The ubiquity of vise grip pliers as the most essential bicycle repair tool is certainly not unique to Detroit, though its prevalence in the Motor City can hardly be overlooked after even a few days’ casual observation on city streets. Many honest and legitimate bicycle mechanics have frequently been at some pains to explain its indigenous prominence, located almost exclusively halfway up the seatpost and pointed sternward, as though some instruction manual gave directions to this effect. Vise grips, of course, allow the rider to loosen and/or tighten virtually any part of a standard bicycle, given sufficient brute strength. These so-called “adjustments” are obviously performed without regard to the functionality or longevity of the adjusted bits on the lucky bicycle, but such considerations are secondary. Even if one utterly ruins the axle nuts on one’s wheels by rounding them off trying to tighten/loosen them with vise grips, hope springs eternal that, should the need arise again, they might once more be firmly clamped in place to effect the needed repair. This unerring hope in the face of absolute necessity is more than enough to account for the popularity of vise grips on the seatposts of Detroit bicycles.