What's Inside Your Toolbox? - Jason Marsh

Jason Marsh has been wrenching for Greg Minnaar and the Santa Cruz Syndicate since 2012. While many World Cup mechanic's have a reputation for fastidiousness, bordering on classic obsessive compulsive behavior, Marsh's toolbox tells a different story about its owner. Photographer Ross Bell dives into the topic of tools and what it's like to wrench for a rider who's famous for being particular about his bike set up.

A lot of mechanics have a reputation for being fastidious and orderly…

Well, it’d be nice to have a place for everything and everything in it’s place and all that, but then I wouldn’t be able to find it and I’d get really, really angry if something went missing. Whereas, when it is the way it is right now, it just suits me.

What’s the most interesting tool in here?

My favorite tool is my little torque wrench. It’s a cam-over torque wrench, so you can’t over tighten with it—you get it right spot on. Oh and that nice Shimano chain tool over there…that’s really good for putting the pins in. What else do I like? I like my cable-tie cutters that Fat Jimmy’s mate gave me…and I like my nail clippers—those are good for trimming cable-ties as well and they even work on my toe nails, which is a plus.

We saw in the pre-season Syndicate video that you had to replace some of your tools because they were getting into the wrong hands - The riders were getting a-hold of them…

Yeah, yeah, well I don’t know if that’s the real reason they get rounded off, but I like to give Greg a hard time about it. He’s actually a pretty good mechanic, but we like to wind each other up… or, rather, I like to wind him up because I can’t ride like him, but he can probably mechanic better than me.

Do you travel with this set up to every race or does it stay in the truck?

I like to take it home so that I can fix my bike, I’ve only got like one set of tools, so they normally come home with me. The tool kit gets thinned right down after a few months, so I just have the bare essentials. Someone will come up and say, ‘Hey, can I borrow a spoke tool?’ and I’ll be like, ‘Sorry, I don’t have one of those.’ And they’ll think I’m winding them up, but I really won’t carry a spoke tool that I don’t need.

So, how long have you been wrenching for Greg Minnaar?

This is the fifth season. Before that, I was with Bryn Atkinson. Bryn and Jill taught me everything. They really did…They taught me there’s no such thing as half a psi between friends. If Greg wants 24 psi in his forks, for example, it’s not 24.5 psi or 23.5 psi. It’s 24.

I’d guess that you work for one of the riders who demands the most from their mechanic…

Well no, actually I don’t think that at all. Having someone who knows exactly what they want from their bike set up is actually easier than working with someone who is constantly puzzling over things and constantly having you change things back and forth because they don’t know what they want. When you have a rider who knows exactly what he wants, it’s real easy.

So, you guys talk together a lot about bike set up. You have that kind of relationship?

Yeah, he comes back from a ride and tells me what he’s feeling out there and he tells me about his past set-ups on particular courses. You kind of learn what he wants, but you don’t do it until he tells you to.

I’m looking over at the next booth and I’m seeing a nice and prepped toolbox. Do you ever look at that kind of orderly set up and feel a bit envious?

Nah. I wouldn’t be able to find anything if my tools were like that. A lot of my tools are different colors and I’m keyed into that. I like to just reach over and get my green tape measure or my orange Allen keys. Everything has its colors.

And a big toolbox like his? [Marsh points to neighboring mechanic’s vast and precisely-ordered tool kit] It does have everything in it, but it’s really heavy. My tool boxes? I try to keep them as light as possible. They’re just like cheap toolboxes from the local car supply place, but they’ve been around the world a few times and they hold up just fine. I’m happy with them. And you know, I’d rather ride my bike than tidy my toolbox when I get home.