Right size wrenches/spanners, the proper nuts, and wrenches designedto ruin components

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster (too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now), and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster (too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now), and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair.

-- Jay Beattie.

ONCE AGAIN

a 15MM mechanics open end wrench one end mated to a large vise grips does the job when placed on a wooden block, BB elevated same.

heat and step down on pedal after cleaning n soaking in PCBlaster

ignore dillitantes and boy racers

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:46:35 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster (too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now), and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

Er, excuse my ignorance, but how do you get the closed ring end onto the pedal flats between the crank and the pedal? Or is it the other end, the open wrench, that is 15mm, and the whole thing a monstrously huge tool?

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

Yah, I looked into them, and they didn't have the depth required for my application, which wasn't Hollowtech bearings but merely a lockring with a Hollowtech grip pattern on a Bafang BBS01 which you may imagine as a bottom bracket with a tapered axle sticking out of it but on one side only, the motor hanging off the other side of this bottom bracket which is used as the motor hanger. There's a specially made socket available in the aftermarket with enough depth, but it would cost about $220 landed here (if I'm lucky and attract the minimum taxes, fees, import duties, etc). That's a bit rich even for a fulltime tool fondler like me.

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

I still have two bikes with normal quill headsets, and my everyday Koranic operates on a threadless to quill conversion to gain 60mm of handlebar height; I hope I remember how to get it out of the n'lock stem (which unlocks the steerer tube from the handlebars) if I ever need to disassemble it, or the bike will be destroyed. You can't have my headset spanners (two huge, two touring but still big by modern standards) for your mobile.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

I have something similar in a black box of torx and hex T spanners which are so useful that it is always the first thing I pick up, and sometimes I don't even open the large wheeled pilot's case which holds all the tools to do all the jobs I've ever tackled or at least contemplated doing on my current bikes.

Only six fasteners on my bike which are not either hex or torx, and for them I have special open spanner, 8x10mm, a tiny bike-specific forging for a kit Draper sold many years ago that went off the market because it was too pricey for their usual clientele. A common workalike for people who want one like mine is to buy a small 8x10 brake spanner from the motor factors and simply grind it flatter and lighter.

So my onbike emergency toolkit consists of a 68gr Topeak Tool Bar (it looks like a toy you carry on your keyring but it is a very serious tool, no longer made; if I see one I will buy a spare), which holds all the hex and torx bits I could require, and a small 8x10mm open-ended spanner for all other nuts. That's it. The Tool Bar incorporates aluminium tyre levers but I have never used them.

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair..

I like tools but a cyclist with a life who starts eyeing headset presses needs psychiatric help more than another tool.

Andre Jute
Toolfondler

Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:46:35 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine
is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from
the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is
intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's
clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own
fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first
time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other
ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and
without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at
all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally
designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster
(too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except
internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now),
and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking
is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still
doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec
demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a
toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could
stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely
around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with
flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

Er, excuse my ignorance, but how do you get the closed ring end onto the
pedal flats between the crank and the pedal? Or is it the other end, the
open wrench, that is 15mm, and the whole thing a monstrously huge tool?

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I
don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed
sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

Yah, I looked into them, and they didn't have the depth required for my
application, which wasn't Hollowtech bearings but merely a lockring with
a Hollowtech grip pattern on a Bafang BBS01 which you may imagine as a
bottom bracket with a tapered axle sticking out of it but on one side
only, the motor hanging off the other side of this bottom bracket which
is used as the motor hanger. There's a specially made socket available in
the aftermarket with enough depth, but it would cost about $220 landed
here (if I'm lucky and attract the minimum taxes, fees, import duties,
etc). That's a bit rich even for a fulltime tool fondler like me.

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of
headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset
yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's
driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at
guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

I still have two bikes with normal quill headsets, and my everyday
Koranic operates on a threadless to quill conversion to gain 60mm of
handlebar height; I hope I remember how to get it out of the n'lock stem
(which unlocks the steerer tube from the handlebars) if I ever need to
disassemble it, or the bike will be destroyed. You can't have my headset
spanners (two huge, two touring but still big by modern standards) for your mobile.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

I have something similar in a black box of torx and hex T spanners which
are so useful that it is always the first thing I pick up, and sometimes
I don't even open the large wheeled pilot's case which holds all the
tools to do all the jobs I've ever tackled or at least contemplated doing
on my current bikes.

