Adventures In Crown Race Setting

This isn't a post as it is more an airing of grievances about my own lack of coordination. Actually, it's more a warning, in hindsight, to those bike folk who cannot wield a hammer. I'm looking right at you Andy Hale. To make a long story short, I borrowed the CRS-1 (Crown Race Setter) last night (Joshie was my witness) to install my 110 crown race onto my new White Brothers Rock Solid. Don't know if it was the low lighting in the room, my cat Mimi's serpentine windings at my feet or a general lack of concentration and focus, but as I brought hammer down to meet CRS-1, the hammer glanced off the top, striking me in the hand/thumb and eliciting a bellow of pain which sent poor Mimi scurrying to her "safety spot". The lesson: never work on your bike, ever. Just take it to a shop or ask Joshie to do it or pull a Will (purchasing) and never replace or fix anything. As I sat on the couch nursing my wound, I started thinking how awesome the CRS-1 really is. It's basically just a brutal killing thingy masquerading as a "bike" tool.

I've always used a handy pipe for CR installation, but if you're a workbench completionist or Park Tool fetishist, er, collector then one would look to the CRS-1 as a natural addition. Three 1" inserts and three 1 1/8" inserts-color coded! Fool proof! Blog proof! And yes, Mimi came out of her safety spot. Then she chased down a bug and ate it. The End.


"You call this mint condition? I shall trade you a Krusty burger stained Little Lulu #423 for your sub-par offering!... Get out of my store."