Hubs & Bearings
How to Use a Cone Wrench: Hub Cone Adjustment, Sizes & Sets
What a cone wrench is for, the step-by-step hub cone adjustment, which sizes fit which hubs, and how far a regular wrench can take you instead.
Tech Tips
Repair guides written from the workstand in Ballston Spa — bleeding brakes, chasing creaks, setting preload, and the tools each job actually needs.
Workshop
How to Wash a Bike: A Step-by-Step Workshop Method
The clean-to-dirty workshop method for washing a bike without wrecking the bearings or drivetrain: degrease first, wash top-down, dry, then re-lube.
Workshop
Bike Bolt Torque Chart: How Tight Is Right
Torque specs for the common bike bolts — stem, rotor, crank, cassette, and pedals — plus the rule that beats any chart: the part's printed value always wins.
Hubs & Bearings
Headset Standards Explained: Reading the SHIS Chart
A reference guide to the SHIS headset identification system: what the EC, ZS, and IS prefixes mean, how to read cup and bearing dimensions, how to identify an unknown headset on the bench, and the Unior tools that press, pull, and set each part.
Drivetrain
How to Measure Bike Chain Length the Right Way
A workshop guide to sizing a bike chain: the big-big plus one inch method, the largest-cog method for 1x, how derailleur capacity and full suspension change the math, and how to break to length and reconnect cleanly.
Hubs & Bearings
Bearing and headset service: a workshop guide
Workshop guide to bearing service: cup-and-cone hubs, cartridge bearing press and puller technique, headset cup install and removal.
Workshop
Workshop Hand Tools Every Bike Shop Needs
The non-bike-specific hand tools (vise, files, awls, hacksaw, measuring tools, ratchets, pedal-thread chase) that quietly carry half the work in any working bike shop. Why they matter, how to choose them, and what to look for.
Brakes
How to choose Sinter brake pads: compound, fitment, and use case
Which Sinter model fits your brake, which compound suits your riding, and where the Elite line earns its titanium backing plate. The pad-selection guide for the Slovenian organic-compound brand we sell.
Workshop
What we wear in the workshop
A bike-mechanic's guide to shop apparel, drinkware, and the daily wear that survives bench life. Why dark cotton beats light, why a brim helps under a repair stand, and how the Made For Work line came together.
Workshop
How to set up a professional bike workshop
A workshop is a workflow problem before it is a tool problem. Bench placement, repair-stand choice, and a find-it-in-five-seconds tool system decide how many bikes a mechanic can turn around in a day.
Wheels & Tires
How to true a bike wheel
A workshop walk-through for bringing a wheel back into true — lateral, radial, dish, and tension — plus the call on when a wheel is past saving.
Workshop
How to use a torque wrench on your bike
A workshop guide to using a slipper-type torque wrench on bike fasteners. Covers technique, scale reading, the low-torque/high-torque split, common bike values, and the calibration habits that keep the tool honest.