The other night at the Velo Cult party, I got to see a demo from a new company out of Washington state, BicycleStarz. Now, I have to give you a bit of a disclaimer: if you’re a wheel builder, brace yourself, because these tools will leave you frothing at the mouth like a bamboo starved panda…
Coincidentally, all of these tools are made by hand, using bamboo when possible and are filled with such elegant details that they dance that ever-present line of utilitarian art I always speak about.
Check out some in-depth photos below.
Spoke Nipple Sorting Tool $100
Like a bento box for a wheel building panda, the Spoke Nipple Sorting Tool makes wheel builds easy while looking damn sexy. Simply dump however many spoke nipples into this treasure box and they’ll magically land ass up, ready to be picked up by your favorite tool.
Dish any wheel with or without tires, on or off the bike, from 20″ to 29″, with an asymmetrical indicator foot, magnetized dish wheels and an ergonomic design. All by using solid bamboo construction while maintaining a beautiful form that you’d expect from a tool used to work on one of the most elegant inventions ever: the bicycle wheel.
Wheel De-stressing Tool and Wheel Build Center (Large) $2,675
This one’s a big ol’ boy and while I’ll leave the technical jargon to BicycleStarz (click that ^ link), I will say the quick 5 minute demo I witnessed looked a lot more accurate than stepping on the wheel to de-stress the spokes. Basically, a large torque wrench delivers weight to the hub, allowing de-stressing to happen in an accurate way. Add in the wheel turntable, spoke holder, drawers, etc etc etc and you can build wheels even faster…
Made in the USA, made to order and even more elegant in person.
See more at BicycleStarz!
