I don’t remember when I first became aware of Hozan Tools, but they have been around since 1946. Besides making bicycle tools, they make tools for the electronics industry.
I have a number of their tools on my wish list. The first one is the C-702 Spoke Threading Machine. It is for use with round spokes. There are 3 different cutting head sizes available (13, 14, and 15) depending on your spoke thickness. You can cut a long spoke to the size you need and then use the C-702 to put threads on the spoke by turning the crank arm to do so. It actually cold rolls the tread on to a spoke. It comes in handy for those people who build a lot of bicycle wheels. I have yet to build my first wheel, but that is one of the things I want to do. You can get it on Amazon with one cutting head for around $119 USD which is cheaper than I have seen it on eBay. Also on Amazon I have seen a cutting head is around $72 USD which is the cheapest I have found.
I saw a Hozan C-701 Spoke Threading Machine on eBay a while back. It is motor driven. I only saw that one unit there and someone snatched it up. I saw a few videos of it in action and it was very easy to use. It was around $450 USD on eBay which is a lot more expensive that you can get a C-702 on Amazon. But I saw that a brand new unit with a #13 head at Modern Bike was $1500 USD but with free shipping!
The Hozan C-701 is not the most expensive Spoke Threading Machine I’ve seen online. Wheel Fanatyk has a Morizumi that will cut and thread the spoke like you can get from the factory. But it comes in at a whopping $3800 USD! It is manual action where you pull a lever down and cut the spoke. You then put the spoke into the threading area where you pull a lever down and push it back up for a finished spoke. Really fast if you are producing a lot of spokes. Not sure how many spokes you need to run through the machine before you get a return for your money.
Actually I forgot about the Phil Wood spoke machine which is an astronomical $7050 USD! Not even going to show a picture for that thing. I wonder how much the Phil Wood name adds to the price.
I got off the subject of the post, namely Hozan tools. I have a number of cheap bicycle chain tools. I have one that is part of a BikeHand tool set, and a few others that I picked up from various places. All of them work but they are basically junk. Which brings me to my latest chain tool, the Hozan C-371.
The C-371 is a heavy duty chain tool it dwarfs the other chain tools. It is prescision made. And at $74 USD it better be.
The BikeHand chain tool broke while I was using it a while back. The metal piece that the chain fit over broke right off. The metal isn’t very strong.
The handle of the C-371 holds a spare chain link press pin.
I am going to be using this tool when I install the chain on my Miyata 310 this week.