What do you tighten your nuts with? and why that tool?

[GrumpyGregry]

EDIT For your wheel nuts rather than your pedals.....

I ask because I have a choice of an ancient cooltool with built in adjustable, small Park pedal spanner which looks like it would slice my hand if I used it in anger, a 'lifeline' pedal spanner with a coated handle which seems ok or a 6" draper adjustable which looks like it would be kinder to my nuts. (But in my head I hear Mr Loveday, the metalwork teacher, saying "Adjustable spanners are dreadful engineering practise, Collins" Which is funny because I was doing A level Drama at the time and didn't need, or ask for, his help to fix my Morini)

Your thoughts......

 

[Rob3rt]

Pedal spanner, an ice toolz thing. I grab it at a varying distance from the pivot point depending how tight the item needs to be so I can gauge how hard I'm tightening it. Reason = I already own it, so I am not keen on buying a track tool which is the same thing with a box spanner version on the other end.

 

[tyred]

I use a standard 15mm combination spanner.

 

[skudupnorth]

15mm spanner for me from my days when i played with those funny little car things !

 

[mickle]

Adjustable spanners are perfectly acceptable (1) if they aren't too worn (2) if used in the right direction.

 

[mickle]

Though, technically, pedals don't have nuts.

 

[jayonabike]

Pedal spanners, i have 2. The first is small enough to live in my saddle bag, & a longer handled one which lives at home. Both came with bikes i ordered off the internet.

 

[ohnovino]

When I had a bike with nuts to tighten, I had two spanners in my toolkit. I'd always tighten them with the shorter one, knowing that I'd be able to get them off again using the extra moment of the longer one.

Edit: I should add, that's a tip I got from my Dad when he showed me how to change a car tyre using a telescopic wrench - if you tighten the nuts with the wrench fully extended, you'll struggle to ever get them off again.

 

[mickle]

Pedal spanners, i have 2. The first is small enough to live in my saddle bag, & a longer handled one which lives at home. Both came with bikes i ordered off the internet.

Have you ever had cause to use the one in your saddle bag?

 

[Zoiders]

An original Campag "Peanut butter" spanner on the road, Cobra copies being a bit cheap and nasty.

In the workshop I use a proper 1/2" drive tommy bar from a socket set with a 15mm socket.

Someone mentioned the car thing about not using a bar to tighten that is longer than the one you un-do nuts with - while this is true you should always be aware that it's a bike and not a car, go wellying up bike wheel nuts even on a fixed gear like you would with coarse thread car wheel nuts then of course you will seize or strip the thing, bikes aren't cars, the majority of borked repair jobs on bikes that have stripped or damaged something have been by people who think bikes are just like cars.

I have yet to find I can't get a wheel off with the camag peanut spanner on the road, even if I used a tommy bar in the workshop, the tommy bar gets used as it just offers a little bit more control as you even-out how tight the two sides of the hub are, not to provide sheer brute force.

Adjustables - if you must use one at least use a good quality one like a Bahco or an Elora, cheap ones are the work of the devil.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Adjustable spanners are perfectly acceptable (1) if they aren't too worn (2) if used in the right direction.

right direction? care to expand?

 

[Davidc]

Don't think I've ever needed to use a spanner on a pedal when on the road.

If I did I'd use the 15mm bit of the multi-spanner I have in my tool bag.

Normally I use a very ordinary 15mm spanner, and if it needs help getting them off I have a choice of two lengths of steel gas pipe!

Pedals don't need to be put on very tightly as they tighten to just the right amount in use. Just enough to stop them being nicked.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Though, technically, pedals don't have nuts.

My bads. We are talking wheel nuts....

 

[mickle]

My bads. We are talking wheel nuts....

Hozan ratchet.

 

[jayonabike]

Have you ever had cause to use the one in your saddle bag?

No, not yet.