• Specialized EMT Micro multi-tool
• £9.95
• Specialized
• 020 8391 3500

Yay for multi-tools! Handy, pocket-sized gizmos poised ready to leap into action to deal with all of your differently-sized loose bolt traumas. The battle seems to be on to pack as many different tools as possible into the familiar hinged Swiss Army knife format, but Specialized’s EMT Micro goes completely the other way…

The Micro’s thing isn’t comprehensiveness, it’s size. That 50p piece in the picture isn’t there by accident, it’s showing you how small the Micro is. It’s teeny-tiny, just two inches long. As you’d imagine, it doesn’t have many tools in it but you get the basic essentials – 3, 4, 5 and 6mm Allen keys and a Philips screwdriver. And, for some reason, a 2.5mm Allen key. A 2mm would, we think, be more useful, although your bike may vary.

It’s a rather lovely thing, with smooth forged aluminium body and all the tools marked with their dimensions. The small size does rather work against it if you’re faced with a stiff bolt, though – even if you unfold the tools at one end to extend the handle it’s still only ickle and doesn’t afford that much leverage.

Really, though, that’s not the point of this tool. It’s a bit like a bottle opener or a pizza cutter or something – just a cool little accessory that really doesn’t have to work all that well. Despite its limitations it’s a handy thing to have in your pocket for those last-minute brake lever angle adjustments and the like…

Positives: Tiny and cool.

Negatives: Possibly too small for its own good

Verdict: It’s a funny one, this. On the one hand it clearly isn’t as effective as a regular multi-tool. But despite ourselves we can’t help liking its tininess and somehow it’s cool dinkiness manages to almmost offset its functional disadvantages. Don’t buy one as your only tool, but as a minimum weight seatpack backup or just for the hell of it as a funky bike gizmo…