Local Boys Make Good, Union Foundry Rotafixer Tool

Written by Boston Biker on Jun 23

For those of you who are into fixed gear bikes you have probably at some point or another had to wrench off some horribly stuck back cog, what many don’t know is that there is an easy way to get these stuck demons off using a method called “rotafix”

I have used this method many a time to get stubborn cogs (or now with this tool lock rings!) off when I was shy a chain whip, or when the chain whip just wouldn’t cut it. But now the good people at Union Foundry (a collaboration of Open Bicycle and Designer Aaron Panone) Have created the T0001 “Rotafixer” tool.

Union Foundry T-0001 Roto-Fix Tool from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Much more info here and here.


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Posted in Bike Business, Mechanical, video | 5 Comments »


5 Responses to “Local Boys Make Good, Union Foundry Rotafixer Tool”

  1. By Matt on Jun 23, 2010 | Reply

    Wow I wish I had a bicycle part that made it quick and simple to change gear ratios! Now if only it was possible to change gears while moving. Wouldn’t that be something?

  2. By h4ckw0r+h on Jun 23, 2010 | Reply

    BSNYC has a writeup of this tool also:

    http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010/06/flights-of-fancy-art-of.html

  3. By yikesbikes on Jun 24, 2010 | Reply

    Really like the design of this tool and its great to have this sort of thing being developed locally. Congrats to those guys.

    For $85 though, I’ll stick with my Pedro’s multi-tool for 1/3 of the price and twice the utility.

  4. By aarn on Jun 24, 2010 | Reply

    Thanks for the post. I thought that it would make the most sense to address some of these issues on a more local bike blog, to clear up some of the confusion/anger about the price of the product. We have been hearing a lot of responses to the price of this tool. In sourcing material and manufacturing houses locally, it has become apparent why so many products are made cheaply overseas. The market demands it, and much of the market seems to be uninterested in some of the efforts that we have made to keep things as local as possible.

    This product will never be mass-produced by us. We are currently looking into a larger production run, and cutting some overhead costs to attempt to bring the price down a bit. Every aspect of this product was designed and manufactured by us, our friends, and our community and it all occurred within a few miles of it’s inception. We feel that this is very important and it is essential to us that we keep these contracts and relationships with our local shops and designers. It costs a little bit more to have things done the right way and locally, and we hope that people will understand that they are getting a truly hand-crafted article from designers who are very serious about stimulating industries and the economy on a small scale.

    In a blurb about the tool for in interested party I wrote:
    “We set out to release something that was extremely functional but also beautiful. We wanted T0001 to be manufactured and distributed locally using as much of our immediate network of friends and our community as possible. We wanted the tool to stem back to the days of the elegant and meticulously-crafted hand tools that were in the basements of our parents and grandparents, and wanted for every aspect of the manufacturing and packaging to be designed. That’s something that you just don’t see in the bike tool market, and something that has been lost in many consumer markets. We are at a point where everything is very disposable, it’s hard to make your efforts lasting and worthwhile when trying to design or accomplish anything. The company, Union Foundry is a deposit for our designs, and is not bike specific. It just happened that our first product was a bike tool, because it was the first thing that we came up with and said, “Hey, people might like this. Let’s put all of our dollars together and develop this.””

    Thanks for your support, and we hope that this clears up some of the mystery of the high price point.

    aarn

  5. By Elisabeth on Jun 27, 2010 | Reply

    I enjoyed both the bike snob post about this and a few responses from open/aaron. Sure, the fetishization of bikes (and bike tools) isn’t going to save the world, but the underlying principles—

    1. local first
    2. promoting a high-quality, non-throwaway standard for producing things
    3. bikes are awesome
    4. valuing craftspeople and artisans
    5. bikes!

    just might do the trick.

    Elisabeth

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