Only six fasteners on my bike which are not either hex or torx, and for
them I have special open spanner, 8x10mm, a tiny bike-specific forging
for a kit Draper sold many years ago that went off the market because it
was too pricey for their usual clientele. A common workalike for people
who want one like mine is to buy a small 8x10 brake spanner from the
motor factors and simply grind it flatter and lighter.

So my onbike emergency toolkit consists of a 68gr Topeak Tool Bar (it
looks like a toy you carry on your keyring but it is a very serious tool,
no longer made; if I see one I will buy a spare), which holds all the hex
and torx bits I could require, and a small 8x10mm open-ended spanner for
all other nuts. That's it. The Tool Bar incorporates aluminium tyre
levers but I have never used them.

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you
don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair.

I like tools but a cyclist with a life who starts eyeing headset presses
needs psychiatric help more than another tool.

Andre Jute
Toolfondler

Made myself a tool to press in press fit BB bearings cups.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H4...G_2324-001.JPG
Do I need psychiatric help?

--
Lou

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 11:17:51 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:46:35 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine
is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from
the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is
intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's
clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own
fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first
time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other
ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and
without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at
all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally
designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster
(too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except
internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now),
and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking
is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still
doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec
demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a
toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could
stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely
around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with
flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

Er, excuse my ignorance, but how do you get the closed ring end onto the
pedal flats between the crank and the pedal? Or is it the other end, the
open wrench, that is 15mm, and the whole thing a monstrously huge tool?

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I
don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed
sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

Yah, I looked into them, and they didn't have the depth required for my
application, which wasn't Hollowtech bearings but merely a lockring with
a Hollowtech grip pattern on a Bafang BBS01 which you may imagine as a
bottom bracket with a tapered axle sticking out of it but on one side
only, the motor hanging off the other side of this bottom bracket which
is used as the motor hanger. There's a specially made socket available in
the aftermarket with enough depth, but it would cost about $220 landed
here (if I'm lucky and attract the minimum taxes, fees, import duties,
etc). That's a bit rich even for a fulltime tool fondler like me.

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of
headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset
yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's
driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at
guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

I still have two bikes with normal quill headsets, and my everyday
Koranic operates on a threadless to quill conversion to gain 60mm of
handlebar height; I hope I remember how to get it out of the n'lock stem
(which unlocks the steerer tube from the handlebars) if I ever need to
disassemble it, or the bike will be destroyed. You can't have my headset
spanners (two huge, two touring but still big by modern standards) for your mobile.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

I have something similar in a black box of torx and hex T spanners which
are so useful that it is always the first thing I pick up, and sometimes
I don't even open the large wheeled pilot's case which holds all the
tools to do all the jobs I've ever tackled or at least contemplated doing
on my current bikes.

Only six fasteners on my bike which are not either hex or torx, and for
them I have special open spanner, 8x10mm, a tiny bike-specific forging
for a kit Draper sold many years ago that went off the market because it
was too pricey for their usual clientele. A common workalike for people
who want one like mine is to buy a small 8x10 brake spanner from the
motor factors and simply grind it flatter and lighter.

So my onbike emergency toolkit consists of a 68gr Topeak Tool Bar (it
looks like a toy you carry on your keyring but it is a very serious tool,
no longer made; if I see one I will buy a spare), which holds all the hex
and torx bits I could require, and a small 8x10mm open-ended spanner for
all other nuts. That's it. The Tool Bar incorporates aluminium tyre
levers but I have never used them.

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you
don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair.

I like tools but a cyclist with a life who starts eyeing headset presses
needs psychiatric help more than another tool.

Andre Jute
Toolfondler

Made myself a tool to press in press fit BB bearings cups.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H4...G_2324-001.JPG
Do I need psychiatric help?

That's nice. I have something similar but problematic because the center holes in the plates for pressing the bearings are not sized to my through bolt. They're sized for a headset press, which makes pressing kludgy. I might get one of Park's cheap presses -assuming I stick with BB30. http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...ls.php?id=854z

-- Jay Beattie.

jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 11:17:51 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:46:35 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine
is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from
the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is
intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's
clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own
fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first
time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other
ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and
without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at
all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally
designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster
(too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except
internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now),
and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking
is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still
doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec
demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a
toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could
stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely
around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with
flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

Er, excuse my ignorance, but how do you get the closed ring end onto the
pedal flats between the crank and the pedal? Or is it the other end, the
open wrench, that is 15mm, and the whole thing a monstrously huge tool?

