Multi Tool - Personal Favs
September 24th, 2007 by Arleigh JenkinsRecently while reading the MTBR Bible aka the forums I saw multiple threads asking advice about multi tools. There seem to be more and more decent multi tools coming out on the market every 6 months. Crank Brothers, Park Tools, Topeak, Bontrager, Specialized, Serfas, and many more than I’m not listing.
Here are my personal favorites :
Park MT-1
Simple, cheap, if you aren’t going on epic rides or more than a few miles from the car at any given time. You can throw it in your jersey pocket and not feel that it is there (Many of mine have landed in the washing machine due to this.)
Crank Brothers (Any of their folding)
The pro’s to their multi tools are they are compact & there are a ton of features there!! The con’s are it folds in half. It can fold into itself and stab you in the back, if you keep it in your bag or seatbag this isn’t an issue at all.
Park MTB Rescue 1
This tool splits in half so you can easily take the half with the allen’s with you, and leave the other half (including chain tool) in the car or at home. In its complete state it is on the heavy side but when you are left in the woods why not have everything you need?
Again simple, small but a little more leverage than the Park MT-1. I stumbled upon this multi tool from Trek and it does everything it is supposed to. It doesn’t pack the kitchen sink but I have two now that are found in my commuting messenger bag & on my shop bench. (Photo found on CyclingNews.com)
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I’ve used 2 multi tools: the crank brothers tool (above) and a muti-tool called the Alien (not sure if it is still on the market). I feet the crank brother tool is aesthetically pleasing but difficult to use. The tool parts (bits) don’t lock which makes it difficult to apply sufficient torque in some instances. The chain tool is also very difficult to use. The Alien on the other hand was much easier to use, well thought out, very ergonimic, with a very effective chain tool. Oddly, the alien was stolen from my saddle bag when I had to abandon my bike after breaking my arm (don’t know why they didn’t steal my bike). I purchased the crank brothers tool as a replacement and I find it to be adequet but inferior to the Alien.
You don’t hear much about the line of Specialized multi-tools much and that is a shame. I’ve been using a Specialized EMT Comp for four years now and it has worked flawlessly every time. I purchased it in 2003 because it was one of the first (along with the Crank Bros tools) to feature a Torx T25 bit on it for disc brake rotors. Now while I have never had to tighten a disc brake rotor bolt that was coming loose, I did use the T25 once. I lost a cleat bolt about 5 miles into a 20 mile ride. I couldn’t clip out of my pedal and ate it right in front of everyone. I wasn’t carrying a spare cleat bolt (I do now!) so I wasn’t sure what I’d do. I started looking at my bike trying to figure out if I could remove a bolt from another spot to use as a cleat bolt. My bottle cage bolts fit the threads but the heads were too high. Sure enough, I used a rotor screw as the remaining five held the rear rotor just fine. If I didn’t have that T25, I’d been riding on one cleat the rest of the way. I’ve also used the chain breaker many times on both my bike and fellow riders bikes with 100% success. And after 4 years in the wet PNW, there is no rust at all on the tool.
Not just another multi tool:
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/quicktools-multitool-12761
I just picked up a Hexus 16 from Topeak. It’s an EXCELLENT tool. It’s still relatively compact and has everything you really need if you don’t have bolt ons or a 10mm crank bolt. The chain tool is really unique in that one of the tire levers has an offset hex drivers sticking out of it. It provides plenty of leverage to get the job done. Pins come out cleaner than on my old Park Mini Chain Brute.
The only bad thing about the tool is that the allen drivers are not “in order”. You need to KNOW what size head you need. Otherwise, it takes some hunting and pecking to find the right tool.