Categories: Reverence

Reverence: Campagnolo Tools

photo by italian_bicycles

Exposure to religion in my youth was by way of a brief dose of sunday school at the local Unitarian church. The point there, evidently, was to learn about other religions and turtles. If a point was being made, I missed it. When Catholic friends of mine came over for the weekend I would accompany them to the closest Catholic church and we would endure the mass together, the experience leaving us just as clueless as the moment before we walked in.

A girlfriend of @Rob briefly worked for the English bike company Raleigh in Boston, Massachusetts. These were the Jan Raas, Didi Thurau, Ti-Raleigh years, where Raleigh made beautiful bikes and their team was one of the dreadnaughts of professional cycling. I was visiting this friend at the Raleigh offices, which to my eyes seemed like any other office: fluorescent lighting, linoleum tiled floors, men in coats and ties. It was uncontaminated by bicycles or red and yellow  kits. This place was not cool. My friend ushered me into a nondescript room, pulled out an enormous sliding drawer and showed me something she knew was cool.

In this sliding drawer was a complete set of Campagnolo bike tools, all set in blue foam cut outs, each tool nestled in its perfectly shaped place. I didn’t fall to my knees but I must have gasped. Each tool was a work of art: form and function in unison. Each tool designed for a specific task in the wedding of components to frame. The tools had a uniform silver finish. There were facing and chasing tools with beautifully milled cutting teeth of high speed steel. I’m serious about reverence here. I had never seen anything like this. The seeds to my Italophile religion were sown. I was already a devout fan of the components but did the tools have to look this fantastic? What did this say about a company? To me it said-these tools are designed and made to make sure Campagnolo components work perfectly on any frame. What goes into the tools goes into everything else. The passion, the design, the tools and the components are one. Perhaps the intention was never there to make cool looking tools, maybe it was just a by-product of making cool looking components. What else could they do?

I had found my religion. I never needed the complete tool set, I was never a professional bike mechanic. I do own a few civilian Campa tools: some cone wrenches, the peanut butter wrench, a T-handle wrench, a 10-speed chain tool. These are beautiful tools. Park makes functional tools, no one would say they are beautiful. Why make a functional tool beautiful? Is a beautiful tool a better tool? It is when one is making a living wielding them. Pride in your tools reflects pride in your work.

I was going to write that those days are over, adding beauty adds cost and the bottom line is everything now. Then I remembered my Lezyne pedal wrench. It is functional as it removes pedals without impaling knuckles onto greasy chainrings (and opens beer bottles) but it is beautiful because it has a wide smooth machined aluminum handle bolted onto the body of the wrench. It lacks the refined industrial design of a Campagnolo tool but it is beautiful in its own way.

[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/j.andrews3@comcast.net/campy tools/”/]

Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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  • @scaler911

    @Chris

    @scaler911 Any doubts about your deviant status are dispelled by the fetching pink nail varnish.

    ...The only people that shave their legs in this town are... ...strippers. And even those have around 60% compliance.

    That could suggest that you're only achieving a 60% success rate on the gender identification thing.

  • @scaler911

    @Chris

    @scaler911 Any doubts about your deviant status are dispelled by the fetching pink nail varnish.

    No way that's either me, or a photo from Portland. There's no socks involved, and/or the legs in the above photo are shaved. The only people that shave their legs in this town are bike racers and strippers. And even those have around 60% compliance (looking at you @gaswepass).

    when we get the genetic upgrade to allow me to go cat 2, I'll employ the razor with gusto. until then, I rest comfortably that I'm doing all that extra resistance work and not wasting time cleaning/unclogging bathroom drains. Thats a fuckton of hair.

  • Now that most of my bikes have external BBs I almost get queasy at the sight of a square spindle, something like waking up and your pants have shrunk like Milhouse Van Houten's and you can see leg showing between your cuffs and your socks. And denim. Yikes. I proudly don't own any.

    Crocs. I think those are/will play a major part in the downfall of humanity. In "Ride the Divide" the lone female rider not only wears a backpack but she has her Crocs strapped to it! No wonder she cramped up & nearly quit. Definitely not an essential item on a twenty day self-supported race.

  • ps - Honey Stinger's on sale at chainlove. Only drawback: a certain former bike racer is featured on the package...

  • @gaswepass

    when we get the genetic upgrade to allow me to go cat 2, I'll employ the razor with gusto. until then, I rest comfortably that I'm doing all that extra resistance work and not wasting time cleaning/unclogging bathroom drains. Thats a fuckton of hair.

    Damn, how fast does yr leg hair grow back??

  • @PeakInTwoYears

    @gaswepass

    when we get the genetic upgrade to allow me to go cat 2, I'll employ the razor with gusto. until then, I rest comfortably that I'm doing all that extra resistance work and not wasting time cleaning/unclogging bathroom drains. Thats a fuckton of hair.

    Damn, how fast does yr leg hair grow back??

    well, son, a man reaches a certain age... I just don't feel I can sacrifice a pair of garden shears to get things down to razor manageable length at this time.

  • @Ron

    Now that most of my bikes have external BBs I almost get queasy at the sight of a square spindle, something like waking up and your pants have shrunk like Milhouse Van Houten's and you can see leg showing between your cuffs and your socks. And denim. Yikes. I proudly don't own any.

    Crocs. I think those are/will play a major part in the downfall of humanity. In "Ride the Divide" the lone female rider not only wears a backpack but she has her Crocs strapped to it! No wonder she cramped up & nearly quit. Definitely not an essential item on a twenty day self-supported race.

    What are you talking about? Square Taper Forevah!

  • @Ron

    ps - Honey Stinger's on sale at chainlove. Only drawback: a certain former bike racer is featured on the package...

    Second drawback: They have no flavor and are a poor excuse for a proper stroopwafel.

  • @G'rilla

    @Ron

    ps - Honey Stinger's on sale at chainlove. Only drawback: a certain former bike racer is featured on the package...

    Second drawback: They have no flavor and are a poor excuse for a proper stroopwafel.

    Agreed, I've tried them (though not on the bike).  If I'm going to ingest anything other than a gel or energy drink on a ride, its going to be REAL food.

  • @Gianni

    Just the name evokes the smell of dusty wooden floorboards and grease soaked workshop aprons and the smell of a strong macchiato ....... old men sitting on wooden stools around an aged bench tinkering with steel steeds.

    Mmmm, now where was I ......

    Why are the words I wrote coming out of your mouth ???   Did I write such eloquent prose that you changed the posters name ??

    Not having a go .... just name on post has changed from mine to yours ........     or am i dreaming again ??

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