Birzman is back with another round of cleverly designed tools. If you’ve ever worked on hydraulic disc brakes, at some point, you’ve had to reset the pistons in the caliper. In the past, that has required specially shaped ‘spatulas’ that you wedge between the brake pads and lever the two sides apart. While effective, those tools require you to remove the wheel and brake rotor, and can lead to damage to the brake pads themselves. The Birzman Disc Brake Piston Pusher changes that.
Instead of removing the wheel (on top loading brake calipers), with the Birzman tool, you remove the brake pads. That provides enough room between the pistons and the rotor to slip the tool into place.
Once in place, instead of prying the two sides apart which can apply uneven pressure, the Birzman tool expands evenly with the threading motion of the handle. This way, you get smooth even pressure on both sides of the caliper and without damage to the brake pad since it’s been removed.
The tool is compatible with bottom loading calipers as well, though it might require removal of the caliper from the bike.
We haven’t tried it ourselves, but it seems like it could work well and be a better solution to resetting your brake’s pistons. Available now, the Disc Brake Piston Pusher retails for $59.99.
Tubeless Tools
Birzman also has a few new tools to make life easier with tubeless tires. If you struggle to get tubeless tires on or off your rims, their new Wedge Wedge II is worth a look. In addition to acting as a large tire lever with better leverage, grip, and a thin & curved tip to easily slide under the bead, the lever also has a tire jack built right in.
If you’ve never used a tire bead jack, it’s essentially a lever that rests on the opposite side of the rim or tire, and helps lever the bead onto the rim. In terms of proper tire installation, these are generally viewed as a last resort, but if you find yourself struggling on the side of the road, it could certainly come in handy.
The Wedge Wedge II also includes one of their Tubeless Tire Levers which can also be purchased separately in a set of three. These smaller levers still have a thin tip that is curved to better fit under the tire bead, but they also include a rim clip and a spoke hook to hold them in place when dealing with stubborn tires.
The Wedge Wedge II sells for $12.99 with the large lever and smaller tubeless lever, and three tubeless levers sell for $8.
Finally, Birzman offers this CO2 cartridge that is not actually a CO2 cartridge.
Instead, it’s a tubeless repair kit hidden inside a container shaped to emulate a CO2 cartridge, complete with the same threads. Why would you want that?
Because then you can store it just like you would any other CO2 cartridge. Whether bundled together with a spare tube, in a CO2 frame mount, or next to a handpump frame mount, there are a lot of ways to store the kit. It also serves as a holder for your CO2 inflator and guarantees you won’t accidentally puncture your actual CO2 cartridge before you’re ready to use it. The Tubeless Repair kit included 10 tire plug strips, and is priced at $18.
