The essentials: hex wrenches and adjustable crescent wrench
The first tools I recommend having are a set of hex wrenches and an adjustable crescent wrench. Of course, you'll need a bicycle pump too. Ideally, one for home and one for the road. You'll also need a set of tire levers.
With these basic tools, you should be able to remove a tire, move your bike seat up or down, adjust your stem height, adjust your brakes, adjust your brake lever position, and a few other things.
You'll also need these
You can always use some lube for your chain, and you will need some grease. Grease should go between the metal parts on your bike, basically--on the stem before you insert it, on your seat post before you insert it, between ball bearings and the cones in your hubs. Some people like to use marine grease, which is blue. I prefer clear grease because it's less messy and I can see the ball bearings better through it.
For replacing cables
The next tool I'd recommend is a pair of cable cutters so you can replace your own cables and housings if you want to. And you sort of need a little crimping tool of some kind to crimp those little caps that go on the ends of the cables. I sometimes use a small jewelry-making crimping tool. A pair of needle nose pliers is also great to hold the cable taut while you tighten the anchor bolt on your derailleur.
For chains
If you want to remove a dirty old rusted chain and put on a shiny new awesome chain, you'll need a chain tool.
Pedals
You might want to change out the pedals on your vintage bike. The pedals might not be in good shape, or might be a style you don't prefer. A few times I've encountered pedals I didn't particularly like, such as pedals meant for toe clips, and wanted to change them out for some flat pedals. How do you do that? With a pedal wrench. Tip: save the pedals for a future project or sell them on ebay.
For the aesthetics
I like to use mild dish soap with a lot of warm water to clean a dirty bike. Then I use polishing compound (but not on the decals), and then car wax. The polishing compound works especially well on chrome. For polishing rust off of non-painted surfaces, like steel rims, I use a folded up piece of aluminum foil and water. Rub, then wipe the rust and dust off with a paper towel or rag, and then apply polishing compound.
Overhauling hubs
To overhaul the bearings in your hubs, you'll need some cone wrenches. Cone wrenches are thin and can grip cones where large wrenches can't. You'll also appreciate having a ball bearing gauge to measure the size of the bearings you take out, so that you can put the proper size new bearings back in. And of course you'll need some new ball bearings.
Cranks & bottom brackets
Getting to the bottom bracket to refresh grease and ball bearings requires that you remove the crank. Many vintage bicycles have cottered cranks. Cottered cranks have a cotter pin that must be removed in order to remove the crank. I don't want to mess around with hammering and drilling to get cotter pins out, so I sprung for a cotter pin press. This is a beautiful tool that works, cleanly and reliably.
For alloy cranks, you'll need a crank puller. I have run into a Stronglight crank on a Raleigh that can't be removed with this standard crank puller. It needs its own special size of crank puller, which is available on ebay. I haven't bought it myself though.
This lock ring spanner will let you get past the lock ring.
For headsets
To overhaul your headset with new grease and ball bearings (yep, there too), a headset wrench is a great tool.
Tools, tools, a bag o' tools
This is a good start: just acquiring the hex wrenches and crescent wrench will enable you to customize your bike in ways that you can't without. Having your own tools lets you solve some of your own problems and learn how the bike is put together. It's a good way of feeling that sense of freedom and confidence that comes with knowing how to fix basic things on your bike.
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