The best mountain bike toolkits make working on your bike easier and less stressful. A mountain bike has a sophisticated anatomy with lots of moving parts, so caution should be taken when tinkering. It's easy to cause damage by using the wrong equipment, so you need the right tools for the job.
While you could potentially buy your tools as you need them, this is often a far more costly way of doing things. By purchasing one of the best mountain bike toolkits, you'll be investing in something that will last you a lifetime, so you'll quite possibly never need to buy another tool again.
Read on for our pick of the best mountain bike toolkits on the market, or jump to the bottom for how to choose the best mountain bike toolkit.
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The best mountain bike toolkits
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This is a sparse kit but everyone needs to start somewhere. Pedros has its own iconic color, yellow in this case, and this is an entry to building a collection of yellow-handled tools. The burrito roll it comes with has room for expansion, so as you build you can add to it without needing to immediately upgrade.
In terms of the tools, it includes the essentials that every rider needs and there's nothing in the set that is likely to sit around not getting used. If you already have a collection of tools, the Pedros Starter Tool Kit is a good addition for keeping in your car on race day.
Park Tool is the brand that almost every bike shop keeps in its workshop. If bike mechanics - both professional and amateur - are happy using Park Tool products every day, then you can expect quality.
The Park Tool AK5 kit aims to bring professional quality into the home workshop. A clever addition is the included fourth edition of the Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair. In this digital world everything is available online, but having the book in your toolkit means no searching and no need to worry if the source is a good one.
It only makes sense if you've got a Shimano-equipped bike to look to Shimano's Pro brand for your tools. While it isn't exclusive to Shimano components, it does include some specifics such as tools for Shimano bottom bracket removal.
You've also got Torx tools included, which is a commonly overlooked need. The case included isn't designed for easy expansion, but the foam inserts do mean that nothing is going to rattle during transport. Everything has a place even if that means you end up with a second case for any extra tools.
Topeak may not be the first name that comes to mind when you start searching for tools, but it provides as many options as any other competing brand. In this case, the Prepbox is incredibly well thought out. Instead of just a few Torx wrenches and a combo tool, there's a full set. There's also a nice long socket driver and a torque wrench. The included torque wrench isn't the fanciest, but it does the job very, very well. Plus, if you do decide to expand your tool collection in future, Topeak has even considered that with more space in an external bag.
Abbey Tools makes a small collection of tools that are considered some of the best around. Among its wares are delicacies like a $120 pedal wrench that includes hex wrenches, as well as a traditional 15mm with a wooden handle. These aren't the tools for day-to-day use in a small shop, but rather the kinds of tools used by WorldTour mechanics who never let anyone else touch their tools.
With this kit, Abbey has combined a selection of its tools along with those from other companies that are equally obsessive and lust-worthy. The collection of tools then goes into a case with laser-cut foam where, once again, the level of obsession is off the charts.
Feedback Sports is a name you might notice if you watch behind-the-scenes professional bike racing coverage with an eagle eye. To go with its signature red work stands, it has put together a 19-tool Team Edition toolkit that hangs from a work stand to make the tools easy to access.
There's a collapsible fiberglass rod that tucks in at the top of the case so that while it's hanging it remains stable. The Team Edition is the larger of the two tool kits that Feedback Sports offers. There's also an add-on T-handle tool kit for additional Torx and hex wrenches. If you decide to pick it up there's room in the Team Edition case to keep everything together.
Depending on where in the world you are, Unior tools will be either blue or orange/red. In the US, Park Tool owns the trademark for blue cycling tools and Unior moved to a different color. Other than color everything remains the same - quality and tool complement included. Apart from the super-handy cassette wrench there are also a few other unusual but helpful tools in this kit. There's even a simple wheel truing tool and a brake caliper spreading device, making this one of the most comprehensive mountain bike toolkits for any mountain biker.
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What to think about when buying a mountain bike toolkit
Don’t buy cheap tools
There's old wisdom that says buy cheap, buy twice.
While it might seem a good idea to cheap out on tools at the start, there's a lot more at stake than just replacing broken tools later down the line. Cheap tools can actually do a lot of damage, like rounding off bolts, making jobs much harder than they need to be.
If you're looking to buy a toolkit, buy one that will last for years to come.
Buy the tools you need
Think about the actual kinds of maintenance jobs you'll likely be doing before you invest in the tools, as there's no point in wasting money on a toolkit because it comes with specialty tools you'll never use. Instead, make sure you buy all the tools you need for the most common jobs you'll likely be doing.
Don't feel pressured by sales and savings opportunities to buy a bigger toolkit than you actually need or can afford, otherwise the unused tools will just take up precious storage space and collect dust. The tax on buying extra tools later isn't huge, so if things do change, you don't have to worry too much.
Get a work stand for your mountain bike
Even with the best tools, you need a way to work on your bike. Flipping your bike upside down on a towel isn't going to cut it. Instead, it's worth investing in one of the best bike work stands to hold your bike steady. A good work stand will also let you angle the bike for better access, depending on the job. Even small jobs like washing your bike and greasing the chain will be much easier with a good bike stand.
