For noglider: pretend mechanics banned symbol
 

I can't find the post now, but the other day @noglider expressed a wish for someone with some graphics skills to knock up something like this:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=392889

Enjoy :)

Thanks, @Kimmo!

Did it hit the spot? Worth a laugh?

Does it give you any ideas for suggestions?

I'm taken with this; it'd make a cool t-shirt or coffee mug.

Vice grips are missing!

The butter knives are missing, too... (tire levers).

Crescent wrench is missing.

duct tape is missing
and robertson screwdrivers
for canadians

butter knife is prominently displayed
but no indication if the implied use
is tire lever
or screwdriver
or hash smoker

I yam such a stoopid... thanks, Wilfred for the correction! Personally, I would +1 for all three explanations! :p

to be fair
the third mentioned use
is as common among actual pros
as among misguided bob villa wannabes
if not more common :p

large crescent wrench = correct tool for odd size headset nuts

This is evolving from a T shirt, to a smock.

Actually, it was pretty tough to compose with only four items, and I forgot to save the intermediate layered image anyway, so if anyone wants the comprehensive smock they'll have to have at it themselves :p

Is this going to turn into stickers, T shirts, etc?

I want a jersey!

I guess it belongs on a shop apron (shapron?) more than anywhere else!

Zip ties and electrician's tape. I'd only use a hammer to beat my bike to death.

I just put it in the public domain, didnt I?

Have at it. You know how to use Google...

Oh, I just realised the board turned my png into a jpg, which killed the transparency around the circle. I'd upload the original to a hosting site and link it, but I'm posting from another machine because my main one's crapped itself...

Shouldn't be too hard to select the red, add the central part, invert the selection and cut off the black (and the little line of white). Don't forget to tell the selection tool to anti-alias so you don't get jaggies.

PS. Sorry I don't bother to find a higher-res hammer; would've been easy but it's a bit late now...

PPS. here's a quick and dirty job: http://i.imgur.com/rfe0GYh.png

Love it, need a sticker for my daughters bikes which have moved out of state and I work on when we visit them! From what they tell me we should a $$$.

I can't help but notice that in response to a pretend mechanic graphic request, the entire emphasis has been on tools. It's been fun, but misses the point.

IME a skilled mechanic can make effective use of whatever tools are available to him, while even with the best tools at hand, a pretend mechanic will still be just that.

The difference between serious mechanics and pretenders isn't what's in their hands, it's what's between their ears.

Yeah sure, but you try putting all that in a simple graphic. Symbolism is shorthand by necessity.

If you have any ideas, I'm curious.

No ideas, but I suspect this grew out of a comment I had made about Shimano not having any convenient graphic for "no ham-fisted mechanics" and saying no tire levers instead.

Nothing wrong with your graphic, and I won't quibble about the specifics, but it still misses the point.

If pressed, I'd say a graphic of a gorilla in a shop apron or something along those might be more on point.

I don't leave the house without my Leatherman and my shop has an impressive collection of vice grips which serve as clamps for brazing / welding as well as a few hammers... Park makes a pretty one with a blue handle.

Kimmo:
I'd go for a barred circle over a gorilla with a carpenter's (claw) hammer or one-hand sledge hammer held in his crossed arms. He should also have an evil grin or stupid deer-in-the-headlights blank stare.

FBinNY:
I was a professional mechanic for many years and even taught motorcycle mechanics at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College for five years. And, I assure you that you are correct-- it is the user of the tools that matters.

I've made some goofy field repairs that got folks home or where they needed to go: An Allen wrench & hose clamp to replace a broken shift lever out in the middle of Washington state; a vice grip for a footpeg; a small vice grip & tape to allow use of a broken throttle cable (that was fun to watch). None of these, or other jury-rigged repairs, were on my own bikes. I never let my equipment get that bad.

Some folks should not get near tools. When I rode tubular tires in my racing days (middle of the last century), one had to be able to repair flats by partial disassembly of the tire. There were two guys in my club that were so ham fisted that they never did learn to to do that. I used to charge them to repair their tires. Some folks, for their own safety and the health of others, need to stay out of reach of hammers and sharp knives. ;o)

Joe