Aaron Gwin's mechanic, John Hall, shows off the gold inside his toolbox.
While catching up with Aaron Gwin's mechanic, John Hall, in the pits, we ended up talking shop. John showed us his 2017 tool kit with custom, hand-crafted foam inserts to keep all the tools in the right place. It's light and efficient for traveling the world as he keeps Gwin's YT Tues running properly for the races. He's recently become an Abbey Tools ambassador and despite a career that includes helping Aaron Gwin win multiple World Cups, John took the time to take a Bill Woodul race mechanic course at the Olypmic Training center in Colorado Springs this past off-season. As he says, you can never have too much knowledge, so dig in.
#precisionisourreligion
Big Bird
7/15/2017 7:46 PM
Euskafreez
7/18/2017 9:16 PM
He wrenches for Gwin since his Spesh days. As they work well together, why on earth would Whitely ask Gwin's mechanic to leave the team? Just because he lacks some stupid paper saying he's BS certified ?
Of all the race mechanics have worked with, the best weren't 'certified' in any way. But they had one thing in common: they were trained in a long time established bike-shop by some old time wizard.
I starting wrenching on road races simply because one of our part time employee was a trainee in a UCI Continental team. So yeah, you need to be good enough but you also need to know someone :/.
Adam_Schaeffer
7/15/2017 5:49 PM
Splayleg
7/14/2017 9:28 AM
chasejj
7/14/2017 7:35 AM
JohnTylerHall
7/14/2017 12:00 PM
chasejj
8/1/2017 11:49 AM
John- Ordered my 1560 (used on Ebay) , ordering the Kaizen foam today
Question- How do you keep the foam rigid enough with a full load of tools on it as you stack them inside the case? Added plastic backing? or is the Kaizen rigid enough on its own to support the tools?
Marcus J
7/14/2017 1:52 AM
unskilled
7/13/2017 12:19 PM
3beN
7/13/2017 1:49 PM
Condro
7/13/2017 12:14 PM
sideshow
7/13/2017 6:14 PM
Here's a starting point if you're keen to do some math: abbeybiketools.com
The real value of that box though is how organized it is (in a custom fashion) and John's ability to be effective with each item in there - and being prepared with the right tools too.
JohnTylerHall
7/14/2017 12:02 PM
chasejj
7/14/2017 12:25 PM
Krispy
7/14/2017 3:00 PM
chasejj
7/14/2017 7:15 PM
woodybepierced
7/13/2017 11:35 AM
Alex1
7/13/2017 11:25 AM
onenerdykid*
7/13/2017 11:12 AM
Euskafreez
7/13/2017 12:26 PM
Yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion, man. They both have their pros and cons. What I like about Marshy's toolbox is that he uses the right tool for the job and for me, nothing else matters. I'll give you one example since I've done a fair share of wrenching on road races : the chain tool. Marshy uses a Shimano TL CN34 chainbreaker.
Wondering why he's not using the classic crappy but lightweight Park Tool chain-breaker? Like Marshy said for fitting and securing the pin on a Shimano chain, their TL CN34 is second to none. It makes the chain stronger and more secure. Most of the time, when a chain explode into pieces at the gate in WC DH, it's a Sram chain with a quick-link. And if it's a Shimano chain, most of the time the mechanic did not use the recommended chain-breaker to secure the pin.
westoxified
7/13/2017 7:59 PM
dstucki
7/13/2017 11:02 AM