askapro
Riding downhill made easy Q: I’ve noticed a huge price differential
By Lee Parks #162125
Q: While reading your Riding Down-
hill skill lesson in the recent BMW ON magazine,
I
was surprised to see that you are “gener- ally not a fan of
using engine braking to slow the bike down.” I am by no means a profes- sional rider, but I was surprised, because I use engine braking all the time while riding the bike and while in the car. Is this a bad habit? I do keep a close watch on my six o’clock and make sure to use the brakes somewhat
know what
for letting those behind I’m up to. Can you
explain your rationale? Tom Albrecht
A: Good question, Tom, so I’ll elab- orate on my answer. There is nothing
wrong with using some engine brak- ing to help the front brakes keep the bike settled, but the primary mecha- nism to slow the bike will always be the brakes. If you’re using the engine to do the lion’s share of the slowing down duties and the bike accidentally pops into neutral (as some Beemers are prone to do from time to time), you could be in big trouble. Think of engine braking as a little helper (in the Santa Claus sense), but never as the primary means of slowing the bike down in a quick stop situation. Keep in mind that when the engine
is under a large load during hard engine braking, it is wearing out the pistons, rings, cylinders, rod/crank- shaft bearings, etc., faster than nor- mal, which will require more frequent major engine overhauls. If you’re a high-mileage guy, that might be a big deal.
88 BMW OWNERS NEWS February 2016
between (and even within) hand tool brands. What advantages are there, if any- thing, with the more expensive tools? Tim Cannard
A: You’re right Tim, there is a huge price differential between/within tool brands.
Let’s talk about why there is a difference and the tradeoffs. To begin with there are a few primary categories of hand tool brands used on motorcycles: 1) Mass merchandiser retail brands such as Craftsman (Sears), Husky (Home Depot), Cobalt (Lowe’s)
2) U.S. tool truck brands such as Snap-On, Mac, Matco, Cornwell
3) U.S. specialty brands such as Armstrong, Proto, SK
4) European specialty brands such as Facom, Beta, Hazet
5) Motorcycle Specific brands such as Bike Master, Stockton (Cycle Gear), Motion Pro, Cruz Tools
6) Specialty tool brands such as Wiha (screwdrivers) Knipex (pliers)
I personally have (or have used) tools
from every company listed above. The first thing you’ll discover when tool shopping is that the mass merchandiser and motorcy- cle-specific tools are much less expensive than the others. Many even come with a lifetime warranty where you can bring them in to the store (or send them in to the seller/manufacturer) for a free replacement if
they break. Every tool will eventually
break depending on how much/how hard you use it, but the better ones will not break during their typical, useful lifetimes. The most expensive tools are the tool
truck brands used by many professional mechanics. Part of what you are paying for is the service of the owner/operators com- ing to your place of work to tell you what’s new, sell you product, and exchange broken
tools for new ones. Most of these trucks only stop at professional shops, so this par- ticular service is not meaningful for most consumers. The quality of the tools, how- ever, is meaningful to everyone. In a lot of ways, tools are a lot like bikes in
that you will prefer or “fit” one better than another. For instance, my favorite screw- drivers are French-made Facom units because of their ergonomic shape, whereas full-polished Snap-On box wrenches are my favorite based on how they feel in hand. Unfortunately, many brands have various
quality/price levels within themselves. For instance USA-made Snap-On and Matco brands have versions made in Taiwan (Blue-Point and Silver Eagle, respectively). Even more confusing, Craftsman has mul- tiple price/quality versions within the same brand. As an example, I went to buy a standard
¼-inch ratchet at Sears the other day, and they had a $20 medium quality Chinese- made version, a $21 medium-quality Amer- ican-made version, a $23 high-quality Chinese-made version, a $25 high-quality Taiwanese-made version and a $50 high- quality American-made version. They also had several cheaper Sears (but not Crafts- man) branded ratchets all made in China for sale. For fun I decided to try them all out to see the differences. The high-quality ver- sions from China, Taiwan and America all felt great in my hand with smooth action and lots of tiny “teeth” in their mechanisms for precise movement in small spaces. The $50 version, however, had the thinnest head profile for fitting into the tightest spaces, and the fat part of the handle was angled toward my palm to make it the most com- fortable when applying a lot of force. As someone with 10 bikes who spends a lot of time wrenching on the fleet, my choice was clear, but I understand why a lot of folks would do fine with many of the lesser priced models.
skills
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