What's stupid about this picture?
 

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/119...-Tool-SR-1.htm

I just got one over the past weekend, and noticed something really dumb about the design.

Any guesses?

When you use the sprocket removal end of the tool, the chain can whip around and smack you?

Wrap around chain is too short as shown in photo.

Aside from that, a sprocket removal wrench at the end and a chain whip really don't go together......it's like having a pedal wrench at the end.

heeeyy, that does look odd now that you mention it:o

Look at the link at the end, the picture is obviously cropped. Rest assured that in reality the chain is sufficiently long.

Right. You can see a more accurate picture on my site at:

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/tools/chainwhip.html

Sheldon "That's A Very Nice Product" Brown

Well, you need to use the chain whip and the sprocket removal tool at the same time... which is not possible if they are at opposite ends of the tool. That's what kind of got me puzzled.

They make one with a pedal wrench, which is actually a great idea: one tool to take care of two unrelated but very specific things...

With this one, though, you would need to buy two of them to use the two different aspects of it... which would mean having an extra cassette removal wrench AND an extra chain whip. Seemed like the weirdest idea to me. Does anyone at park actually use the tools before they ship them??

It worked great as a chain whip, but the added usefulness of the sprocket tool was lost on me.

Not that I'm a Park fanboy (I actually prefer the Pedro's cog wrench, which is a lot easier to use since it doesn't use the annoying chain whip), but Park does suggest using two of their wrenches, one for the chain end to hold the cogset and the other to hold the freewheel remover (the latter task can also be accomplished with an ordinary locking wrench, of course). Still not a brilliant design, because you would have to grab the chain whip end when using the tool to hold the freewheel remover (hint: wear gloves).

Nor is it the first time you would need two of the same tool to do a job. Think cone wrenches.

Any retro mechanic worth their salt HAS 2 chain whips in their toolbox (think 5 speed freewheels). And I don't need gloves for breaking loose a freewheel, as I usually use my heel & stomp on the wrench handle.
On the Halloween/Christmas question, you got me there! Please enlighten me!

The loose chain should be at the front end of the bar, and the chain segment that is attached to the bar at both ends should be in back.

It does seem kind of a waste to have the wrench for holding the lockring spline tool at the end of the chain whip, because you can't use them at once.
Most people will use the chain whip along with a wrench to remove the lockring on modern cassette sprockets, and they'll just need a wrench plus freewheel spline tool to remove a freewheel. It's only useful to have two chain whips if you've got a uniglide cassette (where the smallest cog threads on instead of having a lockring to hold the cassette on; older Shimano 7- and 8 -speed freehubs are threaded on the outside and inside of the freehub body to accept either type of cassette). But most people won't use uniglide cassette.

My guess is that it's an older design, current when Uniglide cassettes were current and it would make sense to have two chain whips but also have a chain whip plus a wrench. Once Park has the molds to produce the thing, it's no more expensive than a chain whip without the wrench at the other end, so no reason to change it.
Still, anyone who's got a chain whip also likely has an adjustable wrench.

It's fine chain whip, just ignore the wrench end. I have two adjustable wrenches, neither of which is big enough to go around my spin doctor cassette remover. I use a pipe wrench instead.

Yeah, I've got a couple adjustable wrenches for cassette removal, but I've got none big enough for BB removal. That's when I go to the pipe wrench.

One of my life goals is to start a thread that Sheldon Brown responds to. However, it can't be a sucky thread, for example entitled something like: "Sheldon Brown please respond to my thread."

My mother used to tell a story about Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge: Someone came up to him once and said "A friend of mine bet me that I couldn't get you to say three words to me." Coolidge replied: "You lose."

Sheldon "Glad The Search Function Is Back Working" Brown

Why would that be? Although I can see why it would work that way, it seems to work great the way it is.

I agree. I have 2 chain whips now and neither of them even had a wrench end. I think Park likes giving gearheads a reason for buying 2 of them. That's for the mechanic that doesn't think you can use any non cycling specific tools on a bike.

Maybe the box wrench end is for hanging it on a nail when not in use.

Deltron MD,
the Christmas/Halloween joke is a bad geek pun.

25 represented in decimal format is represent as 31 in octal format.

Scott, the recovering geek.

bought a stanley stub handle (8") adjustable a few years back to use for the removal tool and a chain wrench while breaking spokes on a tour all packed out well, wrench opens to 1 3/16".

For me, its just more intuitive to "lead" with the lose end, drape it across the teeth of the cogs and then pull back and down to apply pressure.

Only us digital geek kind of guys seem to have gotten that one. Thanks Sheldon, I liked it.