Tools Required

---

This is a typical home repair stand.They can be found for around $150-$300 and intended for standard bikes.

Bikes are heavy and if you are going to work on your bike you have to figure out a way to get it off the ground. This problem is amplified if you are thinking of converting your bike to electric. Once you begin converting your bike you will be wanting to work at eye level and that means either having a means of elevating the bike, or (ugh) sitting on the floor. Even if you choose the sitting on the floor method you will still need to get the bike off the ground to work with chainline, shifting and braking calibration.

"EVT" stands for Efficient Velo Tools. More information can be found out about this lift from their website, EVT

Our first heavy bike lift was a EVT repair stand and it is a work of art. One of the nice things about this lift is it works on a system of counter balance. Inside the pipe is a heavy weight that counters the weight of the bike. This makes lifting the bike almost effortless. 

Electric bikes can be heavy and they get heavier as the day grows long. It is amazing how well this well thought out system works. 

The cost of this lift is almost $3,000 with shipping so it is mostly found in bike shops.

In addition to the EVT heavy lift repair stand we have three Park Tool electric powered heavy lift repair stands. These also cost around $3,000 each but are indispensable if one is working with electric bikes.  Which is our favorite? We have one mechanic that favors the EVT repair stand while others favor the Park Tool electric bike repair stand. The only downside to the Park Tool electric repair stand is they become non functional during a power outage. 

That aside, my personal favorite is the Park Tool electric bike repair stand. They are simple to install (sort of) and easy to use. 

This is the next step up in a bike repair stand. This retails for around $469 and is found in the majority of bike shops. This stand has a telescoping arm so it can be lowered. Why is this important? It is very difficult to lift an electric bike in order to place it on the stand. The lower the stand can go, the easier it is to to place the bike on the stand. The best bike stands are able to reach all the way down to the bike. 

There are many suggestions on the web of how you can save by making your own bicycle repair stand. However, herein lie the problem. These stands are for typical bikes and are wholly inadequate for supporting the weight of an electric bike. Once you have the motor installed your bike is 8 pounds heavier. Add the battery and now it is heavier still. This has to be taken into account if you choose to build your own workstand. Make sure it is robust enough to hold the bike in a safe manner. 

In order to work on your bike in any capacity, much less install a motor and battery, you have to get the bike off the ground in a manner that is safe. On the internet you can find all sorts of ideas of how to get a bike off the ground in order to work on it. Some of these ideas are clever and others are dangerous. Unless you are 100% certain you can distinguish between clever and dangerous you would be better served to purchase a standard bike repair stand.

Crank arms have bolt holding them on. Some will have a 8mm hex nut and others will have a recessed bolt. The only way you can remove a crank arm with a recessed bolt is to use this tool. Most sockets are too thick walled to fit the crank arm bolt. The other end of this tool is a 8mm hex that will remove hex style crank arm bolts.

Best tool for removing crank arm bolts. These bolts can be very, very difficult to remove so you need all the leverage you can muster. Some of these bolts come off easily but others will be difficult to extract. Some are on so tight you will think the tool will snap before the bolt comes free. 

This is one style of tool used to remove a crank arm but it is not the only one. There are two of these and they are not interchangeable. If you use the wrong extractor the crank arm will not come off regardless of the amount of force used.

Here is the second style of crank arm puller (extractor). Look close and you will see the black one has a larger head than the blue one. If you try to use the black one on a crank that uses the blue extractor it will not work. The same can be the same for the blue extractor. You have to be sure you have the right tool. 

This is the best crank removal tool for a few reasons. It has removable caps, one small and one large so it will fit either style of crank arm. Also, you turn this tool with a wrench. This allows you to apply much more force for the removal of the crank arm bolt. The handles on the other tools are far to0 small for any excessive force that may be required.

You thread this tool as far as it will go into the crank arm. Then, you use a wrench to turn the tool clockwise and off will come the crank arm. Please Note: Make sure there is not a spacer in the crank arm! If there is a spacer in there the crank arm will not come off.

If you are going to install a Bafang mid drive then you need to check your chain for wear. The Bafang comes with a new chainwheel (chainring) and if your current chain is worn then it will skip on the cogset and cause premature wear on the new chainring.

A chain is made up of inner and outer plates, rollers and pins. It is the the rollers and pins that wear out and when they do it gives the impression the chained has stretched. The rollers grow thinner with use and this small tool measures the amount of wear on the rollers. It is very accurate and an indispensable tool. It retails for around $30.00.

This chain checker tool is also from Park Tool and is less expensive and is just as accurate. The price is around $11.00 at the the time of this writing.

As you can see from the picture above, the tool drops down between the rollers. It has two measuring tips. At one end it is .50mm and the other .75mm. If the .75mm end falls through the chain then the chain needs replacing.  

If your chain is rusty...replace it. Chains are not that expensive and a chain that is worn or rusty will not work well with an any type of electric bike. The chain will skip on the cassette and make a popping sound. 

While riding a bike under human power you can get away with a lot of mechanical discrepancies. For example, your bike chain can be way past the point it needs to be replaced and it can still be used. It will be noisy and shift poorly but you can still ride the bike. On the other hand, once a bike has a power source, in this case a Bafang 750 watt electric mid drive motor, you can not get away with any kind of mechanical discrepancy. These powerful motors will seek out and exploit any weakness in the drivetrain. A worn chain will result in very poor shifting, be very noisy, and will be subject to fail sooner rather than later. 

Now that you have decided to replace the old worn chain the question is: How are you going to remove your old chain? The only way to remove a chain from a bicycle is to use a chain splitter. Chain splitters can be like the one above ($38) or can be of smaller versions that cost less than $10. Just about any chain splitter will do the job. 

