Sunday, October 28, 2007 Covington: The disintegrating gizmo By Gary Covington Looking In
CHINA'S been getting a lot of stick lately -- the media thrashing her with stories about slipshod manufacturing processes, dangerous kiddy toys and even contaminated candy which has given the word preservative printed on food packaging a whole new meaning.
Naturally, China has defended herself and quite rightly too; many Chinese products are of excellent quality. Many but not the doodah I came across whilst on the hunt for a mountain bike's chain snap-link, the single connecting link with which a do-it-yourself bicycle mechanic can fix a broken chain.
Davao has hundreds of bicycle stores, all stuffed to the rafters with mountain bikes, and yet not one -- NOT ONE -- has in stock the snap-link (also called a lock-link) to fix a mountain bike chain. Snap-links by the bushel to fit gearless street bicycles but not the narrow gauge variety demanded by a geared mountain bike.
The usual excuse was "We've ordered them sir but they've not arrived yet", which I at once consigned to the hogwash folder but at least it was a six word improvement on the plain, "No stock sir", delivered with an expression that said, "If you think I'm going to get off this stool to look, you're crazy."
Good retailing practice? Don't stock the P5 link, force the sucker to buy a new chain P200 and upward? Avarice more like.
Highpoint of my-snap link search came in a store where the assistant confidently assured me that no such piece of kit existed, wasn't manufactured for the thinner mountain bike chain (hogwash serving #2) but what you need sir is this little gizmo which pushes out the damaged link's rivet and lets you fix the break yourself. No snap-link required.
The gizmo, a made in China cast-iron gizmo, looks like a tiny vice. The offending chain link is placed in the slot provided, a piston is pushed out by hand-turning a thumb screw and -- presto -- out falls the link's securing rivet, the damaged link drops free and the home bicycle mechanic can effect a repair.
I'm clueless when it comes to anything mechanical and thus I practiced with the gizmo on a length of old junked chain. I'd figured out the first part of the operation, the removal of the rivet, but couldn't work out how to rejoin the two ends of the chain to effect a permanent repair.
So I twirled the thumb screw and popped and unpopped rivets -- research and development they call it at tech college -- figuring away, when suddenly, after only three or four pops, the gizmo fell apart, scattering fragments of cast-iron all over the floor. The crimped into place rivets of the chain had proven stronger than the gizmo specifically designed to remove them, a gizmo operated only by hand.
Which is why all things Chinese tend to get a bad name for indifferent quality. Because much of it is. And it’s our fault. Consumer demand. If the sidewalk vendor on Magsaysay or San Pedro wasn't making a profit from selling junk to gullible like you and me he wouldn’t be there every morning at six-o-clock setting out his wares. End of story.
