Blackburn’s Wayside 19 is a comprehensive multitool with a difference, namely that it packs five proper L-shaped, ball-ended individual Allen keys into a durable body, making usually hard to reach bolts easy to get to. It’s durable and packed with features and it’s quickly become my go-to-multitool.
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The tool has a solid little frame with aluminium side joined by steel bolts. It’s really tough – I’ve stood on it while trying to free stubborn pedals – and though there is some surface corrosion on some of the tools after a hard and soggy six months, all the bits still fold out smoothly.
The individual Allen keys are sized 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm and 5mm, which covers all the fiddly bolt jobs you can imagine – especially the likes of SRAM’s tooled brake reach adjusters, which are all but impossible to reach with a normal multitool. They all clip securely in place on a plastic holster and there’s a rubber band around the whole lot to make sure they don’t escape. It’s easy enough to get a key free without fully removing the band too, which makes it no slower than a normal tool.
Elsewhere, you get a hollowed out 8mm and solid 6mm Allen key, with the former allowing you to slide the tool over the separate keys for extra leverage. There are also T25 and T30 Torx drivers and a flathead screwdriver but no Phillips, which I personally didn’t find an issue.
The chain tool doubles up as a disc pad spreader plus it’s recessed to tighten up Presta valve cores and three sizes of spoke nipple. It’s also located in with a plastic tab when not in use, so it doesn’t flap about annoying when you’re trying to use other bits.
You also get a neat little wire that allows you to hold a broken chain in place while you fix it, plus a small but sharp serrated knife blade that’s got a locking mechanism, thus making it much safer than the usual death-blades you find on multitools.
At 199g, it’s no flyweight, but then weight weenies won’t be looking at a tool like this in the first place. It’s been tough and dealt with pretty much everything I could ask of it, and it’s now become a permanent part of my go-to ride kit.
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