Beggars Would Ride
Dept. Of Redundancy Dept.
The voiceover in the video said “you can fit a cone wrench into the flats machined on the axle cap, and then just pull it up out of the freehub body.” There was a pause, as if the voice was wondering whether or not it would be necessary to explain to the YouTube audience what, exactly, a cone wrench was. Can’t say I blame the voice for that pause. It has been one hell of a long time since I’ve used a cone wrench for anything other than opening a bottle.
But here I was, watching a video on everyone’s favorite “let’s learn some shit” media, and the instructions called for a cone wrench. Miraculously, I happened to have a whole fistful of the damn things in a battered, end of life briefcase full of Pedro’s tools. Ironically, I was watching a video that was explaining why modern Shimano XT and XTR hubs sometimes make horrible creaking noises, and the last time I recall actually using cone wrenches for their usual job of adjusting hub bearings was back about when Shimano had released that fancy new Pewter colored XTR stuff. They low-grade shocked the industry by sticking with cone and cup bearings at a time when EVERYONE else was sliding wholesale across to the arguably lower maintenance and easy disposability of cartridge bearing hubs.
The Pedro’s toolkit, resplendent in a genuine Haliburton briefcase, had shown up at the old Bikemag offices in San Juan Capistrano right about the time that Shimano was releasing that groundbreaking XTR group. I reviewed the toolkit, and then kept it. I was The Grimy Handshake, after all, and the rest of the staff at that time was far more invested in getting first class upgrades for their ski trip junkets than they were in wrenching on bicycles, so it seemed a shame to consign the tools to the dark recesses of the warehouse, where they would inevitably be scavenged piece by piece until there was nothing left to show for the goodwill of Bruce Fina’s lube and tire lever empire. For the people under 40 who might be reading this and wondering what bullshit sands of time navel gazing I am indulging in, let’s use 1995-ish as a reference point and call it good.
I probably should've thought a bit more about the sticker orientation. But it was a long time ago, and I don't have a good track record when it comes to details like this.
Anyway, this briefcase has been following me around ever since then, and everything in it has been well used, except the cone wrenches. And the 32, 36 and 40mm headset wrenches. Because even back in 1995 all that stuff may still have had purpose in a bike shop, where you have no idea what vintage of wheeled heartache may roll through the door next, but otherwise it was already dated. A time capsule of the decade prior. Nevertheless, I was grateful that the haggard old Haliburton had been asleep in a storage unit during the great purging of all my possessions back in November, and with equal measures of relief and remembrance I pulled it back into service to help keep the wheels turning during my toolbox resurrection.
Which is how I came to be squatting in a parking lot in Kingman, Arizona, watching a YouTube video about creaky XTR hubs, and thanking the stars for my very lightly used 17mm cone wrench. I had already resorted to some very ugly caveman shit to remove the cassette. The old kit had been supplemented with a Wrench Force cassette wrench, but the Pedro’s interpretation of a chain whip – in 1995ish – was a cool for the time wrench with stubby cylindrical lugs that set into the smallest teeth of a cassette. 12 tooth lugs on one side, 11 tooth lugs on the other. The wrench set in the cassette teeth, then your cassette cracker fit through the wrench and loosened the cassette nut. Cool. Unless you happen to have a modern 12-speed drivetrain. With a 10 speed small cog. This is where an actual chain whip would come in handy, if I had one. But my last chain whip was a home built affair that used an old piece of Sachs 7-speed chain, so I don’t even know if it woulda been narrow enough to fit anything but the biggest cog. I digress. It does not matter. Did you know you can wedge a long Pedro’s 6mm L-handle hex wrench through the brake rotor as well as a couple crossed sets of spokes on either side of the hub and into the spider of an XT cassette, and this will hold the hub enough to crack that cassette nut? Didn’t break any spokes, and only left one ugly gouge in the cassette spider. I do not endorse this kind of barbarism in anything but the most dire of circumstances.
Dire, as in, the parking lot of a budget hotel in Kingman, Arizona, on a Sunday night.
The mission to de-creak my XTR hub was a success, thanks to YouTube and a woefully out of step with the times toolkit. It got me thinking, though. I’ve been hauling around this briefcase full of old sentimentality for close to 30 years, and fully half the tools in it have been, for almost that entire time, not much more useful than yellow-handled ballast.
