Installing and Removing Pedals

Crank arm holding device.
The Problem: Pedal spindle threads are very often hard to move at first when a pedal needs to be unscrewed from a crank-arm. On the other hand a pedal needs to be tightened snugly when it's being installed.
People have various ways of preventing the whole crank-set from turning when pressure needs to be applied to a pedal wrench. You can reach through the frame and grasp the opposite crank-arm with one hand while using the pedal wrench on the closer pedal with the other hand. As your finely conditioned and muscular arms tense against each other  the wrench will often slip resulting in lacerated knuckles.
I've seen the opposite crank-arm lashed to the chain-stay with a spare toe strap which may not be good for the chain-stay or the strap. And it's useless if you don't use toe-clips and have no straps.
You can put a foot tall block under the opposite crank-arm when it's horizontal which always means that you must hold the bike down while pulling up on the pedal wrench.
Full time professional mechanics seem to manage it with no more than their two arms, a wrench and long practice but it's the amateurs can often use a little help.

My Solution: It is inspired by a veteran mountain biker I knew who had an eight inch tall stub of stout hardwood fencepost with a slot cut into it sticking out of the ground outside his workshop.

Fairly good pedal wrench (left) Better pedal wrench (right)

I made my variation on the slotted fencepost out of 19mm plywood that was once a shelf. The pieces are simply glued and screwed together. It's 190mm high with jaws 40mm apart which suits all the bicycles in my fleet. Bikes with non-compact chain-rings may need it to be made a little lower. Measure before settling on a height.
It hangs on a nail when not in use and makes a handy place to drape inner tubes under repair while the patch glue is drying.

In place on the drive side

Stand on it with both feet

You can hold the bicycle steady with one hand on the top tube and use the other on the pedal wrench. If you need to tap the end of the wrench with a mallet just to get things moving, bend down and wedge the top tube under an armpit to get both hands free.
That's about it really. The wooden jaws won't mar the crank arms but if you are fastidious you can always pad them with shop rags. And make sure you have a properly fitting and substantial pedal wrench.

Headset Spacer Tube

Replace a stack of individual headset spacers.
This won't interest athletic folk with handlebar six inches below seat height and only a couple of centimeters of threadless headset spacers. However there are plenty of home tinkerers who love long steerer tubes and handlebars level with the seat or even higher. They finish up with this look.

8cm of spacers

I first considered the possibilities of replacing half a dozen spacers with a single long tube spacer when fitting a cheap new fork to a ratty old MTB. I wanted the bars high and my junk box was devoid of 20mm spacers. Repelled by the idea of a teetering stack of 5mm and 10mm spacers, I soon discovered I had a likely looking length of scrap 32mm aluminium tube. Yes, it was a close sliding fit over the steel 28.6mm steel steerer tube.
The scrap tube was roughly hacksawn to a fraction over-length then finished with file, vernier caliper and engineers square so that the ends were both parallel and square to the tube axis A final check with a surface plate and square confirmed that the simple hand filing job was accurate enough for the purpose. It would be simpler and quicker to face the spacer ends in a lathe with a big enough spindle hole behind the three-jaw chuck but the  machine I have isn't that large.

The idea worked so well on the ratty MTB that I soon decided to extend it to nicer bikes in my herd.
A visit to a Capral Aluminium warehouse secured 6.5 metres of 32mm round tube for $17, enough for a lifetime of bicycles. It's 6060 T5 aluminium with a smooth mill finish.
32mmO.D. minus 2x1.6mm wall thickness = 28.8mmI.D. It seems to be a common size in other metric nations besides Australia.
Citizens of places persisting with Imperial units of measurement should start by looking for inch and a quarter tube with a suitable I.D. Take a vernier caliper with you and look for a touch greater than 1.125" I.D. or a sixteenth inch wall thickness.
The 1.6mm wall thickness of my chosen tube is somewhat thinner than a bought headset spacer. The spacers I have measure anywhere between 2.3 and 3mm depending on where they came from. But I believe that my thinner walled single tube spacers are in no danger of being crushed by the forces developed in ordinary road or bike trail use. Persons engaging in extreme off-road riding are unlikely to want tall steerer tubes and won't be trying this mod anyway.

Marking jig, 200mm double cut bastard file, engineers square, 32mm aluminium tube stock.

Pictured above is a simple wooden marking jig. The length of roughly cut tube is rotated against a sharpened drywall-screw scriber. This provides a line to file down to before I start checking for squareness with the steel square.

Raw or Painted

 
The mill finish of the tube is quite attractive. It could be left as is, mirror polished and clear lacquered or simply given a coat of rattle-can gloss black.

8cm spacer tube installed

My tube is actually a closer fit than my assortment of bought spacers. I put plenty of grease on the steerer tube to avoid corroded steerer/stuck spacer syndrome in the future.