We've had the same problems.
For the pump, I would avoid the ones with the 'Smart Head" (one head
works for both valves). There's always one person who looks at that
head and thinks of the older single heads where one had to open them
to flip the bits around for each valve. Sure enough, a Smart Head
gets unscrewed and the various tiny bits scatter and you never get it
back together. When this happened to our Topeak pump we simply
ordered a dual head t avoid further issues.
We get most of our bike-specific tools donated to us by MEC. We
started out with one of their $25 floor pumps and busted that in
fairly short order. We went and bought our own shop quality Topeak,
and aside from the above Smart Head issue it held up longer than I
thought it would. MEC no longer sells Park tools, but use another
company called Filzer. When we requested another pricey pump they
asked to try out the Filzer one as an experiment (we've become their
"tough testers") and aside from the handle coming unglued (it was
taped back together) it has held up well.
For chain tools, we too switched from Park under the advice of using
cheap ones and treating them as disposable. But they are not nice to
use, and most don't have the second slot for pin bumping. So we've
gone back to better ones and try to make sure people use them correctly.
Mark
On 31-Mar-08, at 12:53 PM, Sherief 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 _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org