Tools
Buy Crombie Tool Online Now
Any mechanic worth their salt likes tools. As a mechanic, your tools can determine how much work you can do and how well you can do it. You want tools that make your life easier and help facilitate an efficient workplace thus creating opportunity to be more profitable.
In the last year at Abbey Bike Works, I’ve have created some unique tools to make working on the modern bicycle more efficient. The first tool for release is the Crombie Tool. I’m excited about this tool, as it was just the thing to help me meet a simple yet critical need in my everyday repair jobs. There are more tools in the works and I will release them on the website when they are ready for use. Stay tuned!
The history of the Crombie Tool: In the winter of 2011, Jeff Crombie made a phone call to me asking if I could possibly make a custom cassette lock-ring tool for him. He wanted a tool that he could use to ensure the cassette was tight or even swap a cassette without removing the skewer. A few days later, I was able to modify some off the shelf lock-ring tools to come up with a custom tool that would fit the bill. I was able to hand make a few rough tools and passed them out to some other race mechanics for feedback. The feedback was very positive and soon I had requests to make more. I then worked with a local machine shop here in my hometown of Bend Oregon to create a small production batch of quality Crombie Tools. The machine shop created the splined portion of the tool and I personally do all the rest. Because I do the welding and put the final touches on the tool, I can customize the tool to fit your needs.
The Crombie Tool is available in three basic versions:
- The standard Crombie Tool (pictured below) is a dual-sided tool with an 8.5” long, ½” diameter solid handle. It has a Shimano spline on one side and a Campagnolo on the other side. The Campagnolo side gets the deeper spline and the ID groove. Cost $45.00
- The second version of the Crombie Tool is a Shimano only version for the team mechanics and customers that do not own a Campagnolo equipped bike. This version has a slightly smaller 3/8” solid handle. Cost $35.00
- The final version of the Crombie Tool is the ‘SL’. It is dual-sided like the standard version, but with a ½ inch hollow handle. This handle makes the tool lighter by 100 grams yet you do not sacrifice durablity. This weight reduction comes in handy if you fly with your tools and do not want to pay those extra fees. Cost $45.00
Finally, as part of the customization process, I can laser engrave the name of your shop or team on your tool for an additional $10.00
If you are interested in purchasing this tool, or have questions, feel free to contact me through my contact page.
The Crombie lock ring tool is getting a big brother of a chain whip. There are a couple of prototypes around getting run the the ringer. The production version should be ready by the end of the year. As far as chain whips go it’s not anything to special but the Crombie stores securely inside it’s handle. So the two tools you always use together are stored together.
Other things in the works are headset and bottom bracket press adaptors for modern fitments, a universal truing stand adaptor and a few other widgets I’m keeping to myself.