Earlier this month I spent about a week in British Columbia producing a short film.
On my way home, I stopped in Minnesota to visit my friends and colleagues at Park Tool
Company.
I use the word colleagues because Calvin, Truman, and Scott run Park Tool’s YouTube
channel, making them fellow creators.
While there, we did a sit down interview, a video where I tried to guess the purpose
of several vintage bike tools, and a video where Calvin graded my performance on diagnosing
problems with mountain bikes.
You can see all this on Park’s channel.
Back at headquarters, I had some plans of my own.
Scenes like these do very little to justify the existence of Park’s YouTube department.
And in front of a hard working assembly line on a Thursday, I felt just a little guilty
having that much fun.
But Calvin, Truman, and Scott are working on the biggest catalog of bike repair tutorials
on the planet, and that’s no exaggeration.
As a tool company, these videos strengthen Park’s status as an authority.
They also provide screen time for Park’s many products.
In exchange, viewers get valuable information and entertainment—even if it can be a little
cheesy at times.
These videos are so widely viewed that I got text messages from two separate bike mechanics
who saw I had met Calvin and Truman.
In visiting the biggest and oldest bike tool company in the world, I hoped to see lots
of weird nerdy stuff, and that’s what the rest of this video is about.
We’ll start with Park Tool’s pimped out event trailer, which they take to tradeshows
and races.
All the tools on the wall are bolted down for display purposes, but there’s a duplicate
of every one in the drawers.
This allows park to securely show off their product, while still using this as a functional
shop.
As you can see the rear and side of this trailer open for additional floorspace.
Let’s take a look at something a little less modern.
This is a very vintage bike repair stand, in fact nobody ever sold these, you would
need to make one.
That old thing gave way to the first commercially available bike repair stand, built by Hazel
Park Cycle, which went on to be named The Park Tool Company.
Eric was happy to show me how repair stands have changed.
This electric work stand seems like a great way to get shops to spend more money.
But actually it was a response to lifting restrictions in parts of Europe.
This electric stand not only helps shops stay in compliance, but it also allows for height
adjustment at the push of a button.
Eric showed me where the engineers work, where prototyping takes place, and where products
like that electric stand are manufactured.
He also showed me Park’s enormous Schwinn collection.
Calvin even gave me a tour of his personal toolbox that he uses for race support.
But during my tour of Park Tool, my eyes were peeled for anything weird and nerdy.
And before long I had found the holy grail.
I’ve dabbled in unicycling, but never on something quite this big.
Attempting to tackle the Giraffe, was pretty freaking scary.
I asked Scott, Park’s videographer if he had ever ridden a unicycle before, and he
said “yeah, I used to race them”.
After that, there was no way we were going to let him walk away from
the Giraffe.
I’d love to try a unicycle that tall again someday, but at that the moment I wondered
who would own a unicycle that tall anyway.
It took a little goading, but Eric finally agreed to come out of retirement and give
her a go.
All that excitement got us all pretty hungry, so it was time for a lunch break.
In the past, Park Tool has made quite a few lunch related items, including a pizza cutter,
a spork, and various bottle openers.
But before my visit, they had begun development on a new tool to assist bike mechanics during
lunch.
To get a working prototype made before my arrival took a lot of R&D and a lot of coffee.
But Park Tool delivered.
Introducing the TH-1 Taco Holder, which fits in a standard peg board, or a Park brand repair
stand.
Like any well engineered tool, Park designed the TH-1 to work with multiple standards,
both hard and soft.
This of course meant speccing it to shells because as everyone knows, flour tortillas
will fit into anything U shaped.
Bigoted taco elitists may scoff at hard shells, but we’re talking about carbohydrates with
cheese here folks.
A hungry bike mechanic just wants their taco to stay in place, and the TH-1 gets the job
done right.
During my visit to Park Tool we attempted to ride some trails in the Twin Cities, but
got rained out.
Luckily that didn’t affect our weekend plans in Duluth, where as I mentioned we did a video
diagnosing bikes at Spirit mountain.
After that I stuck around Duluth for a day to check out the riding there.
To say the least, I was surprised.
More on that next time.
Whether or not you use park’s tools personally, they’re usually first to market with all
the things shops need to perform their repairs.
Park’s videos are free for anyone to benefit from, so watch their channel if you’re interested
in working on your own bike, and for our upcoming collaboration videos.
Thank you Park Tool Company for having me, and thanks for riding with me today, I’ll
see you next time.