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Hands-on with new things from Park Tool, Feedback Sports, Luberetta, ZTTO, Wera, and a handful of desirable brands you'll likely be hearing of for the first time.
Welcome back to Threaded, the ongoing series for the tool-obsessed, professional mechanic, and home-wrench-curious. In this edition, I return to a theme that pre-dates the start of Threaded, it’s called New Tools Day, and quite simply it’s a bit of show-and-tell for the latest and more interesting tools.
In this gallery, I’ll cover a broad mix of new tools, including an AliExpress purchase, fresh mainstream offerings, and the most niche, premium, and desirable of ratchets. Some of the stuff is too new to conclude long-term durability, but I can at least offer early hands-on impressions for all of it. And as with previous editions of New Tools Day, I’ll aim to offer a few tidbits about my favourite tools in their respective categories.
Before the rolling pictures begin, I’ll encourage anyone new to Threaded to check out previous articles from the series. Most articles contain a mix of deep dives and tool-related news. Plus, I highly recommend catching up on earlier editions of New Tools Day that were published throughout 2023.
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Park Tool recently released a sponge replacement kit to suit its CM-25 Professional Chain Scrubber. Previously, these sponges were only available as part of the US$26 replacement cartridge set that included the more durable brushes, too. The sponge replacement kit (#2336K) is US$10 and provides two sets of sponges and wicking pads.I find clip-on chain cleaning devices like this to be an efficient way of degreasing chains without removing them from the bike. With such a device and a good degreaser, a quick flush followed by a rinse of water can bring a like-new shine to a chain.
At US$116, Park Tool’s CM-25 is built and priced for the professional. It features a die-cast aluminium body with all moving/wear parts sitting within replacement plastic cartridges. This one has seen years of use, and beyond looking a little battered, it continues to work like new.
For more affordable (plastic) options, my two favourites are the Park Tool CM-5.3 and Pedro’s Chain Pig. The Park Tool EWS-2 (US$10) is a fancier way of dealing with Shimano’s slimmer SM300 Di2 wires. Compared to Shimano’s EW300 tool (left), the EWS-2 is more comfortable in the hand, while a third side is for coin-cell battery covers. The EWS-2 also feels to be made from a stiffer plastic, resulting in a more positive feel. Speaking of newer Di2 wires, Park Tool recently updated its Internal Routing kit to include a fifth cable specifically for Shimano SM300 wires. They’ve also added a RockShox Reverb-style barb (the little silver bit at front-right) for pulling a new length of hose/housing directly from one already in place. The previous Di2 wiring cable works with Shimano SD50 wires (lower in shot), with the tool snapping into the wire head. By contrast, the new SD300 guiding tool clips over the outside of skinnier wire. The fitment is positive, but I’d have preferred if the routing tool better matched the slim diameter of the wire. By comparison, the newest version of the PRO Internal Routing Tool (black wire) handles those slim SD300 wires with a more compact holding barb. The threaded barb – designed for guiding internal-routing cable housings and brake hoses – has long been my most-used piece from Park Tool’s Internal Routing kit. They do eventually wear out (as seen on the left), but I’ll take that trade given how much of a day-saver this tool can be. Perhaps I’ll do a Threaded on internal cable routing tricks and tools, eh? The previous edition of Threaded covered the dumb aspects of T47 bottom brackets, but it’s worth noting that silly bottom bracket splines existed well before that. For example, Shimano had its widely-adopted 44 mm OD 16-spline outboard bottom bracket, but years later released a Dura-Ace/XTR bottom bracket with a 39 mm OD, and then soon followed that with a 41 mm OD for Ultegra/XT bottom brackets.
Now Fazua’s Ride 60 e-bike system is using the 41 mm spline for the lockring of its direct-mount chainrings. The new Park Tool LRT-5 socket (black) is deeper to fit over the protruding crank axle.The LRT-5 socket can be used with a 3/8-in. square tool ratchet, 36 mm socket, or an adjustable wrench. Those with T-handle hex or Torx keys may be intrigued to hear that Park Tool is now offering its metal wall-mounted holders separate of the wrench sets. I’m a big fan of Park Tool’s P-Handle wrench holders, and these are equally efficient in terms of grabbing a T-handle from. Pictured is the THH-H T-Handle Hex Wrench holder (US$30). A grippy and non-marring texturing adds further to the clever angling and placement of the holding holes and cut-outs. Any tool that comes in its own safecase is typically worth a show-and-tell in front of the class. The contents of this may surprise. Yep, it’s a ratchet. Yet, not just any ratchet. This is the 1/4″ Drive Titanium Ratchet from TRO Designs , an American company that specialises in making truly desirable products aimed at motorcycle enthusiasts.
