We have a series of Park CT-3 that are on every bench for geared chains and have people borrow a Park CT-7 from the master bench for the 1/8" and 1/2" chains, we just bought pins in bulk and replace them as needed.  Prior to that we were thinking of doing the following:

Chain Tool Pin (and other) rental.  Where each bench has a chain tool without a pin and a sign instructing them to talk to a core volunteer about using the tool.  Which serves two functions:

1) No one uses tools that break without instruction.  Since they have to get a pin from a core volunteer, the core volunteer can ask, "have you used this before, and can I show you how?"

2) They could "rent" the pin for a buck, and if it comes back in good condition they get their buck back.  If they bust the pin you can use their deposit to buy a new one, however if they return it in working order they get their buck back.

As for shop pumps, we are working towards installing shop air -- no floor pump can withstand the abuse of a shop, especially a community bike shop, and they say that quite clearly in all the distributor catalogs.

BTW, Park Tool will take back broken tools as part of their lifetime guarantee.

--
Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison
Executive Director
Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective
2312 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
w: 801-328-2453
c: 801-688-0183
f: 801-466-3856
www.slcbikecollective.org

Get Addicted to Crank!
http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/

The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 10:53 AM, Sherief <sgaber@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,

This is Sherief from the Austin Yellowbike, and I was hoping to pool the thinktank's experience with shop tools prone to breakage and the like.  We're currently having huge issues keeping up with Chain Tools and Presta Valve pumps especially... it feels like not a week goes by without at least one of each of these tools breaking.  W/r/t the chain tools, we recently switched from the nicer Park tools to the cheapest we could get out of the catalog, but with the way those break there's effectively no net savings and even when they are functioning the new cheap ones are no good.  We try to make sure people know how to use the tools before they do, etc.  But my question(s) today is: Do people have any similar experience out there with broken/breakable tools-- specifically good ways to prevent these breakages?  Does anyone have any recommendations for good chain tools /PV pumps that can withstand a bit of overeager volunteerin g?


Best,
Sherief

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