Thursday, September 14, 2006

Prepping & Tools



Having the right tool for the job is critical to a good build or a stress-free operation, be it routine maintenance or an upgrade. As Lennard Zinn puts it in his best selling book (now in its 4th edition), Zinn & The Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance:


If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you must have time to do it over again.


Chasing the threads when upgrading from Avid Ultimate Single Digit's stock stainless steel cable clamp bolts to TekBolt's titanium hardware.




Close up of old Loctite™ compound scraped off by the tap.




A comparison of a regular socket and a custom chamferless socket. The top stanchion nuts of Fox Racing Shox's forks are extremely low profile (3 mm) in order to minimize interference with the down tube. This means that a chamferless socket must be used to avoid rounding off the soft aluminum nut. Bike Tools, etc. makes a custom 26mm socket that has been ground flat expressly for this purpose. At $6.75, it would be pennywise and pound foolish to jerry-rig with a regular socket.

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