I fear that Tom Sanders and I may be a bit ahead of the curve in love of the tools themselves.
Several years ago, I built up a board, maybe 18" x 50" (~45 x ~125 cm), with various specialty bike tools mounted to it, and took it to Cirque. It got surprisingly little attention (relative to my expectations that others liked these things).
I also shot pix of most of the tools, and sent Dale a CD with them. Maybe if others ask, he'll find a place for them on the CR site one winter day. Or, I'll just have to activate my Wool Jersey pages, and put them there.
I do think it would be fun to have a few pages of tools posted,
including the occasional mystery find. Sort of like the vintage pedal
museum at
http://www.speedplay.com/
harvey sachs
mcLean va.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While visiting Matt Assenmacher today to get a decal put on a friend's bike
I noticed that he had two lovely Assenmacher tandems on the floor for
sale...both used...one more so than the other. A green one has those
gorgeous TA cranks on it and is $700, the other older blue one is in some
ways nicer, to my eye, but hot as minty and I didn't get a price on it, but
the Store Manager implied it was less money. Anyone interested can call
(810) 635-7844 and talk to Matt or Steve.
While talking with Matt (a most agreeable past time...he is one of the
world's nicest people) I mentioned that I was having trouble with marring up
fixed cups during removal and that I was not happy with my standard Park
wrench. He wrinkled up his nose and told me that was no good and showed me
what he said I needed. It was a lovely Var Fixed Cup Tool that seemed about
a third the size of a Buick. Blew me away...I had never seen one before. I
asked if he had an extra one and it turned out he did. He looked up the
wholesale price of it and gave me a 20% discount off that...Darned things
are priced nearly like a Buick, too, but it resides in my tool chest now! I
am probably the least mechanically inclined of anyone on this list, but of
late I have been seeing big beautiful Pro bike tools and have been smitten
by the bug. I just bought a set of Pro crank removing tools, too...never
knew they existed.
At any rate, I am wondering if I am way ahead of the times or way behind the
times with my new found passion. Any of you folks infected by the
Professional Quality Tool Bug? You sure can fit a lot of tools into a small
space. Neat!
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi