Birzman T-Bar set £50

At a glance Beautifully designed and superbly made ball-ended hex wrench set that looks great on your workbench and is a joy to use.

Tested by
Jon Adams, tester for The Bike List

Value

Performance

Everyone who services their own bike deserves a decent set of hex wrenches. Most of us fiddle and faff with our multi-tools or a set of loose Allen keys we got cheap from a DIY store, and while you can successfully build a complete bike with such things, it’s nice to have some classy, bespoke tools to make the servicing a pleasure rather than a chore. Here’s where the Birzman T-Bar set comes in. It’s a practical set of 9 wrenches with sculpted T-bar handles and it comes complete with a generously-proportioned, all-metal display stand. The hexes themselves have ball ends so you can angle the shaft anywhere up to 25° and still get a perfect fit in the bolt head’s socket.

The whole set of bike-friendly sizes is included from 2mm through to 10mm and there’s also a Torx T25 bit for the calipers and rotors of disc brakes. Each wrench offers a long and a short end, and for the five keys from 2 to 4mm plus the Torx wrench, the lengths are 150 and 60mm respectively. As you get to the middle sizes (5 and 6mm) you get 200mm for the long bit and 75mm for the short, and for the 8 and 10mm wrenches, the shafts are 200mm and 78mm.

The long shafts and comfortable T-grips of the wrenches mean that you can generate a lot of force with these tools, so you need to exercise caution so as not to overcrank a bolt and strip the thread. With gentle hands though, they’re great to use, and the ball-end style means that putting the hex into the socket is really quick, and much smoother than a regular, squared off hex-end. The 25° of freedom in the angle of entry is a godsend for a lot of bolts, too, though it must be said that the extra length and the fat handle of the T-bar can make life difficult on others.

Unless you’re a professional looking to save time, a set of quality hexes is more of a luxury than a necessity, but if you do spend a good number of hours tending to your steeds (and those of others), then you’ll welcome a good set of tools. At £50, they’re not cheap when you consider you can get an adequate set of hexes for a tenner, but if you enjoy your workshop time, the Birzman T-bar set is an indulgence you’ll treasure.