I’ve been using the Fix It Sticks Mountain Kit for three years now, and the tools offer an ideal blend of strength, functionality, durability, and usefulness.
The Fix It Sticks Mountain Kit is ideal for mountain, commuters, and road riders. Fix It Sticks created a functional and practical kit for real-world and on-trail use. The full mountain bike kit includes the soft carrying bag, and two Replaceable Editon Fix It Sticks tools, a Replaceables Clip, eight bits, two tire levers, and a chain breaker, which all retail for $56. The soft clamshell bag (not shown) is designed to carry everything you need on the road or trail, including the entire tool kit, and additional items such as C02 cartridges, patch kits, etc.
For further information, refer to fixitsticks.com.
The Replaceable Edition Fix It Sticks
The Replaceable Edition Fix It Sticks is an innovative bike tool that is a modular two-piece design that can accept four stainless steel bits on each of their magnetized ends, and you mesh the pieces together to form a dual T-handle wrench. They’re crafted from an all-steel construction, weigh 118 grams for the pair, and can apply up to 55 Nm of torque to fasteners. It utilizes Neodymium magnets in the end slots to hold generic 1/4″ steel bits securely in place. The Replaceable Edition Fix It Sticks includes a carrying clip and 8 bits: 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6mm hex, T-25, and #2 Phillips sizes, which should cover almost any bicycle maintenance activity.
The handy storage clip system keeps all the bits needed for long days in the saddle in one easy to access location. The design offers substantial space savings, and the Replaceable Clip keeps the bits stored securely and quietly in your pack or our kits.
The unique design of Replaceable Fix It Sticks allows the sticks to travel flat for compactness, but then snap together to form a T-wrench for fastening applications. By adding replaceable bit capability to the original design, custom bit combinations can be created for on-bike or other uses.
Tire Levers
The plastic tire levers simply slip over the top of the Replaceable Edition Fix It Sticks and are magnetized securely in place through the use of a steel bit that is molded inside the tire lever. The lever pops on with a satisfying click and fits somewhat snugly with just a bit of play at the tip. They’re shaped with an extra-wide scoop to reach under and extract the tire bead efficiently. They’re composite and carbon rim friendly, and the sizes make them super compact to save space in your kit.
When taking a tire off, it’s best to leave a bit on the other end of the Fix It Sticks since it provides additional leverage and hand space when pushing the lever. The tip of the lever curls up somewhat and isn’t super sharp, so it can be tough to pull up the tire bead on thick mountain bike tires, especially when coated with tubeless sealant. On the other hand, it does help protect bike tubes from being harmed.
Chain Breaker
This tool has a unique and innovative design that allows for the chain to be held securely while pushing out the pins, and it’s compatible with 9, 10, 11, and 12-speed chains. It has an extremely compact design that furthers the companies ability to create small, custom toolkits for cyclists of all types.
I used the chain breaker on an SRAM 12-speed chain, and it was simple to use, and the rivet popped out with minimal effort, considerably due to the leverage you can apply via the t-handle design. I always carry their Replaceables Tool on my bike rides, but I also need to bring along a redundant multi-tool with a chain breaker for emergency purposes. With this new tool, I can drop the other backup entity and just use their product suite entirely, saving some weight and headaches.
Bottom Line
The Replaceable Fix It Sticks tool was incredibly versatile with its magnetized bit system, and I appreciated that the Fix It Sticks are customizable so I could choose almost any combination of the four bits on the tools ends to match my requirements. When using the clip, it was relatively easy to extract the extra bits from their orange rubber holders for swap outs, and the plastic main body held everything securely together. The chain breaker was simple to use, and the rivet popped out with minimal effort, significantly due to the leverage you can apply via the t-handle design of the tools. The tire levers offer plenty of leverage and strength and aren’t like the typical flexy levers you usually carry and find in your bike store.
I’ve been using the Fix It Sticks Mountain Kit for three years now, and the tools offer an ideal blend of strength, functionality, durability, and usefulness.
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