Wheelgirl

Interbike Vegas 2011 New Bike Mechanic Tools by Park Tool

I spent a while in this booth, since I needed to know every new bike mechanic tool Park Tool plans to release. This is one of a few videos. The pegboard was large and covered with new products, like a simple yet effective chain stretch indictor tool made more effective.

Ritchey TorqKey Pocket Wrench or Jelly Beans and Sound of Carbon Bars Snapping

During a bike check this Easter Sunday, Cyclist Lee sprang into action by quickly offering his Ritchey TorqKey with a 4mm hex bit. This pocket-sized torque wrench, which fits in the palm of your hand,  worked well during a customary Ritchey carbon handlebar and Ritchey alloy stem check. Torque spec is usually printed on the stem. The TorqKey has one 4mm hex bit and a fixed torque setting of 5 newton meters (5 Nm or 44 inch-pounds), so it works with Ritchey handle bar and stems. When you have tightened a stem face plate bolt to 5 Nm, the wrench clicks, signaling it has topped out, and you can relax knowing you have tightening the stem face plate bolts to manufacturers' spec, and not crushed your carbon handlebars. The alternative, of course, is that under the influence of jelly beans, in a jet-fuel-like sugar coma, you decide arbitrarily to guess what 5 Nm of torque feels like, and with your folding minitool and a few marshmallow chicks for courage, deeply scar or snap your pricey handlebars. We will have the TorqKey at the shop, and you can pick up one for less than a large pizza with two toppings. (Remember we've moved to 1400 San Pablo Ave. between REI and Performance.)

Track Wrench Thick As A Brick in Your Backpack? Try Surly's Fixed Gear JethroTule

If you don't want to ride around with a mini adjustable wrench from Ace or TrueValue Hardware in your backpack, you can spend $25 for a JethroTule. Surly makes this stainless steel 15mm box wrench with an attached bottle opener. The bottle opener part is drilled, so you can hang the tool from a string loop or put it on your key chain.

The wrench fits the 15mm track nut holding your fixed gear bolt-on wheels to your frame.  It has a decent smooth feeling to it, and the back of the bottle opener part is relieved to reduce the weight. The pricey nature has to do with the fact that it is made of stainless steel. Remember you fixie riders: Keep a wrench, tire levers, extra inner tube (or patch kit), and a mini pump on hand this spring riding season. No matter how fly your stylish and minimalistic ride might be, you can't Bungle in the Jungle with a flat tire.

Photos by Wheelgirl.

Get Ready for BBQ Grill Season with Park Tools BBQ-3 Tool Set

If you love to cycle, and you work on your bike, the Park Tools BBQ-3 is the barbque grilling tool set you need this spring and summer. The Park Tool BBQ-3 set contains a stainless steel pedal wrench spatula, complete with a spoke wrench hanging loop. And if you need more than flipping capabilities, you can reposition your after-ride grilled treats with the included BBQ tongs made from two stainless steel cone wrenches. Both tools are a good weight and feel right in the hand of an experienced BBQ chef and / or bike mechanic.

The stainless steel implements are easy to keep clean and sport the comfortable and recognizable Park Tool blue rubber-coated handles. The spatula spoke wrench hanger is printed with "BBQ1". But the set is called the BBQ-3.

I know one of you curious cats is going to grill up some corn on the cob and then try to remove your pedals from your bike with the spatula. Strong suggestion: You ride through all kinds of stuff that you and your dinner guest would not want to eat. Use a dedicated steel pedal wrench that is not designed for cooking. Save the Park BBQ-3 grill tools for your barbecued food delights. (You can pick up a set for 25 clamshells in the Wheelgirl Fun and Fixed Gear online store, which is growing slowly.)

If you have any great grill recipes or BBQ sauces for after ride meals, make sure to post them.

(Photos taken by Wheelgirl.)

Salsa Stem Size-O-Matic Helps to Answer Stem Questions

At Interbike, I spoke with Mark in the Salsa booth, since we sell Salsa bikes and components at the shop. And we started talking about the Salsa Size-O-Matic II stem measuring tool kit. The Size-O-Matic II is an adjustable stem tool that you can use for determining a stem length and angle that feels most comfortable for your specific riding position.

To use the Size-O-Matic II, you attach it to your 1 1/8-inch steerer tube on your fork or to a provided 1-inch adapter, which fits in your traditional 1-inch head tube. It comes with shims (inserts of varying widths), so you can attach your current handle bars of 25.4, or 26.0, or 31.8 clamping diameter. By moving the stem fore and aft (back and forth) and incrementally tilting it up and down, you can better determine the length and angle of a handle bar stem that works for you.

For example, some customers with new race bikes are transitioning their older steel race bikes into commuter bikes. For that riding application, they want their handlebars raised higher, and they want to sit up a bit more, so they don't have their heads down in traffic. Other customers feel crunched up in the cockpits of their bikes, and they want a longer stem with a steeper angle, so they can effectively reduce their drag and comfortably stretch out while riding. The Size-O-Matic can give you a better idea of what a change to your current stem's length and angle might mean in terms of performance and comfort.

(FYI: Do not put the Size-O-Matic II on your bike and take a ride; let me say that again, in case I wasn't clear. Don't ride with it. The tool is marked in white print clearly to this effect for those who can't help but think, "Sweet. I am going to put this baby on my bike; take a ride, and really dial in my stem measurements." Remember: It is measuring tool only, not a proper and safe stem.)

