Prestacycle Prestaratchet Go

The Prestacycle Prestaratchet Go is an easily-pocketable lightweight multi-tool covering pretty much every fastening need on a modern bike. It's also a quick-link breaker, valve core tool, tyre lever and tubeless plugger. With a five-year warranty and a decent price, it's a strong alternative to traditional folding multi-tools.

Traditional multi-tools are great for on-the-road-or-trail fettling, with a plethora of options around for not much money, from cheap and cheerful Allen key sets to higher end models including chain breakers. You can check some out in our guide to the best bike multi-tools.

> Buy now: Prestacycle Prestaratchet Go for £30 from Prestacycle

In bike workshops, small ratchets are now seen as indispensable tools for getting into tight spaces, and/or being able to do up or undo fasteners quickly and with better control than larger traditional P-handled hex or Torx tools. I have several small ratchet tools in prominent positions on my workshop wall, and I know of pro mechanics who have multiple small ratchet tools semi-permanently fitted with the most common bits to cut down on the need to swap.

The Prestaratchet Go takes that established workshop ratchet functionality and puts it into an easily-transportable package for taking on the road or trail – along with a number of key mid-ride essential extras. But let's start with the core function of the ratcheting bit holder.

Ratcheting bit

The Prestaratchet is a legend in the pro mechanic world. The combination of the reversible ratchet and thumbwheel means you can very quickly get a fastener tight enough to then apply force using the lever arm one-handed. And if it then needs loosening and adjusting again – for example, a seatpost bolt, stem or headset – you can do so immediately with a flick of the direction without having to adjust grip or remove and reinsert a standard hex or Torx tool. This insert-once-adjust-many paradigm helps protect your fasteners and bits, through reduced wear and risk of incorrect insertion leading to stripped fasteners. I talked about this in my review a few years back of the Prestacycle Torque Ratchet Pro Deluxe.

Held securely in the soft wallet are a Phillips PH1 bit, hex bits in 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8mm, and Torx 10, 15, 25 and 30 bits. The bit shafts are indented and click solidly into the ratchet head, where they are retained by a clip mechanism on two sides – there's no way they are falling out. To extract the bit, you press down on the open side.

An oft-unmentioned benefit of individual bits is that if/when they need replacing, you just buy one – not a whole new multi-tool. Or if your current or future bike needs an unsupplied type, size or length of bit, just add it to the kit.

The ratchet mechanism is very fine – about seven degrees per click – so even in the tightest of spaces you should be able to get enough handle movement to tighten or loosen. Again, the thumbwheel greatly speeds up the process of taking up slack or fully loosening a fastener.

The ratchet tool is rated to 30Nm, which is a hell of a lot for a tool that's only 100mm long, with an effective bit-centre-to-handle-centre lever arm distance of 70mm. That means it's rated to the same force applied at the centre of the handle that you'd use to lift a 43kg weight with your fingers. While it's very unlikely you'll be doing any work on a cassette or bottom bracket to max out the 30Nm on offer, it's good to know the ratchet is more than up to the task of tightening or loosening pedals or thru-axles.

So far, so workshop-pro-mechanic-grade fastener tool.

Additional functions

The first of the additional functions is a quick-link breaker. This is a fiendishly simple and clever alternative to hitting your quick-link with a rock or doing odd things with shoelaces to get it apart.

You simply make a little 'A' with one end of the link by lifting one side free at the top of your chainring and shifting the chain forwards by one tooth to make it stick up. (This may be harder to do with 1x narrow-wide chainrings, but not impossible. You could in theory do it by making the quicklink 'A' on your largest sprocket at the back.)

Once one end of the quick-link is standing proud of the chainring, you press down on it, aligning the two sideplate ends with the two notches cut into the handle. Between the notches is a bar that presses down on the quick-link roller, forcing one half of it downwards, thereby separating the link.

To do this takes a fraction of the time it takes to read, and once you've tried it you will wonder why every bike multi-tool doesn't have these two slots carved into them. Possibly because Prestacycle has patented the design.

Next it's the tyre lever function. Prestacycle has built a cunning 'rim hook' into the lever that prevents it slipping out. The lever is made from slippery nylon and is sharp enough to get under even a quite tight bead and then be dragged easily around the rim. Installing is likewise easy. The usual caveats of every tyre-rim-tube-hand-technique combo differs and your mileage may vary, but I found the lever to be very effective and a perfectly good on-road option for even tight tubeless beads.

Sticking with reasons you may want to faff with wheels, the tool includes a tubeless plugger. This takes the form of a wee metal fork that threads into the lever, turning it into a T-handle to afford loads of power and control when stabbing a 'bacon strip' plug into a leaking tubeless tyre. I'm an avowed fan of the Dynaplug system, but I acknowledge that Dynaplugs are a) expensive to buy and refill and b) large, compared with this option.

You get five narrow and five thick strips provided, stuck between transparent sheets. The narrow strips threaded into the fork no problem; the thicker ones were quite a faff and would almost certainly mean most if not all of your existing air had departed your leaking tyre in the meantime. This is no slight on Prestacycle here, it's an inherent drawback of the fork-strip design, and had the set included 10 of the thinner strips I wouldn't even be noting the issue.

The final tool in the handle is a rectangular hole for tightening or loosening Presta valve cores.

While many valve caps now come with this function, it's always handy to have another one on hand as a mid-ride-need-air-stuck-valve solution.

Wallet

All this comes packaged in a nice flexible wallet, with a belt or packstrap loop if you're that way inclined.

You can choose to remove or swap bits as needed, and the little elasticated pocket is very handy for carrying other small but essential items like a tyre boot, spare valve cores, a sachet of lube or whatnot.

Weight, price, value

The whole kit weighs 125g, and the tool itself is only 26g – so if you really care, you can save a considerable amount of weight and space by taking just the tool plus bits needed. The fact that you're not carrying at least one other tyre lever, a quick-link breaker and a valve core tool is a bonus.

> Emergency essentials: 10 things you should carry every ride

The fact that you're getting the excellent ratcheting functionality may or may not matter to you, if you only ever use a multi-tool for rare roadside tweaks. To my mind there's no such thing as the 'best' multi-tool – just the best one for your use case, bike fastener selection, storage options, dexterity, and so on. For me, the Prestaratchet won't replace the excellent and compact Topeak PT30 tool as my permanently on-bike tool for day rides (I own three, and they stay on the bikes so I'm never caught short). But for travel or multi-day expeditions, I can see the Prestaratchet Go being thrown into a frame bag or pannier as insurance against a number of potential woes.

Comparisons with other multi-tools are therefore rather irrelevant, as the Prestaratchet Go is pretty much in a class of one in being a collection of disparate functions in one package.

There are other options with ratcheting, such as the Topeak Ratchet Stick and Pro Bike Tool Mini Ratchet – but both are heavier and more expensive (the Topeak 150g and £46.99 – up from £39.99 when we tested it in 2020; the PBT 166g, and around £32.50), with less functionality.

Conclusion

As a tool to have at work for any post-commute fettling, I think it's a great option. Likewise, maybe to have in the car or van. Or if you add other small items to the wallet as mentioned, maybe it is a good in-the-jersey-pocket option for some.

Overall, Prestacycle has hit a home run in terms of ratchet + bits + other tools + wallet at that £30 price point. Add in a five-year warranty, and it's hard to go past the Prestaratchet Go as an on- or off-bike ratcheting tool option.

Verdict

Exceptional ratcheting tool that covers a number of other uses, at an excellent price