engineering the Mavic headset tools 671 & 672

Yup, those… a headset that could have come straight out of the engineering department of the death star. A piece of engineering that is so cool they forgot to make proper tools for it. so that’s where we come in, ‘a new hope’

most of us who work with old Mavic parts have encountered multiple stripped splines on headsets from either vise grips, slipping Mavic headset tools or stubborn diy mechanics… same problem with Mavic bottom brackets by the way

so we made what we needed, an adjustable cup tool with 6 pins instead of 2, suitable for mavic hub caps an bottom brackets, aswell as Campagnolo standard cups

a lockring tool specially designed for stuck aluminium lock rings. fits Mavic, OMAS, Campagnolo, Gipiemme,…

Does NOT fit TA and Strong light (and probably some others)

The original ones are stamped out of a piece of 2.5 mm sheet metal and as you can see the arms spread quicker than Covid-19

Anyway they were a good intention but rubbish in reality (for most of them at least, there are some good ones too)

Note, there are 2 models of these tools, the long ones that came with team mechanic tool boxes, they seem to have a much better fitment and then there is the set for the consumer, as shown above.

see the difference?

So what did we do and why is it worth to buy a set from us?

We have about 200 sets in stock, if you own a retail store contact us for the possibilities.

  • 25€ PER SET + shipping+PayPal fees: that’s less than a third of the price of what a pair of original tools go for these days
  • 6 and 4 mm stainless steel: durable, shiny and will stay shiny more than (twice the material of the original tool)
  • proper fitment: no more slipping tools or damaging a mint headset while overhauling/cleaning one up
  • Designed in Belgium, cut in Germany and Holland, finished and machined in Belgium
  • high accuracy with top-notch German laser cutters
  • expandable momentum by adding a 1/4 wrench or breaker bar (no more sore hands)

Wow, great! How do I get a pair?

for as long as our webshop is not yet online you have to do it this way:

Email us at quickrelease@lecycleur.com with your details, I will calculate shipping and send you my bank information (or PayPal for people outside Europe)

And now the part you have all been waiting for, how did we do it?

we started by measuring the headset which had suprisingly accurate and round numbers in dimensions proper machining from mavic on that part

attempt one: a 3D printed plastic wrench

pro’s:

  • Easily made with our 3D printer
  • No more scratched parts ever!

cons:

  • not exactly durable, already broke 3 in attempt to remove certain stubborn headsets

Then I made a CAD model of a prototype tool in Autodesk Inventor Pro 2017 yes it is indeed 2020 now, has been a while since I had the money to make an investment to order 600-ish tools… or I’m just terrible at keeping a schedule.

The actual first model had a hole for a 6 mm hex key to give that extra momentum but a 1/2″ slot for a wrench made much more sense to me

‘Wow that’s a thicc-ass wrench’. Indeed, this one started as a 10 mm piece of sheet metal.

Sounds better than 5? No, it would cost a lot more on shipping, the top 5mm bearely engage with the splines and the cutting accuracy seems to be all over the place when we go a bit to chonky on the metal

we got thise one from plasmacutting and i had to file for about 1 hour to get it to fit properly (and it still does only in one direction, so worthless it is for now. i am however keeping this one in case we would ever incoutner an extreme case of corrosion to get one to break free

you might have noticed this weird little cirlce around the pins. they do have a function. as a plasma or laser cutter moves around quickly on its X-Y axis it can sometimes incounter a bit of trouble in making a perfect 90° corner, on a smaller scale it will make a little fillet. to avoid this we added this little radii so it wouldn’t make unnececairy contact with the headset ring thanks to Peter Verdone for the tip! it has improved fitment by miles.

And of course one for the larger adjustable nut. (slightly shorter but wider)

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4 Comments

  1. John
    March 5, 2022
    Reply

    Hello!
    I greatly appreciate all you’re producing – the TOPS, where function’s always matched by beauty, and a colorfully informative account. Mine has long since been the fruitless search for a tool capable of enduring the proper removal of the dreaded lockrings (or dust caps?) of Mavic’s 500 series hubs. I might have missed something in your report, but i’m not sure i’ve seen quite the tool in the mix, here. I really hope i’m erring, that you DO offer such a tool. If you do, i’d surely love one. It would be long cherished, but that i’m in California which might present an obstacle? It’d be great to hear back from you on this. Many thanks

    • Bart Suykerbuyk
      March 5, 2022
      Reply

      Hi John,
      I think the answer you are looking for is right here: https://lecycleur.com/tools/6-pin-multi-pattern-adjustable-cup-tool/
      If it is what you need, you can fill in the form at the bottom of the blogpost to make an order.
      Shipping to Cali is not a problem at all, today that will come in at 25 euros including tracking and up to 2kg in parts and / or tools.

  2. CYRIL FERNANDEZ
    December 19, 2020
    Reply

    I just saw this! I can finally use my Mavic headset and BB! How do I pay you and will you ship to USA? Let me know. Thanks!

    • Bart Suykerbuyk
      December 19, 2020
      Reply

      Hi, send us an email to quickrelease.lecycleur.com and I’ll send you the details

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