The Flex-Hone® for Mountain Bikes

Mountain bikes have sturdier frames than other types of bicycles. Built for riding in rugged conditions, these off-road bikes come in rigid, hardtail, soft tail, and dual or full-suspension designs. Although some mountain bicycles or MTBs feature heavier steel frames, others are built of lighter-weight metals such as aluminum or titanium. As the mountain bike’s main component, the bicycle frame is an assembly to which wheels and other components, such as the seat post, attach.    

Seat Tube Finishing for Mountain Bike Frames
For custom frame-builders like Neil Cernitz of Wilsonville, Oregon, building a bike frame is part art and part science. Although Certnitz describes himself as a “hobbyist”, his popular CERNITZbike blog features entries that describe his intricate masking and demasking procedures for “cleaner paint edges”.  Cernitz is as comfortable with an electric hand drill as a can of spray paint, and chooses his tools wisely. For seat tube finishing, he uses the Flex-Hone® from Brush Research Manufacturing (BRM).

Metal Tubes and Ball Hones
As part of a project that he completed last September, Cernitz built a “striking looking” mountain bike frame for a neighbor who wanted “lots of room for wheel and fender clearance”.  After assembling the forks, tubes, and stays, the custom bike builder reamed the seat tube, the part of the frame to which the seat post attaches. On many bicycles, the height of the seat or saddle is adjustable, often with a quick-release lever. To ensure that the bike’s seat post would slide smoothly, Cernitz mounted the Flex-Hone® tool in an electric hand drill and then used the ball hone to “finish up” the metal surface.  

Surface Finishing and Cylinder Honing
Built with a stiff coated stem and flexible nylon filaments, BRM’s Flex-Hone® is ideal for surface finishing metal cylinders. The Flex-Hone® tool’s abrasive globules gently remove cut, loose, torn and folded metal that can interfere with sliding components such as bicycle seat posts. Self-centering and self-aligning to the bore, the Flex-Hone® mounts in an electric hand drill and is easy-to-use. To assure complete surface lubrication while keeping metal cuttings and containments in suspension, we recommend using the tool with Flex-Hone® oil.