Small win: Picked the $7 chain whip over the $35 one from Park Tool

Had to choose between a cheap chain whip from the local shop in Spokane and a fancy Park Tool one. Went with the $7 one figuring I'd upgrade later if it broke. Three cassette swaps later it's still holding up fine, no bending or slipping. Got me thinking, how much does brand name really matter for tools that don't see daily pro use?

3 comments

3 Comments

leohart20d ago

Bought a cheap cassette tool from a hardware store years ago and it stripped right out on the first try. But I've got a chain whip from the bargain bin that's been going strong for five years now. It really depends on the tool and how much actual force you're putting on it. A chain whip doesn't need to be precision machined, it just needs to grab the teeth and not slip. I figure for home use, you can get away with a lot of the cheap stuff as long as you're not torquing on it like a gorilla. If it breaks, you're out seven bucks and you learn your lesson. No sense paying for the Park Tool name if the cheap one does the job just fine.

martin.jamie15d ago

Get what you're saying completely. I've had the exact same experience where one cheap tool fails instantly and another lasts forever. The chain whip is a good example because it's basically just a handle with some chain on it, hard to mess that up too bad. But that cassette tool stripping out on first use is brutal, makes you feel like you wasted your money and still have a broken cassette on your hands. I think people get too hung up on brand names and forget that simple tools like that are hard to screw up, as long as the metal isn't complete garbage.

paul11720d ago

Yeah but what counts as "torquing on it like a gorilla" to you?