Park Tool THT-1 Sliding T-Handle Star-Shaped Torx Wrench Set: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

If you need to do periodic maintenance or simply replace components, it's a good idea to have the proper tools ready to go. Old tools can lead to damaged parts and you never want that. In this review, our friend Jackson shares his thoughts on the Park Tool THT-1 Sliding T-Handle Torx Wrench Set. Check it out!

Overview

So Park Tool made some NEW torx-wrenches, go buy them, right? For most riders the phrase “you had me at Park Tool” holds true when it comes to purchasing bike-specific tools. If that’s not enough these are T-Handle Star-Shaped Torx Wrench Set, like the ones you see in ACTUAL SHOPS, who wouldn’t ride better simply by owning these?

This stream-of-conscious rambling hits closer to home for me than some I’m sure, however Park Tool didn’t achieve such an esteemed reputation in my mind, or that of most people in the entire bike industry simply by color-coordinating blue into all their tools – the status was earned. Like anything else Park Tool has made, these wrenches display that familiar “purpose-built and well-made” quality I have come to know with nearly every other product I have purchased or used made by them. The finish is sleek, and in a curve-ball capable of ruining my entire pegboard, they went with a LIME GREEN color over the traditional blue. Now, if you aren’t too new to the game, you’ll know this is actually consistent with older model wrenches from Park Tool, where the “blue” handles are for hex wrenches and the “green” represent torx wrenches. Blue or Green, either way- these wrenches have an extremely “professional” look and feel about them that is hard to ignore.

These are designed to spin quite effortlessly to aide in speedy work. The entire length of the wrench shaft spins inside of the colored collar making removing or reinstalling bolts extremely quick (and oddly satisfying) after the initial or final turns while at torque. For busting that corroded bolt loose on your friend’s bike (because you would NEVER let anything on your bike go unnoticed long enough to seize up), you have the option of using the other end, so the “cap” of the capital letter “T” to gain more leverage. Upon receiving my set I discovered that this portion of the wrench is actually designed to shift left or right in order to move the shaft to one side of the cap of the T. This allows for both a very tight contact point as well as one with a bit of ground clearance to it on the other end. Being able to shift the shaft of the tool acting as a lever arm allows you to choke it down tight for work in areas with very little room to work, as well as stretch it out some and gain a bit of clearance to reach bolts that would otherwise be hard to get to.

To tie it all together, of course Park Tool has also re-designed the wrench mount. Gone is the King Neptune seashell-shaped blossom of ergonomically-conscious display of wrenches. This new system holds the wrenches in a straight line, increasing in size as you move from left to right across the rack. Each slot is labeled with the corresponding wrench it holds, and that famous “Park Tool” logo we all know and love is found across the top of the rubberized, non-slip coated rack. An unexpected benefit of this design is when working with an crowded pegboard. You can actually mount another tool directly below the rack and still access it as well as all the other wrenches.

Final Thoughts 

All in all this system is yet another wonderful product from Park Tool. They are simple in that they do what you grab a wrench to do, which is refreshingly nice in the day of overly-complicated products. However they are also well-thought out, and incorporate a collar system that allows the entire shaft to spin inside of it almost effortlessly. After using the older-style hex wrenches, I can already tell this new set will lend itself to much faster work. I would whole-heartedly endorse anyone looking to up their shop/repair game to purchase a set of these wrenches.