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I
don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed
sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

Yah, I looked into them, and they didn't have the depth required for my
application, which wasn't Hollowtech bearings but merely a lockring with
a Hollowtech grip pattern on a Bafang BBS01 which you may imagine as a
bottom bracket with a tapered axle sticking out of it but on one side
only, the motor hanging off the other side of this bottom bracket which
is used as the motor hanger. There's a specially made socket available in
the aftermarket with enough depth, but it would cost about $220 landed
here (if I'm lucky and attract the minimum taxes, fees, import duties,
etc). That's a bit rich even for a fulltime tool fondler like me.

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of
headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset
yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's
driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at
guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

I still have two bikes with normal quill headsets, and my everyday
Koranic operates on a threadless to quill conversion to gain 60mm of
handlebar height; I hope I remember how to get it out of the n'lock stem
(which unlocks the steerer tube from the handlebars) if I ever need to
disassemble it, or the bike will be destroyed. You can't have my headset
spanners (two huge, two touring but still big by modern standards) for your mobile.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

I have something similar in a black box of torx and hex T spanners which
are so useful that it is always the first thing I pick up, and sometimes
I don't even open the large wheeled pilot's case which holds all the
tools to do all the jobs I've ever tackled or at least contemplated doing
on my current bikes.

Only six fasteners on my bike which are not either hex or torx, and for
them I have special open spanner, 8x10mm, a tiny bike-specific forging
for a kit Draper sold many years ago that went off the market because it
was too pricey for their usual clientele. A common workalike for people
who want one like mine is to buy a small 8x10 brake spanner from the
motor factors and simply grind it flatter and lighter.

So my onbike emergency toolkit consists of a 68gr Topeak Tool Bar (it
looks like a toy you carry on your keyring but it is a very serious tool,
no longer made; if I see one I will buy a spare), which holds all the hex
and torx bits I could require, and a small 8x10mm open-ended spanner for
all other nuts. That's it. The Tool Bar incorporates aluminium tyre
levers but I have never used them.

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you
don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair.

I like tools but a cyclist with a life who starts eyeing headset presses
needs psychiatric help more than another tool.

Andre Jute
Toolfondler

Made myself a tool to press in press fit BB bearings cups.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H4...G_2324-001.JPG
Do I need psychiatric help?

That's nice. I have something similar but problematic because the center
holes in the plates for pressing the bearings are not sized to my through
bolt. They're sized for a headset press, which makes pressing kludgy. I
might get one of Park's cheap presses -assuming I stick with BB30.
http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...ils.php?idÂ…4z

-- Jay Beattie.

Yes, with press fit it is important to keep the tool centered and aligned
therefor the right dimension is important and/or convenient. In basic the
tool is quite simple. If you have access to a lathe, material and paid
attention in engineering class it is a 20 minute job to make one yourself.
For me it was faster to do that than to order one.
--
Lou

On 5/17/2015 3:26 PM, Lou Holtman wrote:


Yes, with press fit it is important to keep the tool centered and aligned
therefor the right dimension is important and/or convenient. In basic the
tool is quite simple. If you have access to a lathe, material and paid
attention in engineering class it is a 20 minute job to make one yourself.
For me it was faster to do that than to order one.

Same for me. Except I didn't need a lathe to make mine. It depends on
what's in one's junk box, I suppose.
--
- Frank Krygowski

https://goo.gl/lTeKVG

of obsolete tools, 2 oblongs filed to drop into head tube for tapping the old cups out

ditto Parks cone wrenches....

the filed down to snackon headset wrenches...

On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:17:51 PM UTC+1, Lou Holtman wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:46:35 PM UTC+1, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:53:38 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 3:08:22 PM UTC+1, John B. wrote to Jeff Liebermann:

But over torqueing? Pedals take, I believe, a 15 MM wrench. A common
15 MM wrench (or the ones in my tool chest) measure about 6 inches
over all, say 5.5 inches from the center of the 15mm fastener to the
free end of the wrench. I suggest that it would take a pretty husky
bloke to strip the threads out of the aluminum crank with a wrench of
that size.

Purpose-designed pedal spanners are about 12 inches long, at least mine
is. It came in a German toolkit, so I presume it was correctly designed for the job.

