A spoke wrench or spoke key is a small wrench or tool used to adjust the tension in the spokes of a bicycle wheel, sulky wheel, wheelchair wheel, or similar wheel. A spoke wrench is sometimes called a nipple wrench, as it is the spoke nipple - not the spoke - that is turned in the process of changing the tension of a spoke.
Famous quotes containing the words spoke and/or wrench:
“I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn
Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.
Up spoke our own little Mabel,
Saying, “Father, who makes it snow?”
And I told of the good All-father
Who cares for us here below.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
“That is what we must make people feel... the catch in the throat, the wrench to steady the nerves, the determination to carry on.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)