Tool Time
Tool Time
I can envision it all now—the angry e-mails, the threatening phone calls, the snail hate mail, all of it accusing me of being firmly ensconced in the pocket of one tool provider: Motion Pro. It has happened before, and after this, it probably will happen again.
Why? Because both of the tools I have for you this month are from that company, and so were some of those covered in the past three issues. But for good reason: Motion Pro (www.motionpro.com) is far and away the industry’s most prolific manufacturer and distributor of motorcycle-specific tools, so no
one should be sur prised that I often in clude sever al of them over a short period. But, if you've al ready put the postage on your letter bombs, go ahead and mail them. I have tools—from Motion Pro, incidentally—that will disarm them.
On a more serious note, the first item is MP’s %-lnch-Drive T-Handle Ratchet (part #08-0226;
$15.99). Really, this tool is little more
than a stubby ratchet with two handles instead of one. But it can prove handy when you want to quickly remove or install a fastener that offers too much resistance or is in a space too confined to be spun with a conventional T-handle. The two-handle design also makes it easier to break stubborn fasteners loose by allowing you to use both hands. It’s one of those tools that, at first, looks like it’s unnecesary; but if you’re anything like me, the more you use it, the more you’ll want to use it.
Got a fertile imagination? If so, you should be able to come up with an almost limit less number of uses for Motion Pro's Nitro Tape (part #11-0084; $9.99 per 10-ft. roll). This silicone tape is self-fusing, which means it tenaciously adheres to itself without any adhesive whatsoever, yet it sticks to nothing else and leaves no gummy residue when removed. When properly installed, it provides as much as 950 psi of tensile strength, resists oil, gasoline, water, coolant and most corrosive chemicals, insulates electrically up to 8000 volts per layer and is heat-resistant from minus 65 to plus 500 de grees Fahrenheit. So, it can be used for all kinds of repair jobs such as patching a split radiator or fuel hose, sealing electrical con nections, tidying up wiring harnesses, fabri cating an emergency 0-ring or securing a loose headlight or taillight lens-and that's just on a motorcycle. On your car, in your garage or around your home, there are literally hundreds of possible uses-sealing a cracked vacuum-cleaner hose, fixing a leaky water line or garden hose, bundling stereo or computer wires, fabricating a secure grip on a steering wheel, baseball bat or tennis rac quet, even using it to temporarily stop the bleeding on minor finger cuts when a BandAid isn't readily available. I don't mean for this to sound like a com mercial for Nitro Tape, but I have used it in quite a few situations and know that it works exactly as advertised. I even temporarily spliced together the top-end breather hose on my Husqvarna dirtbike when the hose split during a ride. That may be the best use for this product: carrying it along in a fanny pack or toolbag for emergency repairs when you're on the road or trail. It's ten bucks' worth of security that just may get you back home on your own instead of in a truck or on a trailer.
