If you’ve ever had a stripped bolt ruin your day on the bike (or prevent you from even having a day on the bike), then the new Clever Standard Extractor Tool is worth a look. Using a twisted hex head, the wrenches are designed to bite harder inside rounded hex bolt heads, helping you get them loose without resorting to drilling them out or notching them into a flat-head with a Dremel tool.
The tools are made to remove bolts that are partially stripped but are beyond hope for standard hex wrenches. They admit that it won’t work on bolts that have completely rounded off, but for most applications, they could save a lot of time and frustration compared to using power tools (and potentially damaging your component or frame). Here it is in action: Zinc Flange Nut
The wrenches have a T-handle designs with a standard hex head on the opposite side, and twisted heads on the other and at the end of the long base. The twisted sides are only for rescue operations and shouldn’t be used to tighten a bolt, so the dual ends turn this into the only hex wrench set you’ll need. They’re available in 2/2.5/3/4/5/6/8/10mm sizes and will retail for $12-$18 each depending on size, but will start out selling as complete sets for $99.99.
Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.
Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.
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http://www.sockitout.com/products/
Pretty neat. Just having a 4mm and 5mm would be ideal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to drill out SPD cleat bolt heads. Mostly because I get lazy and wait too long to replace the cleats.
That’s a great idea
Right, finally they make tools for impatient ham-handed knuckleheads. Where can I get some…
I’m not convinced that they aren’t just tapered, oversized hex keys.
Sometimes you can drive a screw out by hammering with a prick punch so that it rotates.
Just another solution that I’ll keep in mind, if the problem isn’t a low quality, worn, or rounded hex wrench, that a new quality one (or cutting off the worn section) solves.
Your prick punch hammer solution is another I’ll keep in mind. I’ll pick the more convenient and cost effective one, in the end.
Grabit Extractor is a superior tool to this at a reasonable cost and available at lowes home depot etc. Never had a stripped bolt that was too seized for it to work.
Maybe. I had no luck removing a stripped bolt with a Grabit from a rack mount. Had to go at it the old fashioned drill way. I’d definitely would have tried this.
I just spent several days using a diamond drill on a 2.5 hex on a rifle. I couldn’t get the snapped off stub of the hex key out of the hole. Whatever the bolt and key were made of was HARD. I had to Dremel out the entire bolt. I couldn’t find an easy out small enough to work.
Nice tool, but they should color code one of the ends so that you can more easily tell them apart.
If you need color coding on these you are the one who rounded out your Bolt to begin with and need to let a good shop fix it. Lol
Hex bolts have an external hex you use a regular open or closed end wrench on. These are for socket head cap screws. For completely rounded out ones you can try a regular screw extractor.
I was able to test these at the Taipei show last year and they are the real deal. They are amazing for sure. The smartest tools I’ve used for dealing w/ stripped allen bolts. Tomo is the man
The tool does not fix stripped hex bolts…The video showed it extracting a cross threaded socket head cap screw…
Unless your working on severely damaged or weathered parts there is simply no reason for people to have damaged bolts on a bike. Learn to use tools properly and the difference between metric and imperial ffs
As a full time career bike shop guy I often come across socket head cap screws that are too shallow and are not easily removable.
So true, though this silly method of shaving 0.1 g of weight seems to be decreasing.
While I would generally agree, yes one should never have stripped bolts or issues, things happen. Cheap bolts are used or things aren’t torqued properly or people just don’t take care of their equipment or mechanics are hamfisted. If everything were perfect bikes would never be stored outside, Wally-Mart wouldn’t exist and the BSOs sold by them also wouldn’t exist along and super high quality idiot proof torque wrenches would exist and everyone would use them but sadly we are in the real world and this won’t happen.
This product seems like an excellent product for folks like me who work in the shops and see the stuff regularly. I broke a seatpost bolt recently because they used a cheap bolt and extremely high torque recommendations luckily we could push it out with another bolt but things happen.
You must be young and have very limited experience. Adults who live in the real world know life is full of situations that have no good reason for existing. They exist all the same.
These look like a simple, reasonably inexpensive way to address a problem that shouldn’t ever happen, yet does frequently enough that most of us have had to deal with it.
You can also hammer a TORX head tool into a rounded socket headed hex.
THIS is my personal “go-to” method! I’ve even got a crappy, old set of torx just for this.
+1 (was going to suggest that)
That’s my usual solution too. No additional cost since you need Torx for other stuff.
Damn who the hell rounds 8/10mm allen heads!
Customer’s that’s who
“Grease everything with threads,” is the motto in the bicycling world. I grease the treads on the bolts and push some grease into the threads in the socket in the shoe and have never had a problem removing the bolts of my cleats. Of course I learned this lesson the hard way. 🙂
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