Efficient Velo Tools, or EVT for short, puts out a bunch of professional-level mechanic's tools that are manufactured in their Portland, Oregon, workshop using local materials. It's their Right Arm repair clamp that's pictured above, a heavy-duty clamp designed to fit Park Tool’s common cylindrical-interface - just slide the original clamp out and slide the EVT unit in place. Why would you want to do that? The Right Arm's jaws are very short, meaning that you might not have to mess around with your seat height as it requires just two inches of exposed seatpost. The leather-padded faces are shaped to work with any seat post that's out there, too, up to a 110mm cross-section like used on some aero triathlon and time trial bikes.
There are only three moving parts to the Right Arm (the handle and the spring-loaded clamps), and the handle spins on a sealed bearing that makes the whole thing feel buttery smooth. Like their other tools, the Right Arm is designed for professional shop use, and at $350 USD for the unit, I bet that it'll be mostly shops that end up pulling the trigger.
If you're into the Right Arm clamp, I think you'll be into this neat contraption as well. To the right is EVT's EZ-Lift repair stand that uses a counterweighted pulley system to make raising and lowering heavy bikes a cinch.
Here's how it works: The cylindrical counterweight is hidden inside of the stand's vertical tube, and a cable runs up through the tube, over the pulley at the top, and then back down to the Right Arm clamp. Once it's got ahold of your bike's seatpost, you just unclamp the head and let the counterweight do most of the work. Right arm, man.
It provides 18lb of lifting aid, which might not sound like much, but it was enough to make the old, heavy bike on the stand feel as if it weighed about 10lb. Ever had someone spot you during a failed max bench press? They barely need to lift the bar with just their fingers to allow you to easily raise it up, and it's the same idea here. The Right Arm clamp slides up and down on massive brass bushings, and EVT says that the mechanism ''is air-damped to control speed.''
Want one? It's $2,000 USD, weighs over 200lb, and there's a three to four month wait time, but it does come with an ''unparalleled lifetime warranty.'' I know that the PB workshop, AKA my workshop, doesn't
need one of these, but I also don't care. I want it.
This gadget might be for you if you're the kinda person who must know that their tires are at the exact pressure you want them at.
I spent far too long geeking out over tools in the EVT booth, so here's one more to check out: Their Bleedin' Gauge. There are plenty of plastic tire pressure gauges out there with a digital display, but EVT took a far different route with theirs. The body is CNC machined, and it uses an analog gauge that's available in five different ranges to best suit your bike. Have a fat bike? Then you'll want the 0 to 15 PSI model. The other ones read 0-30, 0-60, 0-100, and 0-160 PSI.
The gauge gets its name from the bleed screw on the side of the body, with the idea being to over-inflate your tire by a bit and then bleed it off slowly until you're exactly where you want to be. It's also rebuildable without any tools, and the filter (to keep sealant from gumming it up) is just a simple cotton ball. If you think that this little gadget is going to be pricier than your plastic gauge, you're not wrong; it's $110 USD. There are no electronics to mess up, batteries to wear out, or LCD screen to die, so while it's not inexpensive, it should last a long, long time.
And speaking of not really needing but really wanting, here's Off Street Only's hand-operated shock dyno. There are no computers involved here, but the idea is to let mechanics mount up a shock to check things like damping adjustment range and resolution, IFP clearance, any friction or sealing issues, and even aid in new air can installs.
It's made to be bolted down to a sturdy table, and the steel handle is long enough to give even a weakling like me enough leverage to run a shock through its stroke.
You can configure OSO's hand dyno to fit any common shock.
Pretty much any shock will fit on OSO's hand dyno, and it comes with different shock pins and all the hardware to test anything from a pint-sized air shock to a massive downhill damper. There's even an adapter kit to fit the proprietary shocks that some Specialized bikes use. This is not an inexpensive unit, so you'll probably need to be a real suspension dork (I mean that endearingly, of course), and work on a lot of shocks, to justify the $949.95 USD price tag.
I don't need it, but wouldn't the PB workshop look pro with this thing bolted onto the edge of my workbench? Maybe I do need it.
You get one guess as to where Whistler Performance Lubricants is based. Hint: It's just down the road from PB HQ in Squamish. There are a ton of lube options out there, but WPL puts the focus on bio-based and bio-degradable products from renewable sources, and they say that they skip any harsh chemicals. Their catalog includes both wet and dry chain lubes, fork seal lube, grease and degreaser (they hate each other), bike wash, and even suspension fluid.
WPL cites three main ingredients, starting with natural anti-oxidants that are sourced from plants. Next up is oleochemicals; yeah, I had to Google that, too. Apparently, these are compounds derived from plant fat and oils. And here I didn't even know that plants could get fat.
The last one is seed oils that WPL says are triglyceride oils (??????) extracted from canola, hemp, and corn, and they're supposed to provide a base oil that's said to be superior to synthetic and petro-based products. Sounds like a hell of a lot of science to me.
Post service throw it on there to make sure it feels OK, no clunking, binding, etc. Good QA process is important, even when you're ultra qualified. Smaller shops can't afford a proper dyno, but some of them are very good suspension techs.
And you don't have to have the bike present.
Again nothing against this tool I'm just frustrated by how primitive our shock tech understanding still is.
I'm assuming you know difference between accuracy and precision. I'm probably an ass.
Yes, I see your point. I’m not saying it won’t tell you when you’ve dropped 1 psi accurately, maybe even down to 1/10th. Only that 30 psi on one analogue gauge won’t reliably be the same as 30 psi on any other analogue gauge?
When I set my suspension pressures I always have to be sure I use my own (analogue) shock pump or else l get different results and a bike that behaves differently.
Not doubting, I'd genuinely like to see it and don't know exactly what it would involve.
Now if you can just find someone to design it for free haha.
Without the pulley system you could probably use a narrower tube. It'd be pretty easy to mount a 1.5" HREW tube in a garage for a nice solid repair stand.
I made my shock dyno out of $20 of threaded black pipe.