Making tools that are both durable and premium-quality is a priority for Wera. With an emphasis on user-friendliness and lightweight design, Wera believes in designing only the most innovative products.

Another Wera Joker set is probably even more innovative, useful adaptable and versatile: the self-setting (of the jaw-gap) variety: The ratchet mechanism at the ring shaped end of this Joker Combination Spanner features 80 teeth. This fine tooth mechanism, combined with the small return angle, offers flexibility even in confined workspaces. Materials. Though these aren't cheap, they are very well designed and made, and offer some really useful features that most rivals don't. For that reason – and because of how nice they are to use – I'd say the value was still good, but only if you really want to treat yourself (and your bike). Otherwise, there are very good alternatives you can get for less. Verdict Ratchet Spanners in this range are available in open end spanner sizes starting from 8mm up to 19mm. With Wera’s “Take it easy" Tool Finder, each spanner is colour coded according to its size for fast and simple tool selection.However, some folk learn from experience and others .... don't. My own theory as to why this strange cleft comes about is that some folk remain able to recognise and live in what's left of reality whilst others are now entirely constructed by the mass media so inhabit a pretend world where whatever they read in some glossy brochure is true because of the gloss, no matter how many pieces of gloss-dross they've bought then thrown into the landfill. By the way, if by "the blue route" you mean Park Tools then .... you've been conned! Cheaply made and barely adequate stuff available for 1/3rd of the price elsewhere for the exact same thing without the blue coating. Of course, if that GCN use them ...... Joker Spanners feature a double-hex geometry which affords a perfect fit with the Bolt or Nut. This results in a reliable holding function to effectively avoid dropping the fastener, with the hardened metal plate in the jaw of the spanner biting into the material for a strong grip. High precision, bespoke manufacture of Wera Joker 6000 Combination Ratchet Spanners to customer specification. As the installation space becomes increasingly tight during screwdriving, it remains necessary that tools enable users to work successfully. Narrow spaces require additional placement points of the tool, to allow screws to be accessed. A repeated 180° turn of the wrench around the longitudinal axis during screwdriving provides four placement possibilities, and bolts or screw heads can be taken every 15°.

How to make this differentiation, though? It's no easy matter and, in the end, you have to buy & try. In a lifetime of tool-buying (hundreds of woodworking and various other tools for DIY plumbing, electrics, carpentry, tiling, painting et al) I discovered that there is some value in the aphorism that "you get what you pay for". The only difficulty is then making sure that what you're getting is not just a glamour-label but rather a truly high-functioning and long-lasting thing.

Wera JOKER 14 mm Ratcheting Combination Spanner

Again, you could probably get away with just one or two at most for the nuts and bolts found on bicycles. Their great virtues are: their self-setting on nuts of any size within their self-adjusting range: their ability to act as ratcheting spanners with no need to take the spanner off the nut to get it into position for the next turn.