Not So Heavy Metal

The old adage "a poor workman blames his tools" casts an opposing shadow among mechanics, something along the lines of: "with a little ingenuity, a good mechanic can make do with a rock and some bailing wire." This is a belief I have long held dear, but at the same time, ever since I first heard the siren song of the Snap-On truck, which may or may not have happened somewhere between wearing diapers and puberty, I have been a sucker for nice tools. "Nice", in this case, implies some combination of aesthetics and function; the tool is a pleasure to hold, is well balanced in the hand, is designed to do its job cleanly, and is well made enough to last a long time. As I mature, the origin of the tool has grown in importance as well.

Which, not so roundaboutly, brings us to Abbey Tools - designed by bike mechanics, for bike mechanics, and made in Bend, Oregon. One can look at certain Abbey offerings, such as their bonkers $1,450 US truing stand, or their $205 derailleur hanger alignment gauge, and assume that Abbey Tools are the kind of fancy shit that only very dedicated or very well-heeled mechanics (oxymoron alert, there) are likely to invest in. Not so. During the ongoing resurrection of my tool kit, I've found a few Abbey offerings that are absolutely price competitive with their Park or Feedback analogs, and at the same time are oozing with a high-touch aesthetic that completely satisfies my inner tool slut.

Whip-It Chain Whip

Chain whips are ubiquitous and absolutely indispensible items in the bike mechanic's canon. They've been around forever, and without them it is a monumental pain in the ass to try and crack a cassette off a freehub. Modern evolutions of the design show up as something like a channel-lock plier with sections of chain in the jaws. They have their merits, but old school chain whips still get the job done admirably. Abbey's Whip-It does the job with no bells or whistles, and just enough mass to its smooth 12" long handle to provide the necessary counter-torque to hold the cassette in place while going at the cassette nut with an appropriate wrench. It costs $47 US, which is right on par with Park's SR-2.3, but the Abbey offering is shiny and made from stainless steel. No, you don't really save any money at all compared to either Park or Feedback's cassette pliers, but having gone back and forth plenty between pliers and whips, I am still partial to kicking it old-school.

The length of 10-speed chain that makes up the whip will fit any thickness cog from 7 to 13 speeds, and if the proletarian cleanliness of the Whip-It just doesn't match your new Merlin Newsboy/XX1 AXS zeitgeist, you can spend a whole lot more on a titanium version.

Crombie Tool, Thru-Axle, Dual Sided

The Crombie came about when Jeff Crombie came to Jason Quade in 2012 and asked for a tool that would allow him to check cassette lock-rings without having to remove the quick releases, eliminating a pain-in-the-ass step in the daily routine of a race team mechanic, where there may be dozens of wheels needing checking or cassette changes. 12" long handle, precision machined lock-ring castellations. This was the tool that jump-started Abbey.

Fast forward a decade and change, and here we have a dual-sided Crombie. One side features the traditional hollow-headed cassette lock-ring wrench, while the other has a stub that fits into the hole of a thru-axle hub, aligning the tool so that it can cleanly and effectively tighten or crack free a cassette lock-ring without slipping and "boogering things all to shit", to use the parlance of the times. This version - stainless steel with a solid handle - is the least expensive one, at $53 US. You could buy a can or two of beer or maybe a couple tacos with the difference you'd save by purchasing a Park or Feedback. The solid handle option is the way to go when it comes to dealing with chronically overtightened lock-ring bolts. I know none of the astute and well-educated readership of this site would stoop to the hamfisted ape antics that require a heavy hand removing an overtorqued lock-ring, but it can happen. Or so I have heard.

Aaaanyway, if you have fat stacks of cash, or carry lock-ring wrenches on your rides, there's a hollow handled version for $10 more, AND a titanium version for (mumble mumble cough) $47 more.

The Crombie and the Whip-It play extra well together, with the handle of the Crombie sliding neatly into the handle of the Whip-It allowing them both to stash in the space that a single tool would usually take up.

In the case of either of the above tools, anyone who works on their own bikes should own some variation of these. You gotta remove a cassette to fix a broken spoke, replace a drive-side hub bearing (depending on hub) or part out a worn drivetrain. Can't do that with a hammer and a 2x4.

T Way

Okay, this is a bit of a reach, since you can find real inexpensive three-way or combo wrenches in bargain bins at Harbor Freight or insert-your-favorite-chain-hardware-store-here all day long. Buuuut, they probably suck.

This tool absolutely does not suck.

The T Way can be had for $65 US with fixed heads in either 4mm, 5mm and T25, or 5mm, 6mm and T25. Those are sensible options, but somewhat limited. However, pony up $120, and you get TEN Wera bits (2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and 6mm, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 Torx) that snap into the handles thanks to surprisingly stout magnets, and configure the wrench any way you want. Also, since the bits are the same size as that galaxy of stuff that you can find at hardware stores, there are screwdriver bits galore in a very wide swath of budget options, as well as all kind of hex-to-socket malarkey available. The bits that come with this kit are sourced from Wera, the current darlings of high quality hex and Torx hardware, and they come snugged in a machined aluminum caddy with a magnet on the backside that is guaranteed to ruin your credit cards.

The basic wrench itself is beautifully weighted, and just the right size for what I think is the ideal mid-high leverage long wrench, as well as ideally proportioned for an easily spinnable T-handle. The spinnability is enhanced by a very pleasing knurling on the handle. It's a joy to use in either direction. I might be biased. But I really like the way this wrench feels. It's not perfect - deep reaches in narrow cavities will frustrate the T Way, but everywhere else, dang. This is one that stays in the top of the toolkit.

Yeah, this T-Way is a bit of an extravagance, but then again, it is only a very few dollars more expensive than Park's QTH-1, and is notably less expensive AND more pleasant to use than any of Wera's similarly adaptable T-sets. And now that I have one, I'm feeling all Charlton Heston "claw it from my cold dead hands" about the damn thing. Kinda feeling that way about the Whip-It and Crombie, too, come to think of it.

Man, after watching that is anyone really surprised that Charlton turned into such a freaky gun nut?