Modern chains come with a "Quick link" and a chain splitter is not necessary for its removal. However, when you install your new chain it will have to be cut to length and that will require a chain splitter. 

A Quick link is a master link that uses a special tool to install and remove. These links are very easy to use and requires no special skills. They do, however, require a special tool to both put on and remove from a chain. They just snap on and snap off. 

Early on, few bicycle manufacturers would use quick links on their bikes as it was less expensive to pin the chain. Quick links make it easier for bike owners to remove their chain for cleaning. Today, almost all bikes will come with a chain with some sort of a quick link on the chain. Here are some of the names for these links: KMC Missing Link, Connex Link, YBN Safety Link, Shimano Quick Link, and Sram Power Lock. Some of these links are for one time use only while others can be used over and over. 

Again, you will not be able to remove the old chain  that has any type of quick link unless you have a master link plier. These pliers cost around $15.00 and are made to both remove and install quick links.

Note: Be careful when you buy master link pliers as some of them can install quick links but not remove them. For the price and the fact I know this park tool both installs and removes quick links I would recommend this product. Every work station at Island City Bikes has it set of Park Tool master link pliers. This is one tool that we use all day everyday. They are inexpensive and there is no substitute. They pay for themself even if you use one time.

When installing a Bafang mid drive motor it is important that the bottom bracket shell be perfectly square. If not, the motor will pull to one side causing it to bind. This tool is made by Wheels Manufacturing and is relatively inexpensive at around $75.00. The tool is for pressing Press Fit bottom brackets into the shell but it can also be used to determine if the bottom bracket shell is square. 

When the the press is is mounted on both sides  and tightened, look for any gap between the red drift and the bottom bracket shell. If you see a opening of any size then it needs to be leveled.

This is a facing tool and they are quite expensive at around $400.00. What this tool does is slowly cut away the material from the shell until it is perfectly square. Once it is square on one side, reverse the tool and square the other side.

Now, the motor will set flush in the bottom bracket shell and you can tighten the fixing bolt as much as you want without fear of binding the motor. 

Yes, the tool is expensive but if you do not square the bottom bracket shell the motor will sit crooked which will damage the driveline and shorten the life of the motor.

As you can see this bottom bracket has no threads. If there are no threads how does one remove it? Yep, special tool again. This type of bottom, bracket is pressed into the shell and therefore it has to be removed without the use of a wrench...also requiring a special tool.

Be aware the press fit bottom bracket is very common and is found on most bikes that have a carbon frame.

This is the Park Tool BB3-90.3 that is used for the removal of press fit bottom brackets. This tool slides through the bottom bracket and then the spayed end opens up. The other end you hit with a hammer which forces out the bottom bracket. 

Note: You can perform this with a hammer and a screwdriver with the understanding in doing so will ruin the bottom bracket.

This is the Park Tool BBT-29 tool for removing threaded bottom brackets. Be aware there are at least five different wrenches for different style threaded bottom brackets. Older bikes use a different wrench entirely. Yes, I supposed you could use a pipe wrench but in doing do you will ruin the bottom bracket.

If your bottom bracket looks like this you will need a special tool called a "hook spanner." It is also called a lock ring spanner. Note: After the lock ring is removed you will need a pin spanner to remove the threaded portion of the bottom bracket.

We use this tool more than any other tool in our shop and so will you. We use it to disassemble and reassemble a bike. We use it when we do our safety checks and we use it to install parts. If you walk into our shop chances are at least one of the mechanics will have this tool in his/her hand. Cost? $12. Buy two; One to lose and one to keep.

We use Knipex for cutting shift and brake cable. Cutting the cable on a bicycle sounds simple. Just grab those old rusty wire cutters and have a go. When you use dull cutters what happens is the end of the cable splays a parts making it unusable (if you have to remove), and unsightly. Always use high quality cable cutters. 

This is our favorite tool for cutting cable housing. Do not try to cut your cable housing with a cable cutter as all it will do is deform the housing. There is reason why they make cutters designed for cutting housing. When cutting housing it is important the cut be a clean horizontal cut. If the cut is not horizontal it will not fit in the end cap as well as it should and can effect downshifting of the bike. 

A primary reason bike parts become frozen to the frame (pedals, cranks, stems, seat posts, and bottom brackets) is because a thin layer of grease was not applied when the bike was assembled. It is essential these part be greased prior to assembly.  A good bike mechanic always thinks ahead of the next person who will be disabling the bike. A $2,000 bike can be ruined for lack of two cents worth of grease. Always grease pedals, bearings, headsets, cassette retaining nut, rear derailleur (where it goes into the hanger), and crank arm bolt. Please note...some do not grease the crank arm bolt and instead use Loctite Blue. I always use Loctite Blue and do not grease the crank arm bolt. 

This tool is absolutely essential if you choose to use Zip Ties. And I do not know how it would be possible to convert your bike to electric without the use of Zip Ties. What this tool does is it cuts the Zip Tie flush! Is this important? A Zip Tie that is not cut flush is as sharp as a razor (almost) and can cut a hand easily. Not to be rude but, anyone who uses Zip Ties for anything and does not cut them flush is irresponsible and is the author of sloppy work. A child can very easily touch a bike that has jagged zip tie ends and come away with a needless injury. 

When you buy Zip ties it is best to get three lengths: 11, 7, and 4 inch length. Most importantly, insure the Zip Ties you use are UV rated. If you forget that little detail the sun will degrade your Zip Ties and they will all fall from your nike within a year. Embarasing.