Back in those days, Raleigh bicycles came with what is still commonly known as the "Raleigh spanner". (It is English, after all, so it's a "spanner", not a "wrench".)
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| Raleigh spanner |
If you have an old Raleigh or almost any bike with derailleurs and caliper brakes made before the 1980's, that spanner or tool kit are very useful. And for "freebies", they were actually quite well-made. However, they are not very useful on most of today's bikes or components.
I still have a soft spot for them, though. Other companies made similar items. For example, REG of Italy--which also made water bottle cages and other accessories--made a tool kit very similar to the Mafac. The REG came in a cute red pouch, made of thicker but more brittle material than the black (or sometimes brown) pouches that held the Mafac tools and Dissoplast patches and glue.
There was another tool kit that was, essentially, the Mafac minus the socket wrench and the wrench with the spoke keys. It came in a pouch with a similar shape to the Mafac, but with thinner but more supple material: like something you might find on a rather fashionable piece of luggage. And it was embossed with the name of the bike maker that included them with their new machines: Gitane.
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| Gitane tool kit |
Just for its uniquess, that is my favorite set of retro-tools. Now, as for Gitane bikes: They could be the very epitome of Frenchness. Or not. They could be wonderful or awful. But they were known for not sticking to the specifications lists in their catalogues: When I was working in bike shops, we used to joke that it was the reason why Gitane didn't make their catlogues very available! Sometimes that worked for the better: One or two of their models would come with Sugino Maxi or Takagi Tourney cotterless cranksets instead of the steel cottered models so common on European bikes of that time, or a SunTour derailleur for one from Simplex or Huret. Other times, they just substituted something that was just as bad, or a little less bad, than the original specification.
But I digress. I always thought their tool kit was neat, even if it wasn't different from Mafac's. And, oh, while we're on the subject, you've surely seen "dogbone" or "dumbbell" wrenches. I had one of those when that was about the only multi-tool available besides the Raleigh spanner or Campagnolo T-wrench.
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| Campagnolo T-Wrench |
It seems that someone wanted to combine all of the "retro" tool kits into one--complete with tire irons. (Yes, we used to call them that because, well, they were made from iron, or cheap steel.) And, because it's a "gift" item, the resulting kit comes in a faux-decorator box.
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| "Gentlemen's" tool kit |
I'll admit, it is kinda cute. But because it's a "gentlemen's" kit, I'm not qualified to own one. Nor was I ever!
