Toolkits

Anyone reccommend a good bike toolkit that'l do most things on the bike?
Looking a t the Bikehand one on ebay etc for about £30, anyone got one?

Depends on the bike you are buying the tools for, in a way...

The way i look at it is the tools should be of a good quality, chances of a £30 kit being so is slim. You don't want to be using poorly made tools that will slip, round off or in any way damage your pride and joy.

I never bought a full tool kit for the bike, things like spanners, allen keys, torque wrenches, sockets etc i already had from working on the car. In addition i have:

-Shimano Crank Extractor
-Race Face BB Tool
-Headset remover
-Homemade headset press (kinda contrary to what i've said above )
-15mm Pedal Spanner
-Some funny Shimano Tool for XTR BB's and Middleburn Spider Lockrings
-Cone Spanners
-Headset Spanners
-Chain Whip
-Cassette Lockring Tool
-Chain Splitter

I've assembled this lot over the years, rather than in one go... CRC are a good source of cheap (but quality) tools.

The one thing i don't have (and really the most important thing to have) is a bike clamp/stand to support the bike while i'm working on it!

yeah me too.

got the usual collection of tools form over the years and a couple of useful specialist ones like chain whips and crank extractors.

But ultimately the one thing i need and never get round to getting is a stand.

16 years of riding and I never bought a bike stand yet - have one of those rear wheel supports for tuning gears but my projects are hanging (by their saddles) from the rafters in my garage!

Similarly i've been tinkering with bikes for around 14 years and never had a 'proper' stand. Still, the amount of times they've nearly or actually fallen over and i'm scrabbling to catch them...

I finally got a stand last chrimbo when I saw Merlin Cycles had them at 1/2 price (£65 after reduction). It's really good - makes a big difference especially when fiddling with gears.

Well went for a kit off ebay for £40 which is supposeed to be exactly the same as the Draper one but under another branding. I've got basic tools but needed the Shimano locking ring tool, headset spanner, spoke spanner, etc etc so got it all in one go, the chain whip and lock screw would have cost £20 on their own, it might be crap quality, we'll see, and he can have it back.
Draper tools are reasonable tho.

after years of buying and binning cheap tools i bought a park crank puller and cassette lockring tool. they've already paid for themselves in terms of "not having to buy new tools"

I am always careful on where I buy cheap tools.

Good tools are soooo nice.

I have a shimano crank puller/spanner that is now going on 17 years
Almost binned it after not having sq taper for a few years. Now I actually must have every concievable bb and crank tool going everyone wants a std...

Not overly impressed with some cheaper 'ice tools' I bought though

I used to skimp on tools but now I tend to buy Park Tools mainly, doesn't take long for them to pay for themselves! had pretty good luck with Pedros tools too

Stu