Bikes have become much, much better built over the last couple of decades, but Jason Quade felt like the tools to work on them hadn’t kept pace, and (sort of accidentally) founded Abbey Bike Tools to fill that gap in the market. And now more than a decade later, Abbey has an extensive catalog of some of the best-quality bike tools out there. So we sat down with Jason to look back on the founding of Abbey and have him tell the (excellent) story of how it came to be; how they’ve built out the line after starting with a single tool; what it’s like dealing with the ever-changing standards of the bike world; how the industry could make life easier for mechanics (both professional and consumer); and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Abbey Bike Tools State of the Union (3:31)
• Founding Abbey & the Crombie (7:38)
• Growing & moving into a real shop (16:26)
• Jason’s background (18:10)
• Building out the Abbey lineup (22:13)
• Product development & the Abbey truing stand (25:40)
• Keeping up with ever-changing standards (28:16)
• The bike industry & streamlining things (33:26)
• SRAM Transmission (35:06)
• Origins of the Abbey name (38:49)
• Jason’s forrays into frame building (41:35)

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• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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• Off The Couch
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• CRAFTED
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