The Link Wrench is a grade 5 titanium, double-ended wrench & emergency master link opener.
8, 9, and 10mm nuts are extremely common on touring bicycles with racks, fenders and attachments. For this reason, it’s essential to have a lightweight means of adjusting these things during a bicycle tour.
Over 6 prototypes were made & tested, and I explored adding various other functions that ultimately couldn’t be optimized without compromising the function of the wrench. Laser cutting has provided a cost effective means of creating the shape from an expensive material, and by accounting for the width of the cutting laser in the design, a tighter tolerance can be held within the wrench flats. The current industry standard that I used for years sits on the far left. A seed for improvement!
The included 500 lb. Tensile dyneema cord can be looped around a bicycle chain’s master link, the wrench inserted through the loop and twisted (like a tourniquet) to create compressive force that opens the master link. This makes it possible to work on, or remove components of the bicycles drivetrain while far from the resources of a bicycle shop.
In testing, I found that lower tensile strength nylon paracord would abrade easily and break after 1-3 uses. The abrasion resistant and high strength Dyneema cord averaged 5 + uses before breaking.
Notably the wrench has been carried along on the 700 mile Paris-Brest-Paris endurance race, reviewed by bikepacking.com and is stocked by dealers in Japan, France and the United States.