What brand of tools to buy?

[Neosophist]

There's some good advice in this thread.

A decent socket set is always a good place to start - I use a Draper one which wasn't too expensive and has served me well.
I also have some tools from the Halfords professional range and they seem pretty good.

The only thing I would advise is to beware of "big number" tool sets -- these are often padded out with cr@p you'll never use. I've never needed anything other than metric sockets or spanners on my bikes yet many of these kits contain imperial stuff

Budget for a good tool box too (and put tools back in it!) -- nothing ruins the workflow more than having to go hunting for stuff

All Jap bikes tend to use mostly 8mm / 10mm / 12mm nuts & bolts. Occasionally 14mm too.

Any other nut / bolt will mostly be a special tool.

Hence being able to strip most of a bike with the standard Honda toolkit

[Man_Named_Dave]

Got myself a coupla torque wrenches and sockets. Have a week off now so let's see what I can mess up!

Thanks to Matt for the C-spanner.