Meanwhile the provided foam liner can be used to build out a portable tool kit from. These ratchets are designed to be the benchmark for a fully functional ratchet at the lightest possible weight (for a portable moto tool kit). This one has all the fancy things, including a CNC-machined Ti-6AL-4V body, 3D-printed titanium switch, and titanium fasteners. All that titanium means it’s a fully-functional ratchet that can still impress the most hardcore of weight weenies.
Being so light also makes me feel better about having Escape Collective member (and professional SailGP athlete!) Ben Bardwell courier this across the world for me. Thanks Ben! On top of being light, this 72T ratchet also has the lowest backdrag (the friction in getting the tool to ratchet, lower is better) of any ratchet I’ve ever used. And yes, it’s even lower than the benchmarks of Koken Zeal and Nepros (the premium brand of KTC).
The internals are sourced from a specialist manufacturer in Taiwan and then put through multiple processes including shot peening, polishing, and manganese phosphate coating in order to bring a silky smooth ratchet action. TRO Designs claims this little 1/4-in. ratchet has been tested to a maximum failure torque beyond 99 Nm. That is whole lot more than you could ever apply to a tool with this handle length. Flawless knurling into that hollow titanium handle. Ok, it’s beautiful, amazingly light, corrosion-proof, and the smoothest of all. The catch? A tiny ratchet like this retails for US$233-US$248 (depending on coating). Also, I bought one of the last of the batch and so availability is currently nil.
The next batch (a month or so away) is rumoured to be even more premium with further obsessive detailing on the surface finishes and Cryo treatment. Oh my. I’ve loved using this ratchet (with the pictured Nepros quick spinner and Koken Zeal 4 mm hex bit), but it may not stick as my daily driver. This is mostly down to the switch direction being matched to Koken, but the reverse of my regular choices (Snap-On and Nepros). It may not sound like much, but it’s akin to having a different size keyboard, and muscle memory keeps tripping me up in rapid use.
Additionally, as I’ve experienced with Koken ratchets, the light spring action can lead to the switch sitting between direction settings. It’s only a microsecond of issue, but it’s another reason for why I commonly choose Nepros and Snap-on ratchets. That feather light force in the direction switch also makes it more susceptible to accidental switching.
And lastly, this ratchet has been a reminder that lighter tools are not always superior. For me, I quite like how a steel handle of a ratchet allows it to fall back into my palm under its ratcheting action. By contrast, this ultra-light tool requires more manual movement. Feedback Sports has added three new pliers to its hand tool range. From left to right, there’s the Mini Needle Nose plier (US$30), the Mini Diagonal Cutters (US$30), and the Pliers Wrench (US$55). No prizes for guessing where the Pliers Wrench idea originated.
Indeed Knipex has been doing them for long enough that its patent has now expired. The idea is an adjustable plier with smooth and parallel-closing jaws that can replace a set of spanners and be used for a huge number of securing but non-marring clamping needs. The Knipex Pliers Wrench 180 mm was an easy choice for including in my “most-loved tools, ever” article. The Feedback Sports Pliers Wrench works well, but it feels like a cheaper tool compared to the original Knipex (which tends to sell for around US$65-$80).
Namely, the adjustment button of the Knipex is more positive, the casting quality is far smoother. and it offers a smidge more movement in its jaws which makes it less sensitive to size adjustment. By contrast, Feedback Sports win back ground on price and with far clearer size markings.
Still, I think the Knipex are worth the extra given it’s a tool that will last a lifetime, especially if you can find them on sale. The Mini Side Cutters are somewhat of an oddball to me. They’re sized like a pair of plastic flush cutters, but as you can see, there is a slight bevel on the jaws that means they don’t quite match a true flush cutter (right) in terms of cleanly cutting plastic zip-ties to be without an edge.
Feedback Sports has several neat tools, such as its updated chain breaker, but these three new pliers fail to offer any obvious point of difference in the market. Feedback Sports is now celebrating its 20th year of business. The company started with scales for the weight weenies and then soon acquired the cycling division of Ultimate Support (a company that still makes stands for music and entertainment industries).
Pictured on the left is my original Ultimate Support repair stand, still working wonderfully after some 20 years. On the right sits a new anniversary and limited edition version of Feedback Sports’ new Pro Mechanic stand. Limited to 1,000 units, this anniversary stand is functionally identical to the company’s newly released Pro Mechanic stand (follow the link for a recent comparative review). Beyond the alloy clamp opening button, the differences are mostly cosmetic via the gold and platinum anodising. It’s more expensive than the standard stand (US$450 versus US$395), but the price does include a carry bag (typically US$42). There’s a little celebratory badge, too. That original Ultimate Support stand helped me to hone my craft over the past two decades, and so I was rather humbled to find a sample of this stand waiting on my doorstep. Sadly not everyone was so enthused. In case you can’t tell by this picture (I forgot to include at least three others), I’m a little obsessed with finding the perfect 8 mm tool for disc brake hose nuts. With such hose nuts now placed in the corner of road levers, using the wrong tools can be a big time suck. Add in some soft materials, and the desire to use a torque wrench, and the variants grow and grow. These six tools all have one thing in common – they offer a faster ratcheting action on 8 mm hose nuts. And you can bet they do the task with varying levels of success and compromise. The unicorn of the lot is the Deen J flare & quick wrench. It took me over a year of knowing about this one until a friend (thanks Randy!) finally sourced some in person from the Disneyland of tools stores – Factory Gear in Japan.