Square taper crank extractor? Chain tool that is spaced for 8 speed chains? Those meaty headset wrenches that were old before their time when they were new? And all those cone wrenches? This is a box full of ghosts. Chunky metal reminders of a time that people love to romanticize, when bikes were simpler and allegedly easier to work on.
"So, there used to be these things called cups and cones, see? And you could adjust the cone up against the bearing so it'd fit just right inside the cup, see? And then you'd snug the lock nut down onto the cone, and back the cone into the lock nut to stop it coming loose, and then you'd do it for the other side, see? But you had to do it just right, see, because otherwise you'd be too tight and you'd chew up your cups and cones, or you'd be too loose and yer bike would ride like shit, see? Are you still listening, kid? Wake up! I'm not done yet..."
"And then you'd do the same thing with yer headset, see? Except - pay attention here, this is important - it was super easy for those thin wrench flats to slip on those soft aluminum headset nuts, see, and then you'd booger up the headset AND probably leave a real nice scratch in your top tube. Or a dent if you really blew it. Hoo boy, them were sure some fun times!"
Not a chain whip. Works great on 12-tooth cogs. Flip it over and it works great on 11-tooth cogs. And absolutely nothing else.
Looks innocent enough, right? What could possibly go wrong? If I had a dollar for every time a customer came into the shop wondering why their crank extractor had stripped the threads out of their crankarm - unaware that there was a washer under the crank bolt that probably should have been removed BEFORE attempting crank extraction - I tell ya, I would have dozens of dollars.
Right. Admittedly, the current craze for replacing cables with batteries and routing brake lines through the headset and frame does leave me at times screaming obscenities, especially when I have just used my last olive and/or barb that fit on the previous bike that I had to chop a brake hose to install a new handlebar, but I can’t honestly say this new normal is really any shittier than trying to get a Dia-Compe 986 to cease screaming and juddering while doing effectively nothing to actually slow a bike down. Square taper cranks are remembered fondly only by low-wattage day trippers and people who didn’t have to work in bike shops and juggle all the necessary lengths and tapers to keep that highly variable shitshow rolling creakily along. Threaded headsets can fuck right off back into the recesses of time. Thread-on freewheels, ugh. Cottered cranks? Go wash your mouth with soap. There are solid reasons we moved along from all those old standards. They were deservedly obsolete, and the evolution of mountain biking only proved to underscore just how overdue for a change they were.
Yet here I am, carting around a time capsule of tools that smell vaguely like 1990. Times have changed. The old Haliburton needs to retire. It had a good run. The Felco cutters and those sweet Pedro’s ratcheting wrenches can come along for the ride, but the rest of those tools can go hang out with my dad’s old Whitworth sockets. They can whisper rusty secrets to each other and laugh about the good old days. Except for the 17mm cone wrench. Might need that.
Comments
TristanC
3 months, 1 week ago
You gave me flashbacks to sitting in the garage with my dad, waiting (im)patiently while he adjusted the cup-and-cone bearings until the preload was juuuuuuust right. And then you bolt the wheel into the dropouts and that changes the preload so you have to take it out and re-adjust and...
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Mike Kittmer
3 months, 1 week ago
That’s how it went!
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Mike Riemer
3 months, 1 week ago
"Threaded headsets can fuck right off back into the recesses of time." Amen.
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kekoa
3 months, 1 week ago
We used to yell ‘Mike Ferrentino’ when we had to use the really out of true wheel straightener tool, aka the floor. Amazing how old tools come back into vogue sometimes.
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Vincent Edwards
3 months, 1 week ago
Here’s my ‘dirty secret’ / ‘fit of desperation’ tool of choice:
Wooden Handscrew Clamp: https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/MS-WSC.XX
I’ve used this tool to:
Clamp the teeth of a cassette so I can remove it (in place of a chain whip).
Press a Chris King Headset into a titanium frame (That I built… and many other nice carbon frames too)
Press bottom bracket into a Yeti SB140 (27.5 version)
Clamped to a workbench with an ‘F’ clamp, in place of a soft jaw vice for dropper post and suspension rebuild duties.
