My favorite shop tools

A question I seem to get asked a lot at work is: "What's your favorite tool?"
Honestly, that's a tough question. I love tools. I like working with all my tools, and I really like getting new tools. If I had to narrow it down though, I guess this could be my top 6:

Phil Wood spoke machine

 The Phil Wood machine is probably my favorite tool in the shop. It cuts and threads a spoke to any size in 1 rotation of the crank. A pretty expensive tool, but saves a ton of time and money in not having to order special length spokes or stock a bunch of different sizes.

Enduro BB30 bearing press/remover

 The first few times I messed with BB30 systems I didn't really like them. I thought the ease if installation and general maintenance wasn't worth the weight savings or performance benefits over a standard external bearing system. That is until I used the Enduro BB30 tool. It makes bearing installation and removal super easy and smooth.

Park modified 5mm T-handle hex

 Nothing fancy here, but by far the tool I use the most every day. I bet you could dis-assemble a modern day bike about 75% with this tool alone. I've modified this one by cutting the ball end off the long end and cutting the plastic back about 1/4" on the short end to allow it to get into Shimano rear derailleurs, recessed front brake nuts, ETC.

Shaved down short end

 The modified Park 5 mill in action on a Shimano derailleur. I wish Park would make a version like this.

Grease gun

I've been using this thing forever. It's at least 15 years old and I've used it at 3 different shops I've worked at. I don't use it as much anymore because most bearings are the sealed type and usually get replaced as opposed to being overhauled. It still comes in handy for putting grease in tight spots so you don't have to get your hands greasy and speedplay pedals. Maybe I should fill it with that carbon paste stuff since that's what gets used the most nowadays.

Park 1" wrench with friends

Probably the second most used tool I use daily. I use it all the time for pulling/installing cassettes and it has great leverage for removing tight bottom brackets.

Park truing stand with finished custom wheel

It seems like in a lot of bike shops, wheel building has become a lost art. With so many pre-built wheel sets available today, not a lot of shops still do custom wheel builds. I'm fortunate to work in a shop that builds quite a few. That's good because I really enjoy the entire process. The good old standard park truing stand is another tool I love to use.

Bottecchia project part 1

I've been looking for a cheep frame to build up into fixed gear bike to get some miles on this winter. I sold my last fixed gear bike a couple of years ago, and kind of wanted to build a new one for a while now.
Anyway, I've been looking at frames on Ebay and Craigslist and such, and I guess the whole fixie fashion fad is still going strong because old steel bike frames are pretty pricey these days.

I have an old late 60's model Bottecchia frame thats been hanging in my garage for years. It was a customers from a bike shop I used to work at. He brought it in to be repaired but the bike had a pretty good front end inpact as the frame was cracked and the forks were bent in. After we informed him of the damage, he said to just throw the bike away. I thought the bike was too cool, so I saved it from the dumpster and it's been hanging around ever since. The frame is way too big for me, so I always had an idea that I could somehow cut the broken part off and reuse the main frame.

 This is the frameset. Nothing too fancy. I think this frame is a mid-level quality bike at best, but it's still a cool old frame.

 Front end damage. The frame is designed around 27" wheels, and I'm going to use 700c wheels, so I'll have to re-engineer the BB height a little.

 New chrome moly head tube (for 1 1/8 steerer fork) and dropouts. So far this is the only stuff I've had to buy.

 The frame cut down. The chain and seat stays need some more trimming to match the dropouts, and the top and down tubes need to be notched to fit the head tube.

I cut out about 35mm to shorten the frame to a 56cm seat tube length. I'll get the frame welded up in part 2.

Record miles and record heat July

So the big miles goal for July went well. The goal was 1300 miles and I ended up with a hair over. So in addition to the highest mileage personally in one month, this summer gave us the hottest ever recorded month in Oklahoma City history!

HOT STUFF

The goal for August is to take advantage of this block of miles and try to raise my FTP to an all time high (or at least as high as possible) and start preparing for the upcoming cyclocross season!

Hopefully the weather will cool down.