CM-25 Professional Chain Scrubber
If you really want to keep your chain clean, you could adopt the old school technique of removing it once a week, let it soak in degreaser for a while, then putting it back on. You could, but that takes a while.
What’s easier is getting a proper chain cleaning tool because while your bucket and sponge might be great for getting off the surface grime, in between the links is far tougher to reach.
Now Park’s CM-25 might be expensive (there’s no might, it is) but it’s the king of chain cleaning devices. Not only is the A380 alloy body durable and reassuringly heavy, but all the internals are removable and replaceable, so it’s easier than ever to clean your cleaner (but what do you use to clean your chain cleaner cleaner? Nobody knows).
If you don’t fancy spending 79.99 on once, there’s always the CM-5.2 for 24.99. But everyone has to treat themselves sometimes, right?
IR-1.2 Internal Cable Routing Kit
While most of us would agree that internal routing gives modern bikes a smart, clean look, we’d probably all agree that it makes them a real pain to re-cable. But, thanks to Park Tool, swearing is no longer the key ingredient in cable replacement. No, now it’s the IR-1.2.
Using a smart combination of rubber bits, magnets and cabling, installing new cables – Di2 or mechanical – isn’t a game of hide and seek any more. You simply guide the wire through the bike using the supplied magnet and get it all done in half the time with none of the stress. It might be the most rewarding sixty quid you’ve ever spent.
FR-5H Cassette Lockring Tool with Handle
The lockring is a simple little tool designed to help you remove your cassette. It’s small, effective and managed to stand the test of time. But a lone lockring does require some kind of wrench to shift it, which means you really need to keep those two pieces in the same place otherwise removing a cassette turns into a hunt for where you last put one of them.
Park have solved that with the FR-5H, which does away with the need for a wrench as the handle is built directly onto the lockring. Brilliant! Plus it’s really very shiny and really stands out on a workbench full of blue tools. And you won’t have to worry about losing one of two pieces on the future, since you can just lose the whole thing instead.
TW-5.2 Ratcheting Torque Wrench
The torque wrench is still one of those workshop tools that gives the impression someone is serious about bikes.
With a range of 2-14Nm adjustable in 0.4Nm increments, the TW-5.2 is the perfect tool for almost everything on your bike. From seatpost clamps to Shimano crank arms, and stems to bars, it has the range to get them all done up correctly and save you damaging your expensive components and making the cycling gods angry in the process.
Sure, it might be expensive, but think about how much your carbon bars and stem would cost to replace if you crank them too tight, or the dental work if you lose your front teeth when your bars slip mid-ride. Sounds like a better investment now, right?
CT-4.3 Master Chain Tool
Breaking a chain seems like it should be easy, but can be seriously frustrating if you’re chain tool isn’t up to the job. And that’s not even counting the fact that you can damage the chain if you mess it up. Park have four chain tools in the arsenal (and that’s not even counting multitools that also have them as a function) and the Master Chain Tool is the daddy of them all.
With a rubberised, contoured body and handle, it’s the best feeling chain tool on the market, so say nothing of the precision, removable rotating pin and the integrated link pocket. Once you use this, no other chain tool will ever feel adequate.