A bit of harmless fun...

[FaustoCoppi]

Show us your favourite cycling related tool, this thread is intended as a bit of light hearted fun. So, to start the ball rolling... my favourite Park tool is ...

[Danneaux]

In all honesty, my favorite bicycle-related tool is a good attitude! It fits nearly any situation, is compact, lightweight and absolutely essential when the worst happens on a tour and has never let me down. 

A trawl through the Forum archives also reveals some past "best tool" threads. Some may still be relevant, for "favorites" rarely go away:

multi function tool. which one??
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=5265
The best and the lightest multitool -- in praise of Topeak's Toolbar
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4205
Tools for those "Oh...no!" moments
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4685
Blades for Bikies
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=3968.0
Raven tool kit
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13064
SPECIALIZED 2014 Tools
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=6863
Fav'rite offbeat touring take-alongs
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=3850
Ultimate eating utensil
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4128
Tools for a day ride
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4877

Best,

Dan.

[steve216c]

No shame in puncture repairs aided with these bespoke levers 
 https://pennypost.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Case-of-the-Missing-Teaspoons.jpg

[leftpoole]

No shame in puncture repairs aided with these bespoke levers 
 https://pennypost.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Case-of-the-Missing-Teaspoons.jpg

Oh no! Reminds me of when I was a little boy! Or should that read, 'when I was still small'?
John

[Andre Jute]

I wouldn't be seen dead with it, but if you want bizarre, start with the cheekily named
Ultimate Survival Tool A Long Bicycle. Photos and more about it at:
https://heinnie.com/ultimate-survival-tool-a-long-bicycle

And if you're in psychiatric treatment for your gadget addiction, don't go here:
https://heinnie.com/knives-tools/multi-tools-pocket-tools/pocket-tools/

I'm not; I like to fondle real tools. I was looking for a pocket knife to carry in my painting kit when I stumbled across this treasure trove of overpriced bizarrogems.

[John Saxby]

I have an A-grade toolkit made by Prestacycle, which I bought a couple of years ago from Grouund Effect in NZ.  it's good enough that I regularly use it in the shop, too.

But all things considered, I'm with Dan on the intangibles.  Especially, Georges Moustaki, "Ma solitude", here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-OzSzCDWo

"Je ne suis jamais seul/Avec ma solitude"  Lovely stuff.

[Andre Jute]

The composer playing... 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJWtUfHH-o
...and singing the lyrics commonly attributed to him, perhaps because he was a genius at turning the imprecision of French into lucre, but in fact written by the American songwriting couple of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, as related by another Canadian:
https://www.steynonline.com/9184/the-windmills-of-your-mind

***

We aren't so far off-topic here as might at first appear. If "The Windmills of your Mind" weren't already allocated to the sport of gliding, it would be the ideal theme song for bicyclists bonking out.

Actually, I wanted to say that I like beam torque wrenches, and the one John's toolmakers offer appears to be light enough to serve as an on-bike ratchet as well. Pity about the small readout on all three versions I've seen on the net, made doubly tiresome for old eyes precisely because it is a beam wrench which you read on the fly, as opposed to a click wrench which you set under good light, apply in any old shadows, and clicks itself off at the right place regardless of the light conditions. I was already reaching for my wallet when I noticed that the piccie on my 27in screen was hugely oversize compared to the 5in length of the real tool.

[energyman]

A torque wrench for company on lone rides.

[John Saxby]

Thanks for all that, Andre.  Nice ramble through Mark Steyn's collection of memories and fabric of tangents.  As a fan of Steve McQueen, I always had a bit of trouble fitting the song and its, er, quirky lyrics with his persona, so I just concentrated on watching him & Faye Dunaway at play.  And, w.r.t. Legrand's transliteration into French, I guess if you've done the melody, you can get away with shifting windmills of the mind into moulins de mon coeur, eh?

But, tilting the thread back towards bicycling for the mo', though not completely away from windmills, a Brazilian friend has named his bike Rocinante. It's a Monark, made in Sweden and imported into Brazil (he reckons) sometime in the 1940s or 50s.  He's fully restored it, and -- bravely -- rides it around Rio, though mainly on the bike paths.