Why is it a unicorn? Beyond being near impossible to find outside of a few stores in Japan, it combines a flare nut wrench on one end with a clever ratcheting design on the open end. That ratcheting end isn’t wholly unique to Deen. KS Tools also offer a spanner with a similar toggle feature that allows the wrench to ratchet. Just know that the feature does inhibit a secure hold at torque, and so that’s why the Deen’s flare nut at the opposite end makes it the superior tool. Deen is the house tool brand of Factory Gear. Loyal followers of Threaded will know about this one already as it was covered in the unexpected non-cycling tools edition. Still, I felt Wheels Manufacturing’s latest tools are worth a bit of repeat coverage for those that missed it the first time.
Up top is the new Axle Ruler Pro, a dedicated tool for measuring the length and 13 female/male thread sizes spanning common cup-and-cone quick-release axles (something Wheels Manufacturing produces) through to 15 mm thru-axles. With a solid CNC construction it’s made for the abuse of a busy workshop, and at US$123, it’s priced as such, too.
Below it is the Thru Axle Gauge Essential for a mere US$10. This plastic ruler can measure thru-axle lengths and has threads for checking the most common 1, 1.5, and 1.75 pitches. This tool offers a simple go-no-go gauge for common thread sizes. Such bolt checker gauges exist from other industries, but the Wheels Manufacturing tool caters to some special sizes, because, well, it’s the bicycle industry. The Thru-Axle Gauge Essential is effectively a ruler with some helpful thread pitch gauges. ZTTO is a Chinese bicycle product manufacturer that offers an increasingly massive range on AliExpress. The company’s tools have been going (and growing) from strength to strength in recent time and a few of them are truly unique. One such example is this new disc brake hose cutter and barb press. This isn’t my first ZTTO disc brake hose tool. The older model on the left has proven to be an impressively good tool that puts a number of more premium tools to shame. Meanwhile, the new offering on the right is even cheaper, it adds a hose cutting function into the handle, and is lighter (90 g versus 134 g).
How cheap you ask? I paid AU$19 (approx US$13), including international shipping. Indeed that’s near impossible for others to compete with. This one holds the hose with a clamping collet. It holds the hose well without digging into it. Meanwhile a blade hides in the handle for when you want to cut the hose. Take care with this as the handle does have a tendency to flop open and the blade inside won’t hesitate to draw blood (thankfully not speaking from experience, yet). The cut is impressively clean.
Overall this tool seems like a good option for casual users. While needing a separate cutter, I prefer the previous ZTTO design for its smoother operation and zero chance of bodily harm. Back in 2017 and at the Old Place, I included Smoove chain lube within my annual “best of” list. To this day I continue to recommend it as a drip-on wax lube that’s easy to use, good value, long-lasting, and decently clean running.
Now Smoove has partnered with fellow South African company Ryder Innovation in order to make application even easier with the Luberetta. What’s a Luberetta you ask? It’s this. A silicon applicator head that keeps the flow of chain lube centered over the rollers, while excess lube is pushed back onto the chain (8-13 speed compatible).
Unlike sponge-based applicators that came before it (Finishline had one, for example), this one works well with wax-based lubes and doesn’t become a gunky mess on first use.Ryder sells its Luberetta with a small 15 mm refillable bottle. Meanwhile the applicator head (shown) is now included with Smoove chain lube. It’s a simple product that helps to make applying chain lube quicker and with less mess (which also means less wasted chain lube). And to wrap things up is a new set of hex keys from Wera. Well, the hex keys aren’t new, but the holder is. Anyone that treated themselves to the 2023 Wera Advent Calendar will already own the pictured set (my hand is up), and Wera has now added it to the range. The set is also available in Wera’s multicolour hex key variant (with wider holding holes to suit the thick colour sleeves).
This neat pivoting holder can hold a set of L-keys on a bench (as shown) or be mounted to a wall for vertical hanging. Plus, it features a magnetising tool (the little green thing on the left). The holder pivots for wall mounting… like this. Screw holes are hidden behind the holder.
The holder works well and is a big improvement over Wera’s previous lacklustre wall and bench-mount tool holders. There’s no word on when Wera will offer it without the hex keys.
Threaded will return in two weeks. In the meantime, please consider supporting this content by purchasing a subscription or membership to Escape Collective. And if you know someone who may enjoy this article and/or series, please share it with them.
