The Fabric Chamber is the multitool for riders that want something a bit different. A ratcheting mechanism helps to make it practical in tight spaces.

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If awards were given for the multitool that looks least like a multitool, then the Fabric Chamber would be bringing home the bacon. The sleek, polished cylindrical shape looks more like something that’s fallen off a supercar rather than a tool destined to spend most of its life shoved at the bottom of a pack.

When’s a multitool not a multitool? When it’s the Fabric Chamber.

Fabric Chamber Multitool review

Untwist the knurled bottom cap and the Chamber spills its guts to reveal a variety of tool bits. Slotted in like the bullets to a problem solving weapon we have six elongated stainless steel rods. Each rod has two different sized Allen, screwdriver or Torx heads plus a separate 8mm Allen head in the centre. So that’s thirteen different tools fitting in a relatively small space.

All the guts spilled out for you…

Plenty of choice

Simply slide out the rod of choice, slot into the ratcheting head and fix away. Each rod has three notches to lock it into place in the head, depending on how much access or precision you need for the job in hand. It’s a system that needs a firm hand to drive the bit into place and can take a fair bit of wiggling to get it back out again, but it is pretty secure.

The action is nice and firm. After plenty of use the mechanism is still as tight as ever with no discernible extra play. To this day I still forget which side to put the bit in whether I want to tighten or loosen something; there are small labels on the head but I’m forever getting it wrong…

Each rod has two different heads and three notches to position it for various jobs.

Slowly, slowly

The Chamber is a tool for riders who like to take their time and not be rushed into things. It’s not a racers tool or one you can use to ‘quickly’ tighten up a bolt. You have to unscrew, select, locate, replace, screw, tighten/loosen, pull out, unscrew, put rod back, screw, put tool away. Rather than flip out, tighten/loosen, fold back and go. But for leisurely riding and repairing it beats most tools hands down in its function. The other issue is if you need to use the 8mm, you first need to remove most of the rods to access it. Then you need to try not to lose the tiny rubber o-ring used to hold it in place.

Each side is marked to either tighten or loosen.

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One other thing I’d like to point out, and this is pretty significant, is when the Chamber is neatened away it’s pretty waterproof. So if you find it in the bottom of your pack after a wet winter it won’t look like a rusted lump of mystery metal. One thing I did do to help this weatherproofing is to apply a thin layer of grease to the threads and some wet lube to the mechanism.