Stuff I Like

Pedro's Vise Whip

Ever had your eyes bulge and the veins stand out on your forehead while you struggle with a recalcitrant cassette lock-ring? Me too! Ever gone looking for a plaster for your lacerated knuckles after the damn chain whip tilts and slips off the cassette? That happened to me once too often. I went shopping on the Interweb for Pedro's Vise Whip that was first introduced only about a year ago.

A picture saves a million words so here it is in my workshop.

http://www.pedros.com/visewhip.html
Leonard Zinn of technical writing and bike manual fame designed it and Pedro's made it. It works exactly like a good quality Vise Grip tool with double layer jaws that fit over the cog and engage the teeth with riveted pins.

















Pedro's say it is good for cogs 11-23t. In practice, I adjusted it for a 13 or 14t cog, tightened the knurled locknut and it is always ready to go. The jaws are too narrow for 1/8'' track cogs but as I don't have any I could care less. If you need a little more leverage a 25mm i.d. cheater pipe slips over the rounded handle with the adjuster knob. I use an old seat post.
It's a little pricey at the $53USD I paid for it at
 http://www.universalcycles.com/
but having used it I wouldn't be without it now.
And on a different note, here is Trichosurus vulpecula, the Common Australian Brushtail Possum. His name comes from Greek and Latin and means "furry tailed" and "little fox". When I was walking back to the house at night after photographing the Vise Whip, I spied this fellow from a distance preceding me through the open back door. When surprised he decided that the DVD shelf looked like the way out.

These omnivorous little marsupials are one of several Australian species named for a resemblance to their North American Opossum cousins. The Common Brushtail adapts well to life in suburbia. They are inquisitive and fearless and will colonise house ceiling spaces or outbuildings for daytime sleeping quarters. The territorial call of the male possum sounds like the death-rattle of a flesh-eating zombie and can be disconcerting for anyone unfamiliar with it.

The Yellow Terror

One of my better finds at the garbage tip shop. I greatly regret not having any pictures of it as found but here's what it looked like when new, a 56cm Giant Peloton 7000 from 1999 in candy gold yellow. This was Giant's bottom of the line road bike for that year.
http://archive.giant-bicycles.com/it/030.000.000/030.000.000.asp?year=1999&model=9521

According to the Giant archives it does at least have a double butted TIG welded cro-moly frame though the unicrown fork is only hi-ten. The derailleurs and brakes were Shimano RSX with RSX STI brifters that were non-functional by the time I got to the bike. Rear cogs were a freewheel rather than a cassette which I thought unusually archaic for a Giant only ten years old but both wheels were totally shot anyway. The deep V Alex rims were covered in powdery corrosion pits and several spokes had pulled through cracked spoke holes. "Twenty five dollars.", said the tip shop man. "Both wheels are buggered.", I protested. "Okay, fifteen.", and I was happy with that.

The gold paintwork and decals were in surprisingly good condition and a bit of cut and polish compound on the stripped frame made it almost like new. The STI brifters were plainly suffering from some terminal internal rupture. That didn't bother me because I had a pair of Paul Components thumb shifter bases all ready to receive Shimano 7 speed downtube shifters salvaged from another dump bike. They work well with the original RSX derailleurs. A set of Tektro short pull levers and a cheap alloy flat bar in a clashing shade of purple completed the cockpit area. The dual pivot RSX brake calipers needed no more than dismantling for a cleanup, lube and two sets of new Shimano pads.

The CPI brand crankset has perfect 52/42 chainwheels. I get the impression that this bike went from new to garbage tip in nine years while doing very little work along the way. It's amazing what polishing compound and a stitched cloth mop on a bench grinder can do for alloy crank arms.

This is it in current configuration. The olde skool MTB bar ends don't appeal to everyone but I like them for the forward hand grip they provide when I want to get up out of the saddle. The saddle itself is a Brooks B17 that was looking for a home. The threadless stem converter shoved down the threaded steerer tube is a little unfortunate but it lets me experiment with different stem lengths. When I'm sure I've got it right I might invest in a nice looking traditional stem of similar height and reach.

The wheels needed a bit of thought. Build wheels for a fifteen dollar bike or buy a nasty "Z" grade Shimano wheel set when they're on special?
Fate intervened when I acquired a job lot of bike junk out of the local pocket advertiser. Among the junk was a wheel set consisting of 36 spoke Campagnolo Omega rims on Shimano 105 hubs with DT Swiss spokes. They probably date from the 1990's but they were perfect for the job after new 105 bearing cones and balls all round and a spoke re-tension session in the wheel jig. They are probably the best part of the whole bike.


