Improve bicycle spoke keys

One of the challenges of bicycle wheel-building and truing, particularly if you are an occasional wheel-builder, is turning the spoke key the wrong way and loosening the spokes when you want to tighten them and vice versa. You can mark one side of the spoke keys with a pen or sticker so that you can see what way to turn to tighten the spokes, but these rub off over time and you have to look at the key in order to see the mark.

Enter sugru. A small blob on the right of each face of the spoke key gives a visual and tactile reminder of direction the key needs to be turned to tighten the spoke. The texture was added with a bit of nylon webbing.

It works particularly well for the Park spoke key on the right of the photo, because it is difficult to mark just one face of the key with a pen or sticker.

Julian via email