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> “Well, the problem with hammers is that there are so many different kinds. Sledge hammers, claw hammers, ball-peen hammers. What if you bought one kind of ham

> “Well, the problem with hammers is that there are so many different kinds. Sledge hammers, claw hammers, ball-peen hammers. What if you bought one kind of hammer and then realized that you needed a different kind of hammer later? You’d have to buy a separate hammer for your next task. As it turns out, most people really want a single hammer that can handle all of the different kinds of hammering tasks you might encounter in your life.” This reminded of a recent episode where I had to replace my rear bike tire. I already have a toolset for basic maintenance: a full set of hex keys, flat and philips screwdrivers, track pump, 14/15" wrench, as well as lubricants and cleaning sprays. Served me well so far so I thought all I had to do was buy inner tubes and the tire. Wrong. To begin with, the wrench I had was too short to remove the wheel nut; I had to buy a longer one for better leverage. Then, when removing the old tire, I needed tire levers to get them off. Maybe a better mechanic than me could've McGyvered the operation without tire levers but it blows my mind that I needed such a specialized tool. You will notice all the tools I've had so far were multipurpose, exactly why I bought them. Even the pump can inflate footballs. The name "tire levers" captures their singular purpose perfectly. Anyway, after I accomplished the task, I was quite pleased with myself. I even finally bought a proper toolbox. In my mind I was considering DIYing further upgrades to my bike. What about a new chain? Or why not a new gearset? Nope, turns out I still don't have enough tools to even accomplish this. If you want to unlink your chain, there is a special tool for that too. To remove your cassette you need to keep the gears from spinning with a "sprocket lock tool"[1]. In fairness other tools like the torque wrench and the lockring, aren't so single-purpose but I'm unlikely to use them for something else other than my bike. Lesson of the story: In real life, there are a lot of specialized tools. You can buy a Swiss Army knife but there's a reason why it's not yet the DIY-er's best friend. I agree with the sentiment of the article but I'm even more glad that I'm a software engineer, not a mechanical engineer. [1] I don't know the exact name for the tool but you can see it 23s in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KAaP7pbFV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KAaP7pbFV0

CRConrad 5y ago
> To begin with, the wrench I had was too short to remove the wheel nut; I had to buy a longer one for better leverage. When I was young, we used to slip a piece of pipe over the handle.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
Those specialized tools can be seen as the bad side effect of mass manufacturing and market streamlining. They're extremely wasteful when you have 2000 people buying one to service a piece of their bike. They don't look so wasteful when you have one shop buying one to service 2000 bikes a month with it, or one factory getting a bunch to assemble 2000 bikes a day. It's the latter two use cases that shape how products look and work.
hospadar 5y ago
Chain whip!
flylikeabanana 5y ago
You can use a butter knife as a tire lever in a pinch, or the handle side of other flatware. Chain tools are a necessity, since manufacturers would have to either offer chains for every different number of links someone would feasibly have to install on a bike, or weaken the chain or make it wider to be accessible with "standard" hand tools. A thinner chain is a necessity to have more gears without obnoxious wheel spacing and derailer travel. The tool you pointed at at is a chain whip. You used to not need a chain whip to replace sprocket clusters, but the old way of removing a freewheel still needed the proper shim to lock the freewheel mechanism, which was built into the sprocket. Now the freewheeling mechanism is built into the hub, which means the sprocket cluster has to remain put so you can unlock the lockring (instead of spinning the wheel). You /could/ do it by just holding the cassette with your hand, but I don't recommend it :) Although bike tech is in many ways suffering from the same march of "more tech, sleeker package" that makes parts smaller, weaker, and with shorter service lifetimes in other industries, most the specialized tools needed to work on bikes haven't changed in some decades.

CRConrad 5y ago

> To begin with, the wrench I had was too short to remove the wheel nut; I had to buy a longer one for better leverage. When I was young, we used to slip a piece of pipe over the handle.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

Those specialized tools can be seen as the bad side effect of mass manufacturing and market streamlining. They're extremely wasteful when you have 2000 people buying one to service a piece of their bike. They don't look so wasteful when you have one shop buying one to service 2000 bikes a month with it, or one factory getting a bunch to assemble 2000 bikes a day. It's the latter two use cases that shape how products look and work.

hospadar 5y ago

Chain whip!

flylikeabanana 5y ago

You can use a butter knife as a tire lever in a pinch, or the handle side of other flatware. Chain tools are a necessity, since manufacturers would have to either offer chains for every different number of links someone would feasibly have to install on a bike, or weaken the chain or make it wider to be accessible with "standard" hand tools. A thinner chain is a necessity to have more gears without obnoxious wheel spacing and derailer travel. The tool you pointed at at is a chain whip. You used to not need a chain whip to replace sprocket clusters, but the old way of removing a freewheel still needed the proper shim to lock the freewheel mechanism, which was built into the sprocket. Now the freewheeling mechanism is built into the hub, which means the sprocket cluster has to remain put so you can unlock the lockring (instead of spinning the wheel). You /could/ do it by just holding the cassette with your hand, but I don't recommend it :) Although bike tech is in many ways suffering from the same march of "more tech, sleeker package" that makes parts smaller, weaker, and with shorter service lifetimes in other industries, most the specialized tools needed to work on bikes haven't changed in some decades.