(…Along with my Knipex pliers, it’s a secret weapon)
And probably a dozen other ill advised things that it ended up working beautifully for…
Wood is softer than metal.
Two parallel jaws that come together in a parallel fashion when used correctly are superbly useful.
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nothingfuture
3 months, 1 week ago
If you've been at it for a while, stuff tends to accumulate, you know? I still have a peanut butter wrench in the box. And wrenches for BB lock rings, fixed cups, and 10mm cone wrenches for centering road caliper brakes. Four different crank extractors, doubles of every cone wrench size, nevermind the chunks of acme threaded rod, washers, and bolts for doing unspeakable things to headsets or bbs or free(wrech)wheels.
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
I lost my peanut butter wrench somewhere around 2004, and have been missing it ever since. Not to actually use for any actual wrenching, but for spreading peanut butter while imitating Luciano Pavarotti singing "Ave Maria"...
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taprider
3 months, 1 week ago
giggle out loud
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Hbar
3 months, 1 week ago
This made me look up "peanut butter wrench", which was worth it
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SteveR
3 months, 1 week ago
Cup and cone lives on, in hubs, threaded headsets, and tapered or cottered BB's on the lower end kids bikes that I have had the "pleasure" of working on, thanks to grandchildren. Fortunately, I had hung on to my collection of cone wrenches for the mid 2k vintage XT hubs on my 25 year old Dekerf "gravel" bike. Those hubs just keep on rollin'.
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Mike Kittmer
3 months, 1 week ago
Same. Is fun to find old 90’s rides worth saving. Usually those old Parallax hubs are salvageable if you can find cones in the darks recesses of shops.
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fartymarty
3 months, 1 week ago
I found some in a rear wheel I got from a mate when I bought his Wahoo trainer off him. The hub is a Giant hub with cartridge bearings but still used thin nuts (like on the old cup and cone hubs) to hold everything in place.
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Matt Cusanelli
3 months, 1 week ago
A little over a year ago I had the opportunity to restore my then girlfriend's Alpinestars Ti Mega which her father had purchased from a sponsored rider in the early 90s. Machinetech Hubs, Girvin Vector elastomer fork, King Headset, full XTR M900, Salsa Ti skewers. That UN90 BB still spun perfectly smooth after sitting in the semi enclosed shed for 15 years, King of course was fine after some fresh grease, and the group set took a new chain no problem. The Elastomers on the fork had properly marshmallowed but nothing some M12 rubber washers couldn't fix. Anyone still own/ride one of these?
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Pete Roggeman
3 months, 1 week ago
Awesome relic. Did you ever find out who it originally belonged to?
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
Girvin Vector, swoon. I am STILL waiting for someone to make a modern version, because I looooved me that fork. Loved it long time. Unlike everyone else I knew who rode them, and suffered failure after failure.
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Andy Eunson
3 months, 1 week ago
I have several headset wrenches one of which (32mm) is perfect for the Fox 34 and 36 top caps. I refuse the buy another socket in the correct size and grind it flat or buy an overpriced pre-ground one because UT (ubiquitous they) will change the size next fork.
Remember the lobed Shimano headsets? I had those tools too. Not anymore and I don’t care. Bolted and nutted crank extractors? Might have a Campagnolo version but I’m pretty sure the others went to recycling. I still have my crank cotter pin remover . That’s a hammer and drift.
I gave away 6 or 7 freewheel remover a few years ago to a guy that was into old bikes. I was positive those tools were not going to used by me ever again. I have those one style XTR crank removers though. I have that rare tool for removing the cone from those old Shimano freehub bodies.
I still have and will forever the Campagnolo T wrench. It gets used to remove the nuts on pedal axles. And I have a rare Shimano Dura-Ace version too. And you don’t. Ha.
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ZigaK
3 months, 1 week ago
I had a set of dia-compe 985 (If I remember correctly) on a khs montana, early 90' and it was the most powerful brake I have ever owned! If the rims were straight and it wasn't wet. Also the tires were made from some extremely fast wearing and sticky rubber.
p.s. if I could get to try those brakes in nos condition today, I might have a slightly different opinion
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Perry Schebel
3 months, 1 week ago
random: what's the title image source? (i like it; gilliam's brazil-esque).
