3m/10ft Tape Measure

A metric tape measure is harder to source in the US than it should be. Most hardware-store tapes read in feet and inches first, with a metric scale shrunk to the bottom edge; useful enough until you need to read a 1-millimeter increment on a fork's recommended axle-to-crown spec, and the millimeter marks are crowded against the imperial half-inches. The 710R-US reads both scales clearly, with the metric scale running the full length of the tape rather than being a secondary annotation.

The tape is 3 meters / 10 feet long. That's the length you need for measuring frame reach (the longer the reach, the more critical a non-stretching tape), wheel diameter (a 700c wheel measures around 670 mm at the bead seat), bar widths (a wide gravel bar is 480-500 mm), and most of the dimensional checks a working shop does on a daily basis. Shorter tapes (like a 1m model) work for smaller measurements but stop short of frame-geometry work.

When you'll reach for the tape and not the caliper

The caliper handles fine measurements at small ranges. The tape handles coarser measurements at long ranges. Both are necessary; neither replaces the other.

Tape work: bar width, frame reach, wheel circumference for cyclo-computer calibration, stand height when assembling a customer's bike for size, the distance between two bolts that need to be at a specific spacing.

Caliper work: rotor thickness, axle outer diameter, head tube inner diameter, spacer thickness, anything where 0.01 mm matters. See our digital or analog vernier caliper.

Specs

• 3 meters / 10 feet length
• Metric and imperial scales (both read full-length)
• Belt clip
• Article number: 710R-US

Built in Zreče, Slovenia

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. The 710R-US is one of the small workshop fundamentals Unior catalogs alongside its bike-specific tools. A metric tape measure is a working-shop staple in any country that runs on metric measurements; it's a niche find in the US, which is why we stock it for US shops working on European-built bikes.

Pro tip from our mechanics

The single most-overlooked tape-measure use in a bike shop is calibrating a cyclo-computer's wheel circumference for a specific tire. The published spec for a tire is approximate; the actual rollout (mounted, inflated, with the rider's weight) is what the computer needs. Rolling the wheel one full revolution and measuring the distance traveled with the tape is the right answer. Our workshop hand tools guide covers measurement tools and the rest of the workshop hand-tool layer: Workshop hand tools every bike shop needs →