Originally Posted by Rowan

What you did make yourself clear about was this:

"Multi-tools are stupid; bulky, expensive and not enough leverage to do any job well."

The implication is that because (a) multitools are stupid then (b) the people who use them are stupid. You are clear in saying that they don't have enough leverage which is patently not so unless you are talking about undoing overtightened or corroded items, and then you are clear that they don't do any job well, when there are hundreds of thousands of bicycle riders out there who use multitools without a single problem either on the road or in the workshop.

I just priced a set of reasonable quality metric Allen keys (gee, they weigh a ton), along with a small phillips head screwdriver, and a flat-head srewdriver, plus I went to a bike shop and priced a chain tool, some tyre levers... and the price works out about the same as for my Topeak multitool.

We'd all like the luxury of having a full workshop out on the road -- BB remover, cassette lockring, chainwhip, rollsroyce quality allen keys... a workstand! But it don't work like that, and good bike maintenance, knowledge and a basic tool kit of EITHER multitool variety or loose tools to fix minor problems is the best we can hope for.

You took a position, and that's fine. Being elitist about it and calling people by implication stupid, is not fine.

Originally Posted by watchman

Crank Bros. has some nice multi-tools. As of late I have found myself fixing other peoples' bikes on rides for some reason and have found this multi tool does provide adequate leverage and can be squeezed into ackward positions. Is it as good as individual tools ? No, but I find it more convenient especially while fixing a bike in the mist with darkness moving in. Last thing you need is to be looking in the dirt for a dropped allen wrench in the dark.

Originally Posted by HillRider

Remember the Campy "Peanut Butter wrench" and it's Park copy?