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
Bingo! Screen grab from Brazil. I wanted to find a pic of Henry Tuttle pirate-fixing the ductwork in the walls, but nothing I found really looked right...
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Squint
3 months, 1 week ago
I still use cone wrenches, on my disk brake commuter from 2017. I don't consider it particularly old, lot of mid-low end bikes still come with QR axles don't they? Still have at least two bikes in the garage that would need the crank puller. And square taper, sure it had its faults, but light years better than cotter pin cranks.
This is why I don't balk at paying good money for bike tools (and let's be honest, in the realm of what quality tools cost, they aren't expensive); I can still use them decades later.
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Vik Banerjee
3 months, 1 week ago
I splurged and got myself a new toolbox this Christmas. I moved a lot of cone wrenches over to it from my old horde. Both amazed at how many I had and wondering if I'd ever use them again. It never occurred to me to get rid of them.
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Cr4w
3 months, 1 week ago
It's time for a second toolbox for aging/vintage/expiring tools you don't need on most days but you just might need once in a while but better sit on them for another 20 years just in case.
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
Cone wrenches are still awesome in my book, in spite of my editorial vitriol about them. They don't take up a ton of room, and they can come in handy trying to fit onto nuts that are maybe a little too thinly stacked for a regular wrench to get onto them. They can come in real handy when disassembling modern motorcycle forks. Not sure if this is just noise I am making to justify why I have these Pedro's wrenches, as well as several old Park cone wrenches, along with a full complement of Wrench Force cone wrenches back in the rolling toolbox...
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JT
3 months, 1 week ago
Still have a few bikes under the roof that require cone wrenches, one set of Ultegra on the spousal unit's roadie, Dura Ace and Formula track hubs, but admittedly most of the use the wrenches see is being brought into play to seat j bend spokes on new wheel builds. Can't say when the last time I brought out the 36+ units. There are tools that I could likely get rid of that I'll never have a use for, but that 'what if' is always in the back of my head. Ages ago I picked up a large flange gear puller to swap out rotors on a car that had a tapered spline interface. My pal teaching me how to do the job tried to have me return it since Sears/Craftsman had a liberal return policy, but I kept it citing the 'better to have and not need than need and not have' philosphy of tool ownership/mechs. It's pulled (heh!) many duties, from other rotor swaps, to car hub bearings, and even came into play when I rebuilt the mill at my shop space. That right there is probably why I'll never get rid of the cone wrenches, but maybe, juuuust maybe, I can let go of the Swiss BB taps.
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Offrhodes42
3 months, 1 week ago
I still have one of the slightly newer XTR hubs, in 135QR of course, on my singlespeed and the cone wrenches to work on them. Park rather than Pedros though.
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Dave Smith
3 months, 1 week ago
The Halliburton should maybe have its innards refurbished but that thing screams well-travelled as much as any well-stickered steamer trunk.
Also it's a close cousin to The Football to those of us of the duck and cover age.
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Mike Kittmer
3 months, 1 week ago
I lucked into a chance to own that first pewter XTR groupo right when it came out. The owner of the shop I worked at came across three kits (not sure how, didn’t ask) and sold me one for I think about. 5 or $600…sans cassette and hubs which he kept. This was the first of the spline drive cranksets and had a collar for adjusting the bearings. It was hard giving up on that kit only a few years later but, 46 tooth big ring, 34 middle, v-brakes, 8 speed…all detriments by the year 2000 when I arrived in BC.
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fartymarty
3 months, 1 week ago
The article reminds me of the lovely red anodised Hadley rear hub spanners I paid a small fortune to be shipped from the US to UK that hang on my tool wall. The worst part is the rear hub, that spanner were purchased for died last year and I threw it in the recycling bin last Christmas when I had did a spot of de-hording. It was a lovely hub but was 36 hole and the cost to get the replacement parts, once again shipped at an extortionate cost from the US, would be far more than buying a "not as good but easier to get parts for" Hope....
They do bring a nice touch of colour to my white painted chipboard tool wall thought even if they will never be used again.