First photo by Wheelgirl at Interbike, Vegas 2007. Second photo lifted from the web.

Wheels Manufacturing Hates Vegas Loves Colorado

At Interbike, I talked with Dave and Daryl at the Wheels Manufacturing booth. Wheels Manufacturing is pretty clear when it comes to communicating their feelings about the location of the bike show.

I really like Wheels Manufacturing products, as does Daniel, the head mechanic at the shop. We've used lots of their fastener, ferrules, bolts, hub replacement parts, replacement axels. Lots of bearings, spacers, valve extenders. Their stuff is made in the USA and in my experience, always has been well-made and reliable. They make smart, useful bike parts. They are all about the details.

So, the first thing I saw in the booth was a single-speed spacing kit that has a chain guide. Nice. Next, they had a new bearing cartridge measuring guide. So you can pop a bearing cartridge out of a hub or bottom bracket cup, and you can match it to the template to figure out the inner and outer diameters. (Instead of trying to read the teeny tiny numbers on the cartridge. "Does that look like a "5" or a "6" to you?")

Then everyone was looking at the multi-tool with the spare derailleur hanger. Say, you are out in the woods with your WheelsMfg multi-tool and you snap your derailleur hanger. Other mountain bikers might be worried and cry for their mammas. But you would have no worries. Because as you can see in the photos, the side of the multi-tool is actually a cleverly integrated spare derailleur hanger.

I asked if they had a bit, bob, or bracket that we could attach to the brake bolt hole in a steel fork, so we could drop a front brake caliper to allow it to work with 27-inch-wheeled Raleigh, Centurion, and Peugeot fixie conversions. No, was their reply, but they did promise to think about it. (Jump for more on this.)

   

Photos taken by wheelgirl in Vegas at Interbike 2007

IceToolz Frame and Fork Adjuster Reduces Grunting

While at Interbike, I stopped by the IceToolz booth to chat with Alex and Steve. My eyes rested on the IceToolz E261 Frame and Fork Adjuster , and I felt all warm and safe.

A little history: The easy-to-find tool of choice for increasing the space between rear dropouts of a steel frame has typically been a wooden 2 x 4.  So, if you wanted to spread a 130mm-spaced  7-speed steel hardtail mountain frame to accommodate a 135mm spaced mountain hub, you carefully pried apart the rear stays with the 2 x 4. (Sheldon Brown describes in detail the process of cold setting [bending] a frame on his site.)

The IceToolz frame and fork adjuster allows you to cold set frames with much less grunting. You can also use the E261 to spread steel forks made to hold older 91mm or 96mm front hubs to accommodate a standard 100mm front hub. (Remember: Steel has elastic properties. Your aluminum frame does not. Snap your fingers. That is the sound you will hear if you try to cold set an aluminum frame.)

The IceToolz site describes the frame and fork adjuster as a pro-quality shop tool for expanding and compressing forks, chain stays, and seat stays. The tool has trapezoid threads and proves extra power as well as protective rubber pads wherever the tool makes contact with the frame.

(IceToolz is a marketing face of Lifu. Lifu has been around for a couple of decades. If you've been collecting bike tools for years, you probably have some hex wrenches somewhere housed in a drilled piece of blue plastic with the Lifu logo on it.)

One photo by Wheelgirl at Interbike in Vegas 2007. Other photo lifted from IceToolz site.

Pedros at Interbike Shows Go! Canola Oil Chain Lube & Proj Orange Cleaner

It is a known bike mechanic's happiness to ride his or her bike hard, drink coffee, eat a home-made pasta lunch, and then clean a filthy bike sprocket by dipping it into a bucket of diesel fuel.

Diesel dissolves the layers to grime and leaves an oh-so-lovely lubricating layer on the sprocket or cog. It also makes you pretty sick over time, as do most of the petro chemicals in the usual cleaners. Chain lubes are another way to breath in 8-hours a day of chemicals that are really bad for you.

(If you are one of those bike mechanics who loves the smell of petrol, and all this talk of fumes and grease makes you want to stand by a gas pump; have a cigarette, and crunch on a large plate of deep fried onion rings, easy now. Dig deep and read on.)

As is often the case with cleaners and lubrications, the ones that work the best are often the most toxic. Lisa, at the Pedros booth, explained that Pedros is trying to change that with two new products for 2008, Pro J Professional Strength Citrus Cleaner and Go!, a new clean condition canola oil chain lube.

If you fancy yourself a test rat, stop by the shop on Fridays or Saturdays only in October 2007. We will lube your chain with Go! for free. And you can write a post.

Park Tool Bike Repair & Sheldon Brown

If you a new to bicycle repair, it has gotten a bit more complicated over the years. But there is no reason that with the proper tools and resources you can't learn over time to fix your own bike.

Having said this, if you are used to staying upright on a bike, pay a professional mechanic to adjust your do-it-yourself fixie's chain line for the first time. Then, read, ask, watch, copy, practice the right way to do things.

Good professional bicycle mechanics perform repairs and services faster, more accurately, and more thoroughly than hobbyists. 

This Park tool site coupled with some words of wisdom and practical experience from Sheldon Brown is a good place to start.

Remember, bicycle repair is not rocket science; consequently, bike parts are not as strong as rocket parts. So refrain from dropping expensive alloy components on the cement floor in your garage.

http://www.parktool.com/repair/byregion.asp

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/articles.html