We first saw Lezyne's new range of workshop tools at Eurobike and the Classic Pedal Spanner is the first we've managed to get our hands on. And it's a lovely bit of kit, good looking and functional in equal measure. And not too expensive either. And you can open your beers with it.

In fact, opening beer with it was the first proper test, since we received it at the road.cc birthday party at Eurobike and immediately put it to work. It's an impressive bottle opener, the only proviso being that it's got a one-sided chamfer so it gets a bit more hit-and-miss later on in the evening. That's more down to operator error though.

The head is a stamped steel affair, CNC machined to get the chamfer for the bottle opener and then bolted into a varnished wood handle. It's a substantial tool, over a foot long, and gives you plenty of leverage on stubborn pedals. The two 15mm pedal slots are offset so that there's always one at a decent angle no matter which way round the flats on the pedal are lying.

The wood handle is comfortable to use and should pick up a nice workshoppy patina over time. The pedal slots are a snug fit and the head is substantial enough that you'll never be worrying about bending the spanner, no matter how hard you go after a pedal that's properly stuck.

A pedal spanner's the kind of thing you buy hoping that you'll only have to buy it once. I'd be pretty confident that the Pedal Rod will still be unsticking sticky pedals a decade from now, it's a high quality tool designed to last. 18 quid might seem like a hefty outlay; think of it as £1.80 a year instead and it's got to be said you can pay more - there's a CNC version of this baby for £26 and both Park and Pedros do fancy pedal spanners costing £27. Plus you can open your beers with it. A double-sided chamfer on the bottle opener and it would be nigh-on perfect...

Verdict

High quality pedal spanner that's built for the long haul. Plus it opens your beers. What's not to like?