Strap Wrench

Some workshop turns refuse to play with a standard wrench. A rear-shock air can needs to come off without marring the can body. A stuck seatpost will not turn with bare hands. A fork's lower air-spring assembly has a smooth threaded collar with no flats to bite. The 1705 Strap Wrench is the tool we reach for when the parts answer to grip, not to a hex profile.

The rubberized strap wraps the round body of the part and tightens against itself as the handle is pulled. The harder you pull, the tighter the strap holds; there is no risk of the strap loosening mid-turn the way a free-hand pull on a smooth collar can slip. The rounded head of the wrench prevents pressure points where the strap could mar an anodized or polished surface.

What we use it for, in the shop

• Rear-shock air-can collars where the can comes off for a full air-spring service.
• Seatposts seized by corrosion, oxidation, or paint creep where bare-hand twist is not getting the post to move.
• Smooth-collar fittings on fork air-spring assemblies where a deeper-than-lower-legs service goes further into the air-spring.
• Any threaded round body where a standard wrench would either round the flats or scar the finish.

Specs

• Body: drop-forged steel, entirely hardened and tempered
• Strap: rubberized
• Handle grip: double-plastic-dipped
• Head: rounded to prevent pressure points
• Article: 1705/2DP-US

Built in Zreče, Slovenia

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. The 1705 pairs a drop-forged steel body with a rubberized strap and a double-plastic-dipped handle grip; the workshop's universal grab-and-twist for parts that do not want to be marred. Drop-forging the body is a deliberate construction choice for a tool that sees high lateral load at the strap pivot.

Pro tip from our mechanics

The strap wrench is the off-procedure tool of a fork service; it is what handles the air-can collar when the service goes deeper than lower-legs. A full air-spring service is a separate procedure with a separate interval, but it is the same tool family and the same workshop logic.

How to service your suspension fork's lower legs →