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Mammal
3 months, 1 week ago
I've still got a 12x150mm Hadley 32-hole DH hub that I'm hesitant to get rid of. Probably better described as "heavily procrastinating". The single imperial-sized spanner for it also remains in my tool pile, waiting to find out the exciting conclusion to the saga.
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fartymarty
3 months, 1 week ago
If mine was 32 hole I would have kept it. The only 36 hole rim I could find as a Velocity Blunt and they're too soft for my poor line choice.
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Fat_Tony_NJ
3 months, 1 week ago
A cone wrench from a knockoff of that kit saved me when I needed a super thin wrench to hold a stub axle on the Snowcaster on early my early 1980's Case yard tractor. Totally made it worth carrying those wrenches around for 30 years!
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Lacy Kemp
3 months, 1 week ago
The best way to avoid creaky XTR hubs and a million other frustrations is to...not use XTR hubs. I learned this the hard (and expensive) way.
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
so. much. hate.
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James Heath
3 months, 1 week ago
I would love someone to make an MTB hub using the Campagnolo/Fulcrum hub system. Cartridge bearing freehubs, coupled with nice serviceable, replaceable cup-and-cone hub bearings. My thinking is they should handle all the side loading of mountain biking better than a radial cartridge bearing, they're adjustable and serviceable if you're that way inclined, and you can stil replace them like a cartridge bearing if you screw it up/don't do it in time. The new Shimano cup and cone hubs are pretty awful - XT seemed to go from solidly reliable to finicky shite in one generation, it's a shame.
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aztech
3 months, 1 week ago
Have you seen that new hub with the freewheel ratchet on the disc side? Seems like a really well thought out bearing layout for MTB.
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kurt
3 months, 1 week ago
One of my old cone wrenches got it's mouth filed wider to remove a suspension fork top-cap. By carefully clamping the wrench into a repurposed bench vice (a whole 'nother story) and removing material till the file contacted the vice jaws, I knew I was parallel and the intended diam. There was a little less material connecting the 'lower jaw' of the wrench to the handle. Combined with the hole for hanging the wrench on a wall peg, these two features created a nice Packman-with-an-underbite look. something something orthodontist tools.....
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mrbrett
3 months, 1 week ago
I think those Pedro’s cone wrench kits came with a bottle opener too!
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Mike Ferrentino
3 months, 1 week ago
Yeah, there's one in there still. Never actually used it, since, duh, cone wrenches...
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Adrian Bostock
3 months, 1 week ago
As much as there are major issue with the amount of space dedicated to parking in urban areas, when you are road tripping you definitely appreciate American sized parking stalls where you have enough room to dry out your camping gear, make lunch and wench on bikes in the confines of a parking stall. the added benefit that someone will come by and ask you if you need anything (because clearly you are homeless). lol.
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sfellers
3 months, 1 week ago
This really reminds me of the "good old days" of working as a bike mechanic and using cone wrenches regularly! While the old cone wrenches aren't in my main tool box they are around the garage and come out to play every so often!
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Bruce Mackay
3 months, 1 week ago
I set up an old red craftsman tool box with "rarely used tools" the bottom has my my old "head set spanners". BB "C notch" spanners (2 sizes) 3 sizes of pin spanners (red, green, black) Crank extractors (shudder) All in the bottom. And the NEW rarely used up top : fork top cap wrenches, BB and head set presses, and cheap steel BSA sockets (pairs well with a 16" handled1/2" drive ratchet) for Shimano and FSA "notched" bb's, so don't destroy my nice Alu Park ones on the first removal b/c the last person that worked on the BB didn't grease the threads. Yeah, new bikes are comparatively an absolute dream to work on.
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jeffp
3 months, 1 week ago
First mention I've seen of the Whitworth thread standard in recent journalism. I first ran into that mystery on a 1973 Bob Jackson seatpost clamp. Given to me by my brother-in-law in Montana - it was his pride and joy after college. Wonderful to find that Whitworth was the first standardized national thread systems (Joseph Whitworth, Britain, 1841). And that he had a full set of wrenches in his shed - 12 hours away. Of course he did, he's a man with a foot firmly planted in each century, and a collector of beautiful and obscure vintage machinery.
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ianstowe
3 months, 1 week ago
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