I see these every time a bicycle path intersects with any kind of car or train infrastructure. It just seems really patronizing, as if we’re not capable of slowing down without getting off the bike; it also shifts responsibility onto the cyclists if there is a crash based on something arbitrary (mounted vs dismounted).
Bauer is good shit.
90% as good as the big brands, for 50% of the price.
Harbor Freight gets a bad rep, but that’s because HF has multiple lines of tools for sale. Usually they have a really cheap-ass option and a mid-range option. The cheap-ass option really is a piece of junk and deserves the HF reputation. But if you go to HF and get their mid-grade stuff, it’s actually quite decent pretty much every time. Lots of people go to HF for cheap tools, so they get the absolute cheapest one … and then that one ends up being a piece of shit that breaks, so they say HF sucks and avoid it. But if you get the mid-range stuff at HF, you still save a lot of money, but you get decent tools that will get the job done reliably.
Are they full-on professional level, made for someone who will be using it on the job all day every day? No, not really. But 95% of people don’t need that. If you’re an amateur, someone who will just be using the tool occasionally and mostly for light jobs that won’t be stressing it out to the absolute max, then I’d definitely recommend Bauer.
Basically, buy a cheap one, and if you manage to break the cheap one, then go out and buy an expensive one.
I appreciate the advice. I don’t know what Harbour Freight is but I know a lot about it now.