I got this dual sided Shimano and Campagnolo cassette tool at the Abbey booth in the Louisville Handmade Bicycle Show in 2015. Partly as a souvenir, and to replace the very annoying Park Tool version. I think it was an expensive $40 or $45? It's $53 now. Oh, now Park Tool has borrowed this Abbey design with a similarly priced version.

It's so satisfying to use. The machined splines fit perfectly, and I don't even remove the quick release. A moderate pull on the end of the handle is a good torque for the cassette.

Lots of interesting tools on the Abbey website. Including a titanium shop hammer! "When one of my customers requested I make a titanium travel hammer I thought he was nuts, until I made it. Then I realized his genius. This fairly specialized tool, designed for the traveling mechanic, is part of our Team Issue line."


Crombie Tool Dual Sided



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And let's not forget Torx drivers. Just when I think I will some some money doing the repair myself, I have to buy a whole new set of tools.

I have two repair stands…well, three if you include the outside one My garage one is a pre-1996 Park PRS-6 which I had extended long ago to make it easier to use. I replaced the spring clamp with a heavy duty shop grade clamp. It’s a lot more stable than the portable stands.



For outdoor work, I have a wall mount Park stand that is clamped around a post under a porch. It uses the same clamp as my garage stand.




I do have a 1996 PCS-1 stand in Tucson. My daughter doesn’t have the space for anything but a folding stand. I don’t find it too difficult to use. I did add an extension kit to the stand so that I don’t have to stand on my head to work on bikes.



I rescued a mid-1960s Surre truing stand from the recycler at my local co-op during Covid. I couldn’t let the aluminum that probably flew over Berlin go to the shredder so I took it home. It’s my truing stand for Tucson and is actually a pretty good stand. It could use a second feeler gauge but I can make it work.

Good quality tools are cheap whereas poor quality tools are expensive

Great Solution!

My spouse refused to allow me to put a cheap TV remote on a lanyard on each piece of furniture in the living room. Sounded good to me, but she would not have it...

cyccommute good stories, good stuff.

Maybe you need a single remote on a lanyard like some indoor cranes have. You know, the kind with a track overhead and the crane controls are on a retractable reel. All you have to do to find the remote is look up and see where the trolley is...

Yabbut ...

$1,650 for a shop truing stand? Does it come with some Rockettes dancing across the shop floor??

Actually... "from $1,650"!

I have never been disappointed when I have bought a high quality tool, except in my self when I was buy a high quality tool to replace a cheap one i "saved money" on

working with a superior quality tool is a joy in and of itself

Park, Unior, Abbey

and I never use Aliexpress

Cheap tools do not mean they are of poor quality or that they are not durable.

I pay for the tool's utility, not for the brand name. Since you mentioned Park, the company certainly expects its customers to pay for its brand name and prices itself out of the budget-minded customers' market for a lot of its tools, with a few exceptions. For every Park tool, I have found a non-Park alternative at a cheaper price that functions equally well or even better, in addition to lasting a lifetime.

I ask myself, "is my money, or most of my money, going towards the tool's utility or the brand name?" I refuse to purchase a tool where a lot of my money is going towards its brand name.

I agree, with one caveat - when you buy John Deere or Snap-On or Park, you are paying more for stuff made in the USA. There is more to these brands than the color and the price.

Sometimes I buy Park tools at a bike shop. And I'm surprised at how LOW the prices are. Maybe we're paying a bit for the brand, but not much, it seems to me.

The Park Tool brand is venerated by some but it's not that great, and some tools or parts of tools are imported - they've started playing the "designed in USA" game so there's every chance you'll find the same tool significantly cheaper, but it might not be blue.

I've not read the thread, but....

Decent quality (not necessarily expensive) for stuff I use regularly. Park or more likely Pedros for many of the specialty tools I use regularly. Decent quality for the non-specialized hand tools I use regularly.

Cheap or home-made, but functional, for stuff I rarely use. My cheap RD hanger alignment tool works great for the very rare times I use it. Home made cup presses, steer tube cutters, rear dropout aligner, are just a few of the home made tools that work fine, albeit not as efficiently as real tools. Some of that stuff really is one and done or once every few years.

that has not been my expeience. the "paying for name" theme really is not true. you are paying for more precise tolerances, better quality metal, better design that you get from named tools.

Some things seem to be over the top, until you use them. I got an Abbey Bottom bracket tool, for shimano. seems over kill when you can use a $5 plastic thingy, but the actual function and experience is hugely better

Some useful stuff, but some silly stuff - why make a wheel stand from rectangular tube when you can mill it from billet, with excessive intricate lightening cuts? And the rotor straightener with a bottle opener - they nearly resisted the temptation, but that one tool let them down.

Do not, repeat, do not upset your spouse.........

That is, of course, the goal.

We inherited a couple of old Electrolux vacuum cleaners. ("Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.") So we have one on each floor of the house. Her thinking is that this way, we don't have to carry one up or down the stairs. Of course, I end up vacuuming the stairs, so I do carry it, but whatever.

We've discovered that the combination of a Dyson and a son who is big into airsoft results in quite a bit of sound generation as the scattered pellets clatter and spin their way down the funnels.

We inherited a Kirby from my mom, but the local air force base kept complaining about how loud it was, so we donated it (of course it worked fine). That Kirby might be the cause of some of my lifetime hearing loss.

Incorrect, generally speaking.

Quality costs more.

I have a few Snap on tools and they are all very good, but what made them the standard for professional auto mechanics is that the company finances them. They're way overpriced for amateur use. OTOH Harbor Freight tools seem to be getting much better. I have several Bauer 18v battery tools that work perfectly, and Bauer is the low brand at HF.

em.

Buy John Deere and lose the right to repair stuff that you paid for, or so I've heard. Snap-On has outstanding warranty support if you get on well with the man in the van. Park is generally competent but rarely ourstanding, and their "lifetime warranty" is not no-quibble replacement of worn out stuff, nor is everything made in USA. But they do carry a range of useful spare parts.

I haven’t had the chance yet but I’ve always wanted to name a dog “Hoover”, “Kirby”, or “Dyson”, especially when we had little kids in the house. Electrolux could be made to work as well.

I have an ancient Dyson that really needs taking behind the barn, I've used it for everything including building rubble, but I'll give it one last chance with a wash and polish and a new hose.