Sea Otter - Round 2 - some wrenches

I've made mention that I'm a mechanic around here some of the time and mechanics like to geek out on cool tools now and again. so you can imagine my joy when I saw these displays in the Lezyne booth. 

Sure, that's a chain whip and pedal wrench and a chain breaker...some other crap. Below are some water bottle cages and a pump. But this is like eating ramen noodles in Japan, it's not the same stuff we're used to. Simple products done really well are always welcome in my book, and the finish quality on these tools is near-Shimano level. The water bottle cages made me want to actually drink out of water bottles again, and that pump has a super accurate digital gauge (+/_3psi is pretty good). They say you can use it on suspension forks and shocks, but I'm going to call BS on that until I see it. I hope it's true, and I have no reason to distrust the Lezyne guys, but I've been lied to before. 

Since I just mentioned suspension, I have to go off on a little rant here that might be interesting to you. Here it is: if you have a full suspension bicycle, you have a suspension fork on the front and a shock on the rear. No one has a "front shock." A "front shock" does not exist. Even if you try to get smart with me and bring up special cases like a Girvin linkage-style fork, it's still a suspension fork that utilizes a shock. Even the Cannondale Lefty, which by definition isn't even a fork, is still a front suspension fork. It just is.

Some background: I used to work in the suspension industry, and it was ingrained in me (and others) that if we slipped and said "front shock" just once, we'd be deemed idiots. Don't do it. Most people don't know, but now you do, so save yourself some humiliation and just use the correct terminology.

Also, I just got one of these new dropper posts from my buddies at X-Fusion. There are a lot of choices in the dropper post world these days and I know X-Fusion isn't the first brand that comes to mind when people are choosing the one they want, but maybe it should be. This is their latest version and has stealth remote routing, it's light as all get out, the finish quality is tip top, and it now uses a cartridge system so the outer wiper shouldn't blow up on the upper stanchion. I'll keep you informed as to how it works out, but so far, it's impressive. 

All for today, though here are some more Lezyne images to keep you happy until next time. Oh, and in case you're wondering how much all of this costs...it's expensive. Is it available now? Maybe. Are we going to stock it? We'll see. Am I being a jerk? Seemingly so, but no. We gotta try this stuff out first to see if we even like it, and I don't do the purchasing around here even if we do. These are just bits that I'm excited about. What I can guarantee is that if you think you need something (this stuff or otherwise) we'll do everything in our power to track it down for you.

Holla back if you like and more to come.
BC