Topeak’s space-saving bottle cage and multi-tool is one of many solutions to help ensure you’ve always got a tool to hand when out riding. Being bolted to the bottle cage means you don’t have to carry a heavy or lumpy tool in a bag or pocket, and Topeak offers multiple cage and tool box configurations to match frame space and orientation. Several different tools with varying levels of functions and attachments are available, but, obviously, the more features on the multi tool, the more it weighs and the more room it requires if space is tight on your frame.

My combo of choice is the Tubi 11 tool, which packs a tubeless tyre repair kit alongside standard Allen and Torx keys. It’s light and does just about all my trail jobs, although I’d prefer an 8mm Allen key as well (bigger options have one). The bottle cage is stiff and holds a standard bottle securely, and the tool box doesn’t rattle or get seized up when covered with crud.

This kind of solution isn’t unique – Specialized introduced something similar around seven years ago, but Topeak’s version better protects the multi-tool from the elements inside a fully sealed plastic box. This design adds grams, but means it can’t get clogged up with mud like Spesh’s EMT9 SWAT tool does. In those situations, it’s often been a nail-breaking struggle to release – not so in the case of the Topeak.