Designers/Inventors: Joshua Kampa (openbicycle) Aaron Panone (aarn)

After a year of development, incubation, and manufacturing research, Union Foundry is proud to present our first official product. The inaugural, limited first run of T-0001 was designed on kitchen checks and cocktail napkins at our local. Just days later, the initial design still just a sketch, prototypes were milled and sent downtown to be tested by Boston bike couriers and other local riders.

When the final design was locked the tools were machined less than a mile from the place of its inception, then delivered - by bicycle - to be hand polished by the same finishing shop that worked with Somerville bicycle legends Merlin and Fat Chance. The military-grade stainless steel parts were polished to a jewelry-grade finish then shipped off to our laser shop to be etched by the same machinists that cut titanium parts for Independent Fabrication and Seven Cycles. Upon their return to Union Foundry headquarters, in the same building that housed Merlin Bicycles until the late-90s, packaging materials were hand cut and printed by local letter-press outfit Repeat Press, and then assembled and packaged for individual sale.

T-0001 eliminates the need to carry a lockring wrench and chainwhip in your tool bag. Using a simple rotafixing technique, This tool allows for effortless removal and installation of lockrings using nothing more than your bicycle chain. The proprietary eccentric cutout allows for the tool to accommodate all popular lockring sizes from the small Sugino type to over-sized Profile type. The seventeen tooth cog on the outer diameter of the tool can also be used with a normal 1/8"-width chainwhip when in the shop. The tooth profile on the outside of the tool stems back to the ANSI standard for half-inch pitch roller chains, allowing for optimal contact and power transfer from the chain to the lockring. Tired of breaking your knuckles using that Hozan to muscle off your lock ring? We were, too...

Additional Contributors:
Stebs Schinnerer - Video (paperfortressfilms.com/)
Jonathan Brennan - Web (twitter.com/jonathanawesome/)
Justin Keena - Photo (justinkeena.com)
Mike Dacey - Letterpress/Packaging (repeatpress.com/)
Erik Peterson - Material Selection/Consultation
Peter Reynolds - Consultation/Direction (choruscollective.com/)
Clark Filio - Prototype Field Testing (chorusgallery.com/)
Penfield USA - Limited Edition Polishing Cloth (penfieldusa.com/)
Meg Kilcoyne/Wanderlust - Screen Printed Tags (wanderlustprinting.com/)
Dave Wolfe/SeedsSewn - Label Assembly (seedssewn.wordpress.com/)

Purchasing: Available for direct purchase through Open Bicycle