Hasta La Gadget!

It’s Friday, and you know what that means: Time for impossibly specialist bike tools [No it isn’t – Ed]. This week it’s the turn of the LockWhip, a combo-tool from Fixed Gear London. But first, here’s a video of it in action:

As you can see, the chap doing the demonstration is a qualified fixed-gear rider: With no brakes, he terrorizes pedestrians by running a red light at top speed and careers into London’s Picadilly Circus. He also has the obligatory skinny pants with Kryptonite Evo-Mini D-lock in the back pocket. Rest assured: this guy is a professional.

In order to celebrate surviving yet another careless voyage through England’s capital, our hero then decides to change his rear sprocket (translation for non fixed-gear riders: he changes gear). For this he uses, of course, the LockWhip. This contains a chain-whip to whip off the sprocket, a lock-ring tool and an open 15mm wrench to remove and replace the wheel.

Once done, he tucks the oily tool into his inside pocket, wipes his hands on his pants and jumps back into the heavy London traffic with scarcely a glance. If you want to see fellow road users (cars and busses) being surprised by a reckless rider jumping in front of them from nowhere and generally trying to cause an accident, then keep watching until the end.

The 250mm x 40mm, hardened and blackened steel LockWhip isn’t exactly portable, but its more portable than a regular chain-whip and lock-ring combo tool, if only because you don’t need to carry a separate 15mm wrench. £26 ($42 / €31).

LockWhip Tool [FGLDN via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• 5 Inexplicable Fixie Fashions
• Hipsters Grieve: The $150 Walmart Fixie
• Bianchi to Launch Retro-Styled Fixie in 2010
• Public Bikes: Fixed-Gear Style with Granny-Bike Ride
• Bent Basket: The Fixed-Gear of Cargo-Carrying