However, what I find very odd is that the articulated C-spanner from
the same kit is about six inches long, maybe only five, and yet is
intended to pull up a bottom bracket lockring to 30-40Nm. That's
clearly impossible unless you're a 900 pound gorilla with your own
fulltime personal physiotherapist. The other day, when for the first
time I wanted to use it (never having had a bottom bracket or any other
ocmponent with that format lock), I checked my other toolkits and
without exception the hooked-C spanner was 5-7inches long, nothing at
all like the length required. I imagine the spsnner was originally
designed to do something much less forceful in the sprocket cluster
(too long ago for me to remember -- I haven't had anything except
internal hub gearboxes on any of my bikes for around twenty years now),
and only later applied to bottom brackets...

A newly bought X-Tools wrench for the Shimano Hollowtech II BB locking
is about 10 inches long and comfortably shaped and padded, but I still
doubt that even with my 195 pounds of rippling muscle the 35Nm spec
demanded by the component was achieved.

I really liked the older Shimano model of BB lockring, fastened by a
toothed socket, driven by a half-inch bar or ratchet that you could
stand up on, much better. These newfangled levers that fit loosely
around fasteners seem to me designed in the first instance to ruin components.

Andre Jute
Relentless rigour -- Gaius Germanicus

This was the tool of the day, and the wrench I still use for pedals with
flats. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/XIwAAOSwrklVAjUm/$_57.JPG

Er, excuse my ignorance, but how do you get the closed ring end onto the
pedal flats between the crank and the pedal? Or is it the other end, the
open wrench, that is 15mm, and the whole thing a monstrously huge tool?

It offers plenty of leverage -- and reminds me how happy I am that I
don't have to remove/install fixed cups anymore. BTW, there are toothed
sockets for the Shimano BBs. http://www.wheelies.co.uk/images/Products/full63684.jpg

Yah, I looked into them, and they didn't have the depth required for my
application, which wasn't Hollowtech bearings but merely a lockring with
a Hollowtech grip pattern on a Bafang BBS01 which you may imagine as a
bottom bracket with a tapered axle sticking out of it but on one side
only, the motor hanging off the other side of this bottom bracket which
is used as the motor hanger. There's a specially made socket available in
the aftermarket with enough depth, but it would cost about $220 landed
here (if I'm lucky and attract the minimum taxes, fees, import duties,
etc). That's a bit rich even for a fulltime tool fondler like me.

I have lots of big tools still lying around, including a fair number of
headset wrenches. I felt a little play in my threadless headset
yesterday. I fixed it with a pocket tool while waiting in my buddy's
driveway while he was getting ready to go on a ride. I'm pretty good at
guessing at 5Nm. I'm thinking of building a Calder-ish mobile with my headset wrenches.

I still have two bikes with normal quill headsets, and my everyday
Koranic operates on a threadless to quill conversion to gain 60mm of
handlebar height; I hope I remember how to get it out of the n'lock stem
(which unlocks the steerer tube from the handlebars) if I ever need to
disassemble it, or the bike will be destroyed. You can't have my headset
spanners (two huge, two touring but still big by modern standards) for your mobile.

My current hex pedal wrench. http://www.parktool.com/product/8mm-hex-tool-ht-8

I have something similar in a black box of torx and hex T spanners which
are so useful that it is always the first thing I pick up, and sometimes
I don't even open the large wheeled pilot's case which holds all the
tools to do all the jobs I've ever tackled or at least contemplated doing
on my current bikes.

Only six fasteners on my bike which are not either hex or torx, and for
them I have special open spanner, 8x10mm, a tiny bike-specific forging
for a kit Draper sold many years ago that went off the market because it
was too pricey for their usual clientele. A common workalike for people
who want one like mine is to buy a small 8x10 brake spanner from the
motor factors and simply grind it flatter and lighter.

So my onbike emergency toolkit consists of a 68gr Topeak Tool Bar (it
looks like a toy you carry on your keyring but it is a very serious tool,
no longer made; if I see one I will buy a spare), which holds all the hex
and torx bits I could require, and a small 8x10mm open-ended spanner for
all other nuts. That's it. The Tool Bar incorporates aluminium tyre
levers but I have never used them.

Except for headset presses, which are now used for BB 30 bearings, you
don't need much in the way of big tools unless you're doing frame prep/repair.

I like tools but a cyclist with a life who starts eyeing headset presses
needs psychiatric help more than another tool.

Andre Jute
Toolfondler

Made myself a tool to press in press fit BB bearings cups.
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H4...G_2324-001.JPG
Do I need psychiatric help?

--
Lou

Nope. Engineering is your life, so why not make a custom press in less time than it would take to order one?

Andre Jute