The 2015 Australian Single Speed Nationals has been announced, and will be held at Woodend Victoria from the 5th December. Check out Australian Recreational Singlespeed Enthusiasts on Facebook or email ssnats2015@gmail.com for more info. Should be great fun!
Disc brake facing tools – for both post mount and IS mount brakes.
Disc brakes require precise alignment, perpendicular to the hub axle, in order to operate correctly and without drag. Most of the time, manufacturers get this right, but occasionally frames and forks deform or are otherwise made not quite right. That’s where these tools come in – the Park Disc mount alignment tools are very precise and will face material off the brake mounting surface in order to bring them back into alignment. Not cheap – but when you need them, you need them.
Cool tools: Knipex
This German manufacturer of pliers, cutters and circlip tools are a mainstay in the toolboxes of mechanics and tradesmen in many industries.
Quality circlip pliers (left), large and small, internal and external, bent and straight are all essential for working on the fiddlier suspension and hydraulic components seen on modern bikes.
The parallel jaw pliers (far right) are some of the most useful and versatile tools around. Perfect for gripping damaged or delicate fasteners and large-sized fasteners. Goes right down to 0mm so good for holding spokes as well.
Masters hardware at Majura Park carries a large range of Knipex gear.
Byk kids bikes, Cruzee balance bikes and Lazer kids helmets keeping the shop colourful during the cold months of winter. Just 5 weeks until spring!
We’ll be closed for this Monday the 8th June for the Queen’s Birthday public holiday.
As we do each year, we’ll also be closing on Sundays to get out and enjoy some sunshine, effective from this Sunday the 7th June until we reach Spring again.
Have a great weekend,
Monkey Wrench Cycles
Monkey Wrench Cycles will be closed for the ANZAC day weekend including Monday the 27th April. We’ll be re-opening at our usual time of 8:30am Tuesday morning.
This series is all about cool tools, some of which we use a lot, some not so much, but all are uniquely handy and help us get things done quickly and to a high standard.
This week we’ve got together some unassuming-looking items, the humble shaft clamps. These are designed to clamp cylindrical shafts with even pressure all around, avoiding damage to the shaft.
They’re often used to hold damper assemblies and pistons from suspension products, so no damage, deformation, scratching or marking to the shaft is permitted.
Their manufacturing tolerances must be spot on in order to do the job right. The clamp is fixed into a vice and often has magnets relieved into the back to make things easier – or like the black BBI clamps and Cannondale clamp, uses O rings to hold the assembly together while out of the vice.
Clockwise from the left:
the Barnett’s Bicycle Institute SCS-6 which has most sizes.
the Park tool AV-1, with 9 and 10mm axle sizes plus a 9/16″ size for pedal axles. Ours has seen a lot of use. Due to the indentation from axle threads, this shaft clamp is not used for finer jobs.
the Cannondale Headshock clamp with 1/2″ or 12.7mm clamps for Lefty dampers.
The Fox Racing Shox shaft clamp set for use with most Fox dampers.
Our custom-made suspension seatpost shaft clamp set, with 27.2mm, 30.9mm and 31.8mm clamps. This helps a lot with speedy servicing and repair of suspension seatposts.
Next week, another one from BBI (Barnetts Bicycle Institute), their amazing fork bushing tool.
Over the years fixing bikes we’ve come across some tools which, for some reason, we just like. Some are particularly efficient at what they do, some are simple, some are elegantly made, some are all of these things. We’ve pulled a few cool tools off the racks and out of the cupboards to give them some recognition.
The first in this series has been around for a while, Joel bought this one about 10 years ago and it’s still going strong.
The Chris King hub service kit is needed to extract or install bearings into Chris King hubs, as well as removing the ringdrive freewheel mechanism and the bearing stack from the driveshell. It’s also beautifully made and great to use.
The kit laid out:
The expanding split ring assembly and knurled ring assembly mounted to the T-Handle ready to remove a bearing:
Next time, all about shaft clamp sets.
Monkey Wrench Cycles will be closed over the four days of Easter from Friday the 3rd April to Monday the 6th inclusive. We will be returning to work on Tuesday the 7th.
It’s been a while since the last update here, we’ve been flat out over the spring and summer.
In exciting news, we have been selling Salsa bikes for the last 12 months or so – some great custom Fargos, Vayas and El Mariachis have rolled out the door.
Here’s one we built up for a customer with Salsa’s Rohloff Alternator dropout, Rohloff hub and Co-Motion shifter.
Other parts include the Mavic A719 rims, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres for commuting duties, and Salsa Woodchipper.
Hopefully some more updates to come soon, and some cool new builds.
Ride on!
Monkey Wrench Cycles 