Liesl, Absolutely. Loose wrenches are the way to go. I don't bother with the big wrenches (15mm track wrench; headset wrenches, bb tools, 8mm hex, etc), but do carry a 2 (switch cap),4 (bottle cage bolts, stem),and a 5 (most of the rest) allen and loose 8X9 and 9X10 MAFAC wrenches (mafac-copy brakes; fender attachments to frame), a tire lever, a spokey, and, in remote areas, a Ritchey CPR chain tool. The latter two are talismans of preparation more than things I actually have to use.
Note that these bike-specific things supplement a peanut-butter spreader Swiss-army knife that includes convivial tools for modern living (screwdrivers, tweezers, toothpick, scissors, can-opener, blade). That stays in my pocket. In 32 years of riding sporting bikes, I've never had occasion to use a chain tool in the field, never had to repair a slightly-out-of-true wheel (reset a taco-d one? sure), and I've only broken one spoke. I've really needed more than those basic items twice--once a track wrench for a new set of cranks (carried for the first thousand miles now), and once a full set of Phil bottom bracket tools, a shop vise, a dead-blow hammer, and full set of crank stuff (I don't use Phil bottom brackets anymore). Everything else was either immediately ride-ending (crash+damage/injury), or I could live with it until I got 'round to fixing it. I could probably just carry a 5mm hex key to make micro-adjustments to my seat and call it good, but then I'd break a chain for the first time.... Best, Will William M. deRosset Fort Collins, CO On Saturday, May 9, 2015 at 3:01:58 PM UTC-6, Liesl wrote: > > +1 on the park mt 1 but as a do most things in a bind but not do most > things with aplomb. For example, tightening seat bolts might also risk > scratching the post. > > I love carrying a collection of loose bonhaus-end Allen's and/or a park > AWS-8 ball end 3-way Allen's and a wee slim park CBW1 10mm x 8mm open end > wrench along with the mt1. The 8x10 is great for fenders and rack. > > -liesl -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
