New tool day: Lebycle wheel lacing stand. Got this from AliExpress, about a 1/6 cheaper than the Abbey Tools lacing stand, but I could see some extra features that the Abbey didn't have and it was cheaper!

When it arrived, just the weight of this stand felt decent. Once I got it out I could see how well it was made, the aluminium arms folds out with thumb knobs to lock it in place, then other thumb knobs on the arm stands can adjust them to hold wheels of various sizes. One can guess it and adjust as needed to the rim, but the measurements and pre-destined wheel sizes make the setup quick and easy. The double roller on the arm stands allow the rim to rotate smoothly and nicely.

The centre arm is for the hub, there is a 5mm skewer for QR hubs, then there are upper and lower step cones for 12mm and 15mm thru axle hubs. Below this is a grip collar that allows the hub to be position up and down to centre it to the rim. The instructions even has a formula to work out the correct height to set the hub and centre it to the rim, but I find eyeballing it was sufficient.

Lacing with this stand was very good, smooth and ergonomic. I did hit an issue with the QR skewer as the BoostBike hub was too narrow for this skewer, but you can unscrew this and screw in the QR skewer from BoostBike which does fit. So it holds a 2.5kg hub securely and safely for lacing. With the QR skewer screwed in to hold the hub, it was not possible to flip the wheel to lace the bottom set of spokes, but it wasn't necessary as there is plenty of space to feed spokes and lace.

Made lacing smoother and quicker...

Time for a face lift

My old livery on the van has been almost 10 years now. We changed our logo last year so time to get the van livery updated with a bit of a face lift. Hope you all like it.

Trek Rail 5 rear linkage service:

Tried out the Lebycle bearing puller but it was not suitable for odd shaped frames, which most full suspension bikes are. Designed with curves for the look not serviceability. So needed to use the Enduro Bearings kit instead. The Noble wheels bearing puller and even punch and hammer for certain bearings. This job can be tough.

But once the new set of bearings are put in, courtesy of @aire_velo_bearings,the rear linkage comes alive. There was a knocking my client noticed and it turns out a spacer in the main pivot was missing.

Nipple Holder: I finally got to use my (ahem) nipple holder by @chrisheerschap

I love Chris's 3D printed designs and this small tool I had wanted to use for a long while now. Was gonna use it on the Campag Levante wheel rebuild with the SON dynamo a month ago, but there were too many nipples, but I only had one nipple holder and the Campag nipples were 13G not 14G that this is made for.

Anyway a wheel came in with a wonky spoke so perfect chance to use it. Worked like a dream,are replacing a spoke much easier and not having to take the tyre off.

New tool day: Lebycle bearing puller tool. This was a AliExpress purchase. Comes in a half decent small briefcase. Made of stainless steel with some chrome plated collets of various sizes that covers most bicycle bearing inner diameters. It is more for hubs than say frame bearings or even BB bearings as the collets range from 6-20mm only.

I say it isn't so useful for frame bearings is that the receiving cup is quite wide and most full suss frames do not have such wide flat area around bearing for it to work.

The tool can feel a little finicky to setup, the collets are reverse threaded (left hand), use 10mm spanner to tighten. Insert the tool with collet through bearing. Then use a 5mm lone hex wrench to drive a pin through the middle of the collet to expand and grip the bearing.

Then wind down the inner handle and put the receiving cup in place between the handle and the bearing. Tighten down a little then start turning outside handle and it will wind and pull the bearing in, simples... But can be tight.

The tool has an extra feature that can change the collet to a 3 prong pin collet to grip outer bearing cages, for those moments when the bearing breaks apart.
I was going to show this feature in a video however it didn't work out. I actually ended up losing one of the pins I needed for the small bearing I did break! It's around somewhere, just so small that I can't find it....

This is a decent tool and if it was made for a bigger brand like say Park tool or Abbey it would cost a lot more than through AliExpress. I do wonder when I will break the collets though....

City on Fire: en route to Breakfast club this morning