BB30 Fixing Bolt

If you still have play in your cranks after tightening the fixing bolt, keep tightening it. The key is to stop before the bolt breaks...

Hmm.

Customer dropped this one off. And admitted that he knew the cassette had come off and then tried to go for another ride...

Broken T-Mobile Frame

Apparently, the person that installed this BB didn't get the memo that 900 ft. lbs was a bit excessive on the torque. The tool you see in my hands is what I like to call "the big guns." It is a 3/4" ratchet mated to an adaptor that brings it down to a 1/2" driver size. perfect for BB's.

What this picture fails to show in any way, shape or form, is that there is a crack that runs from about 5mm under the bottom braze-on boss to about 5mm above the top braze-on boss. And that both are about to pull out of the frame. I got the BB out, but the frame was toast...

My little purple tool

You always here about a technicians favorite tool. Well mine is purple. Or at least it used to be.

I purchased this bad boy for $.99 in 2006 because I was sick of trying to put water bottle cages on with a triple. I soon found that with a descent bit kit I could do almost every repair possible with this small, functional tool. It improved my speed. It made it easier to switch over to a torque wrench when needed and has become my must have tool for any repair.

If you can tell from the picture, it is quite worn. The entire driver was purple when I purchased it and was also knurled. From the constant use both the anodizing and the knurl are almost gone. The magnet that helps hold the bits in place is also loosing some of its touch and on occasion the bits just fall out.

I tried to replace it about three months ago. I figured it had served its purpose and it was time to retire it to the home tool box where it would see minimal use. The driver I purchased lasted one whole day. After which the magnet fell out making it useless. I went back to my little purple tool.

It has also been interesting for me as I have worked with many mechanics and in a couple of different shops over the years to the response I have received about my driver. Every single tech has scoffed my little purple tool, only to regret their words as they break down and buy their own. I guess there is a reason I use it constantly, it works.

Cheers to tools!

A Pile of Shiv

It has been rumored that the shop will be receiving the biggest Shiv award this year. Seeing that we have built 7, four from this model year. The first six have been fairly straight forward if you don't mention the time spent customizing Di2 cables so that the build looked descent (21 hours plus having to outsource to a small electric motor specialist). Number 7 turned into a pile of Shiv.

As you can see from the pic, the first issue I ran into was the fact that the factory did not thread the hanger. Being the kick ass wrench that I am, I did 'em a solid and took care of the problem After tapping the hanger I completely finished the build with a full group of Super Record 11 including the new return-to-center shifters (which as a side note are kick ass and way fucking better than the shit that ScRAM makes. I mean you can adjust the angle of the lever, and smooth, I mean smooth shifting...). Finishing a Shiv build takes a while, try 5 hours due to the intricacy of the cable routing and the thousand piece extension stacker.

To finish up I just need to straighten the stem and torque 'er down. Customer is patiently awaiting their $10,000 bike.

Before I continue with this little tale of Shivness, let me interject some personal philosophy. Torque wrenches are awesome and absolutely vital for high end builds/repairs. I know a lot of "old school" wrenches that refuse to use a torque wrench because they claim their elbows are calibrated or some other dumb ass shit. Well, take your calibrated elbow and see if you can consistently hit 40 inch pounds without going over ten times in a row. Can you? Fuck no. A good, careful technician will be under 7 times and over 2 and pretty damn close once. What does all this mean? If you are a bike mechanic who likes to work on high end stuff, invest in a god damn torque wrench. And I don't mean the shit that is floating around the industry and  toted as a "torque wrench." Park's wrenches are a joke. Pedro's? Don't make me laugh. Topeak? Getting better... I personally prefer Snap On's digitial. Good to within 1% accuracy and the read out gives you an exact number for the amount of torque reached. Vital! Plus they self calibrate when turned on.

Ok, to continue.

I grab my trusty Snap On torque wrench and a 4 mm bit and begin the daily task of torquing a stem on a carbon steerer. The recommended torque is 4.5Nm. Yes, I looked it up to be sure before starting. I'm tightening the top bolt but just as I feel things start to slightly tighten I feel a slight pop and then the bolt will only tighten to 3.77Nm (trusty digital read out). Being that I am deprived of sugar in my blood and have been working on this bike for almost five hours, I try the bottom bolt. Same result. A little confused, I check the stem and see that the threads have pulled out of the stem...

Five hours and a bike that can't be ridden... Thanks Special Ed.