Cool Tool: Wera Joker Self-Setting Wrenches

So, I’m right in the middle of a massive motorcycle project, where I’ve been taking a 1969 Honda CB350 and turning it into a seriously gnarly little brat tracker. It’s been a ton of fun, and since I haven’t done a build like this before, it’s meant buying or upgrading a bunch of my tools. Unfortunately, I didn’t see these rad self-adjusting wrenches from Wera before I did that.

Now, I like my GearWrench ratcheting wrenches, but they take up a lot of space in my otherwise small-ish toolbox, so having four ratcheting wrenches that go from 7mm all the way up to 19mm (aka ¼-inch to ¾-inch in old money) in just four tools would have been super helpful. So helpful that I just ordered these things.

So, what makes these different from the normal thumb-wheel style adjustable wrench or a standard set of box-end ratcheting wrenches? To start, they adjust automatically adjust in size for their designated range using a cam mechanism built into the head of the wrench. This means there are no tiny pawls or gear teeth to break when you’re reefing on them and no need to chew your thumb up opening and closing a normal adjustable wrench.

Another cool feature of Wera’s “Self-Setting Spanners” is that their jaw design allows you to either grip the flat of a fastener or, using the notches near the end of the jaws, grab a pair of points. Having more options for gripping a fastener is usually a good thing, especially if those fasteners are ancient, beat-up Honda bolts that spent the last 50 years outside in the California desert.

Like all German tools, these little babies aren’t cheap, but if you’re a tool nerd or you just don’t have a lot of room in your box or bag, they’re not such a bad deal. You can score the Joker 6004 wrench set on Amazon for around $146 at the time of publication.

If you want to know how these Weras perform, keep an eye out here. I’ll update this story if they totally suck.