Bent Long Needle Nose Pliers

Internal cable routing is the bike-shop job that taught the industry to love bent-tip pliers. Modern frames route shift wires and brake hoses through ports drilled into headset cups, top-tube caps, and chainstay bridges; the ports are often oriented so a straight tool can’t enter them squarely. The 45-degree bend on these pliers turns “I need to pull the bottom bracket to get at this” into “I can do it through the port that’s already open.”

What it does well

The 45° tip bend is the single dimension that makes the tool different from a straight long-nose plier. The jaw length, the side cutter, the serrated pipe-grip section, and the dual-density handles are the same metallurgy and the same family as the straight long-nose sibling; only the angle changes. That angle is the right answer for any job where the access path bends but the workpiece is otherwise reachable.

The side cutter near the pivot makes the tool a multi-tasker even at the bent angle. Trim a cable strand after pulling it through; cut a zip tie at the awkward end. The serrated pipe-grip section gives the tool real bite on round stock; a stuck cable end, a quick-release lever shaft, a brake-housing ferrule.

Where it earns its space in the bike shop

• Internal cable routing through angled frame ports. The straight long-nose can’t enter; the bent tip can.
• Reaching around a fixed component. Past a brake caliper, around a chainstay yoke, behind a downtube cable stop.
• Threading a barb fitting into hidden brake-line ports. The angle keeps your hand out of the way.
• Pulling a stuck cable end where the routing geometry bends. The bent tip follows the path.

When to reach for the bent tip instead of straight

If a straight long-nose plier can enter the workspace squarely, use it. The bent tip introduces a slight handle-to-tip offset that’s a control compromise; worth it when straight access isn’t possible, not worth it when it is. Keep both: the bent and straight long-nose pliers are a pair, not a duplicate.

Specs

• Tip angle: 45 degrees
• Construction: drop-forged jaws, heat-treated
• Features: side cutter at pivot, serrated pipe-grip section
• Handles: dual-density grip

Made in Slovenia, since 1919

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. The 45° bend is forged into the jaw on the same press that produces the straight long-nose; the angle is set before heat treatment so the bend holds through years of clamping load. A bent tip that’s bent after heat treatment will eventually fatigue at the bend point; ours doesn’t, because the geometry is forged in.

Pro tip from our mechanics

If you’ve ever tried to thread a brake hose through a frame port with a straight plier and given up, this tool is the answer. The straight-jaw sibling and this tool together cover almost every reach-and-grip case in bike service: Pliers for bike work →.