Strangest tool you carry?

[GlenBen]

On my way home last night I saw a bloke at the side of the road, bike upside down fixing a puncture. Stopped to check he was ok and saw he was just putting the wheel back on, with a full sized torque wrench.

Just got me thinking, whats the strangest or most obscure tool people carry? Is a torque wrench really needed? My bike isnt carbon, maybe thats why its never crossed my mind.

Personally I take a small multitool and thats pretty much it, apart from a tube, patches and a little gaffa tape.

 

[mjr]

Just got me thinking, whats the strangest or most obscure tool people carry?

I think it's the quarter-inch square drive slide-bar and 14mm socket to tighten cranks if they dare come loose again! I also usually carry a hex drive T bar and bits and a 6" adjustable wrench, which surprisingly few people seem to carry, preferring heavier and more expensive flick-knife-style multitools which do fewer things.

 

[Milkfloat]

Recently I could be seen with an 8mm allen, crack extractor, adjustable spanner and bb tool trying to resolve a problem that would tend to occur after 20-30 miles each ride.

 

[ColinJ]

I am probably the strangest tool carried on my bike ...!

 

[mjr]

crack extractor

@Fnaar?

 

[youngoldbloke]

A teaspoon - it's just the right shape for scraping out mud build-up inside the mudguards on my Ribble winter bike.

 

[Profpointy]

A teaspoon - it's just the right shape for scraping out mud build-up inside the mudguards on my Ribble winter bike.

.... and is a tyre lever more's the point

And back from an earlier part of my career a colleague was asking for a ROM remover (read only memory) and was duly handed a teaspoon with a 90 degree bend in it.

 

[byegad]

Mine is a bit of wire clothes hanger cut and bent to loop into chain links. I use it to keep the chain in place while I open or close a SRAM Powerlink. Works a treat and takes up very little space!

 

[Roadrider48]

Well....

 

[numbnuts]

Mine is a bit of wire clothes hanger cut and bent to loop into chain links. I use it to keep the chain in place while I open or close a SRAM Powerlink. Works a treat and takes up very little space!

Mine is made out of a spoke

 

[Nibor]

I carry a piece of toothpaste tube in case of tyre damage

 

[numbnuts]

Hypercracker

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Nothing as exciting as any of these. My Brompton toolkit goes from bike to bike, a chain quicklink, a couple of zip ties and some glueless patches is as exciting as my kit gets. I have a small leatherman multitool with decent pliers on my keyring mainly for cycling use too.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I carry a piece of toothpaste tube in case of tyre damage

Snap... and I've had call to use it too. Worth it's weight in gold

 

[rb58]

Not a tool as such, but i was talking to a guy at one of the stops on RideLondon yesterday who's rear derailler was bent. He had a spare gear hanger in his pocket.