The Park Tool Cable Stretcher is a uni-tasker, but its single job appears to be so helpful that we’ll let it through.

The stretcher is a one handed (once set up) device with which to fit and adjust gear and brake cables on your bike. Fixie users, who have neither of these heathen features on their pristine machines, can stop reading now.

If you are anything like me, you tend to grab any tool at hand to do a job, even if it is the wrong one. I once ruined a neighbor’s needle-nosed pliers when tightening spokes to re-true a wheel, for example, and snapped an electrical screwdriver putting up shelves. And of course, kitchen shears are the ideal tool for stripping electrical cables.

So my usual MO when fixing brakes and gears is to use a pair of pliers and somehow try to tighten the nut or screw one-handed. The Cable Stretcher instead locks on to the end of the cable while providing a handy lever to pull the cable away from the fixing. Ingenious, and I’m surprised I have never seen one before.

These things have clearly been around for a while but, as the summer fast approaches, I thought it would be worth pointing out as the fair-weather cyclists get back on the road. Steel with chrome plate and padded handles, $40.

Incidentally, this reminds me of an upcoming project: I’m going to find an old beater racing bike and fix it up into a fixie — complete with top tube pad and playing card in the spokes (kidding on the last two). Any advice would be appreciated. I’ll make a full start to the project when I find the frame, and post pictures here.