I was out riding the other day, and started hearing a clicking coming from my cranks. Having just replaced them, I was dreading that I’d damaged the new ones as well. They weren’t loose, so I kept going. It was only when I got home, I noticed the missed chainring bolt. I replaced it from my old cranks, but I now have a slight problem. Does anyone have any tips or cheats they use to tighten their chainring bolts without a chainring bolt tool/wrench. I was told a butter knife might help, but they seem to still be pretty loose.
u for real?
A butter knife is not a bicycle tool in the same way that chloroform is not foreplay.
Park Tool Chainring Nut Wrench | Buy Online | ChainReactionCycles.com
You can get a chainring bolt tool for $10-$15 today at your LBS…
plus lightly grease the thread of the ‘nut’ portion of the bolt (but not the surfaces of them as they grip they chainring) before you tighten everything back up. (some people prefer threadlock).
Some chain ring bolts have a few teeth on the back of the bolt so you don’t need a tool to hold the back bolt.
Extralite chainring bolts as such a type and I’m pretty sure sugino do some track bolts too with teeth if my memory serves me correctly…
And spirito, in not sure about that 
Or get some Truvativ/Sram chainring bolts that are 5mm allen key in the front and 6mm in the back, and therefore don’t need a chainring bolt tool.
superglue the female nut into the crankarm and you will never again have to fuck about trying to get the thing to stop spinning when you do it up
u for real? :o
As Spirito and others suggested, get the tool for the job - buy or borrow but don’t use a butter knife unless you have the skills to fashion it into the tool you need, squid style.
Thanks for the sig, Spizza.
Also, I bought one for about $15. It’s a BBB one. Works fine.
Shimano tool is amazing. The park tool is alright, but that great. I do have both of them in my workshop. Sugino do have the knurled back bolts and are about $40/set but work a treat!
SRAM bolts are good snowflake but pretty bulky and don’t recess enough to clear frame chain stays with certain crank sets.
serious as aids, it is one of the 1st things i do to any bike i get
probably applies more at the track where a fast gear change is kind of important and the last thing you want to do if piss fart about with one of those chainring bolt tools
I never said they were good
Thanks for all the help, guys.