgium

by Roel W

Facom 84TZA series (striaght end). They do come in a 6 or 8 pcs set but those have a ball end.
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Raimundo
Posts: 357
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:55 pm
Location: Flanders

by Raimundo

Just the other day was selecting HEX bits for my saddle bag toolkit, and had the opportunity to pull my calipers out and compare what i had in the toolbox, i had Facom, Wiha, Hazet, PB Swiss and some other no name (from a Topeak/Wera micro ratchet). I was not impressed at all:

All the brands had no consistency whatsoever within their own native group, e.g. #3 would be showing a good fit, but then the #4 from the same brand/set would have a higher proportional deviation, and so on within the brand/set...

If i was to pic the bits that had a good snug fit and were caliper checked, i would have to cherry pic across brands.

Regarding bit finishing/looks the PB Swiss are clearly ahead even going the full mark on attributing a different colour to each size, visually they are gorgeous.
Only the ones that came in the Topeak/Wera looked like crap, the engagement tip was certainly cuted by a blind dog. Maybe they were using 3rd party bits to drive down costs 🤔. Although tolerances were comparable to all the brands i had at hand. Thats that.
The other brands were visually good, nothing to write home about. Plain professional look.

Although i do suspect that the Hazet bits could have a smidge higher Hrc than all the rest, and in my book that's a main point!
The Hazet bits will promptly oxidate if you show them a glass of water, i believe their carbon content is quite high therefore, leading to a higher Hrc. Wiha claims this higher hardness on their product page, but i have yet to experience this in real life conditions.

So after all this turn off after measuring the different brands, i just kept the PB'S for the saddle bag, because bling matters also. And keept the other ones for workshop use.

On the torque wrench side i use Facom, they're used by some of the biggest motorsport teams and also by some of the biggest car manufacturers in France. I actually don't understand why they don't get mentioned that often around here.
And their guarantee is second to none.

by Weenie


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Ypuh
Posts: 673
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2019 10:20 pm
Location: The Netherlands

by Ypuh

I have experience with Unior, PB Swiss, Wera and cheap Chinese hex keys and ratchets.

Even though I used the Wera rainbox hex keys for 5+ years, I don't find them the best. Probably best value for money, yes, but the 'Hex-plus' feature more often broke something than it helped me. Same goes for the ball-end, I would try and avoid using that as much as possible. Bolts on bikes are simply too soft to have such a small contact area. The 6-8 Nm mark is well out of it's operating range obviously, but same goes for the hex-plus feature. The rainbow coloring is very handy.

My vote also goes to PB Swiss as being the best. The straight type heads and fit are excellent. Ever since I bought their bit ratchet that's pretty much the only thing I use (PB-6510 R-30).

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For cycling specific tools I prefer Unior over Park Tool. Park has a few great options, but also a few that are heavily overpriced or simply relabelled with a higher price tag. Unior is more of an automotive quality brand -made in Europe and 100+ years in the business- that also has been manufacturing their own cylcing related tools for a long long time (yes Unior, you can contact me for sponsorship). Across the board their tools are more durable and build to last.
Cervelo S3 - 7.3kg
Time ADHX - 8.7kg

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wheelsONfire
Posts: 6283
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:15 am
Location: NorthEU

by wheelsONfire

Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

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