Despite admonitions received on my hand made head set tool thread about these not working too well, I decided to bite the bullet and spring for one of these.


I was thinking of making a tool like this but a man's got to know his limitations. My small milling machine isn't capable of this kind of work. Man. What a joy it is to use a proper, well made tool. This tool fit my crown race perfectly and it was off with three or four taps of a mallet. And yes, I discovered the problem of why my crown race didn't seat properly. Now, how to fix it without an expensive crown race cutter! I don't think I can make one of those either.

I just love good tools. Add your tale of love for a favorite tool here if you like.

one of my dads old friends called me and asked if i could mask out some flames on his hot rod. i got to his garage and tripped over this. he gave it to me for helping him out. ive been wanting one for awhile and just never got around to buying one. now i dont know how i worked on wheels without it.

I finally broke down and bought a TS-2 also, Sloar. They are great!

and lets not forget about my awesome campy bottom bracket tools, thanks to rootboy for those.

Harry Callahan would have appreciated this tool!

Every time I face a headset, I kick myself for not getting one.

I had my doubts, Road Fan, especially after none other than a guy whose abilities I highly respect, Frank the Welder, mentioned that they rarely work well. But I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I used it and it worked like a charm. Now I have to decide if I want to really test my limitations by trying to clean up the crown race seat with a pillar file, or if I should adhere to Harry's admonition and see if the bike shop thirty miles from here has the proper race cutter tool.

A real Bikesmith cotter press.
Owning one of these makes me feel like a better bike mechanic than I am.

rootboy how about a pic of the crown race?

I fixed mine with a jewlers file and its just fine now.

if course having a crown race cutter would be nice.

that fancy campy tool could be made with some metal and a welder.

Our church sponsors an annual weekend of service, in which members go out into the community to serve meals to the homeless, fix up bedrooms of kids w/ terminal cancer, pick up trash, spruce up school gardens, assist on Habitat for Humanity builds, etc. My project each year has been to clean up and repair used bicycles for the Community Resource Center, which then donates them to needy local families, either as transportation for the adults or Christmas gifts for the kids. The guys generally bring pretty decent assortments of general purpose hand tools, but they are always impressed by my bicycle-specific goodies: Park shop stand, VAR truing stand, bottom bracket wrenches, chain riveter, spoke wrenches, freewheel pullers, lockring wrenches, crank pullers, chain whip, cog/freewheel vise insert, etc.

Showing off your tools, in PUBLIC! Oh, right...California....carry on! ;-)

I found a very old metal file, about 1/4" thick, 7/8" wide, and tapered to about 1/2" wide over a 7" span. It had teeth cut on every single face. It was in a 1957 S&K toolbox with some of the original sockets and wrenches that came in the set. I don't know when or why the previous owner had it, but it's filed crown races, DT braze-ons, DT cable stops, seat posts, and stems. Not sure what I'd do without it.

I use it a lot, so it's, uh, private.

Used on of these for the first time the other day. I hope I never have to install a star nut without one.

yes, there is no better way to install a star nut.

I love these tool threads, they are the embodiment of the engineering principle of "Simple Elegance". It satisfies this criteria for me, do not enjoy really complex, complicated solutions when a simple one does the job better.

Bill

Here's an indispensable one from my workshop: J.A. Stein fixed-cup tool (note: photo from here):

Those are niiiice, very nice. I bit the bullet and bought one a couple years ago and have never regretted it... though I wish I'd bought the Hozan instead.

Have never seen one of those Nlerner. Nice. I can see how that would help a LOT. I like that Jim Stein's m.o.

Very well said Bill. I agree 100 %. I suppose a brass drift would have worked on my crown race but, it is so nice to have the proper tool. And that Campy tool above is about as simple and elegant as it gets.

I'll try to get a close up of it Mike, but I'm heavy into the metal lathe today working on something for Matt. The problem is just a slight ridge where the vertical and horizontal planes of the race seat meet, about 1/3 of the total circumference. Wish I had inspected it more closely before I installed the new one but figured, well, the old one fit on there well, it should just fit right on. Wrong. Anyway, yeah, I have tons of special purpose files so I'll probably go after it here in a while. I considered trying chuck up the steerer in my lathe but the thought made me shrivel up like a spider on a hot stove.

That is a nicely made tool! Beautiful. Me, I like good tools. Did I say that already?

Tools: yay!

I had occasion to use one of those the other day, but it was an earlier version (solid body, not a rolled strip of steel as this appears) plus it only had an end for a female threaded spindle, and I was doing work on 2 different BBs, one which had a nutted (male) spindle, as in this pic.
I had to resort to my DIY big bolt with washers (thanks, Sheldon) for that one...plus the deadblow mallet.

The "right tool for the job" is sometimes just the one that finally worked.

BTW, here in SF, showing off your tools in public was just outlawed by the Board of Supervisors.

Glad to see you are enjoying the tool. I upgraded (?) to the Park screw-type (CRP-1) and need the room on the peg board.

The Stein fixed cup tool is nice, but I unually wind up with the Cyclus fixed cup tool



They are available from Wiggle or Biketoolsetc.

There is one improvement to be made with that tool. Apply a section of leather or neoprene foam to the area that will contact the fork crown, the bottom of the working area. Insures no nicks on the fork when the race breaks free.

Now many years ago I bought a Full Campagnolo tool case, I was spoiled when working for shops back in the day. After I moved and began working for another shop, it took a bit of lobbying to convince the owner to buy his. Afterward the shop's reputation went up, and I am sure the tools paid for themselves in short order. The one non Camapgnolo tool at the time that was really useful was the Shimano derailleur tab alignment tool set, almost necessary to get early SIS working well. What made me laugh was one of the key components of that tool was designed to work with a Campagnolo hub, they called it C brand in the tech notes.

As a professional auto mechanic... Amen!