The Vittoria Randonneur 700x28 tyres just fit under the brake calipers and strike a nice balance between speed and comfort. After I fitted the speedo recently, I thought it must be wrong because there was no way I could be doing 35kph uphill on my homeward commute. Checking the speedo against a handheld GPS next day proved that it wasn't lying. The Yellow Terror is a bit of a rocketship and I'm even considering putting drop bars on it again.

Unfortunately the frame does not have downtube shifter bosses so I'd need bar-end shifters or maybe some Paul's shifter bases in road bar size. But they are an awful price just for a couple of well designed clamps with square shifter bosses on them. Don't anyone suggest brifters. I'm sure that serious roadies love brake levers that also change gears but all those little pawls and springs inside scare me. The indexed levers on Paul bases deliver lovely seamless shifts and are one lazy movement of a digit away. I use Shimano Rapidfire triggers on other hybrid style bikes I have and they work okay, though a little plasticky. However, my research suggests that Shimano only make one expensive and hard-to-find Rapidfire variant that suits a road double crankset. And it requires a specific (expensive) front derailleur mech. How much easier it would be if Shimano still made the Deore thumb shifters of the 1980's. Easier than adapting old stock downtube or bar-end levers using Paul's expensive bits.

I'm quite pleased with the way this bike turned out, considering that it wasn't very high class even when it was new and it's been refurbished with an assortment of cheap parts and junk.

Stuff I like

Handlebar organiser
Here it is, one answer to limited handlebar real estate, the Arcspan Handlebar Organiser.

There are other products that do the same thing but this one came from the local Toys R Us here in Australia for the princely sum of $2.98. A biking pal gave me one and I went back and bought three more when I discovered how well it works.


This is how it looks on the Yellow Terror Giant dump bike with the rather bulky Cateye HL-EL520 peering coyly through the cables and the dodgy Repco wireless speedo up on top. You could, of course mount it with the arch facing upwards so the accessories are closer to the same level.
It is made of some sort of tough yet slightly flexible black plastic and the bar clamp has two soft rubber strips of differing thicknesses that you can switch around for fitting to MTB bars or slightly fatter road bars. It definitely fits the 26.4mm sleeve beside a road bar stem and maybe even a 31.8mm oversize bar. Clamping pressure comes from metal screw and captive nut and I suppose the point is to mount the Arcspan securely and remove the accessories when you need to leave the bike chained up in public. Anyone desperate enough to want the Arcspan will need a Phillips screwdriver and a couple of uninterrupted minutes, but Mr Thievingbastard can be foiled if you gum up the recessed screw hole with a dab of plastic filler. The two round extensions where you mount computer, light, bell, honker or whatever you want are 25mm wide and 22.2mm (MTB bar size) in diameter. The mount areas are 88mm apart, centre-to-centre. As you can see, it’s slightly asymmetric with one mount 40mm from bar centre and the other 50mm.

No idea if Wheels@Work is a line exclusive to Toys R Us or even if this product can be found atToys R Us in other countries. Google is silent on Wheels@Work.
However, a bit of creative sleuthing discloses that the Australian Bikepro P/L shop in Surry Hills, Victoria has it for $15.00. Search their website for “arcspan”
http://www.bikepro.com.au/

ICYCLES on-line bike store in the USA has it. They call it a Goodymount Bike Computer Mount for $9.95USD. Search their online store for “goodymount”
http://www.icyclesusa.com/bike-parts
I have found them to be a good and reliable on-line bicycle parts supplier. So if you wish to mount your goodies on your handlebar they can accommodate you.

Googling “arcspan” or “goodymount” may turn up more sources, though probably not as cheap as my local Toys R Us!

Finally, I tracked the product to its source, Chance Good Ent. Co., Ltd. trading as Infini of Taiwan.
http://www.infini.com.tw/
Look under Products, Multifunctional bracket and accessories, for the I-901 Arcspan.
You can’t buy it direct unless you want 5000 of the little suckers but it’s worth looking at their slick yet simple website. Give a moment’s thought to the industrious Taiwanese beavering away making all sorts of bike paraphernalia, some mediocre, much of it very good.