Crankbrothers M19 vs Park Tool IB-2

The short answer first, since that is what you came for. If you want one tool in the seat bag that covers everything a long day can ask for, the Crankbrothers M19 is what I have carried for two years. If you already own a chain tool and you want a folding set that disappears into a pocket, the Park Tool IB-2 my riding partner Ed carries is the better pocket tool. Neither answer is wrong. They are answering different questions, and most of the arguing about these two online is two people answering different questions at each other.

Ed is 70, a retired mail carrier, and the only person I ride with. His IB-2 has been in his seat bag longer than the Crankbrothers has been in mine. I have handled it at his bench in town and beside the road more than once, and I have watched him work on his own bike with it. I have never owned one, so I will not pretend otherwise. What follows is two years and about 8,000 miles on my M19, plus a good deal of standing next to Ed's Park Tool.

	Crankbrothers M19	Park Tool IB-2
Hex keys	2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 mm	3, 4, 5 and 6 mm, the four most bikes actually use
Chain tool	Built in, fits 8 to 12 speed chains	No chain tool
Spoke wrenches	0, 1, 2 and 3	No spoke wrenches
Torx and screwdrivers	Torx, Phillips #1 and #2, flat #2	One Torx and one flat blade
Weight	175 g, chromoly steel	Noticeably lighter in the hand
Hold and torque	Side grips, workable in winter gloves	Flat beam body is easier to hold and lean on
Folded size	3.5 x 2 x 0.5 inches	Folds slimmer, sits flatter in a pocket
Best for	Long days and loaded bikes where one tool covers everything	Short rides, or riders who already carry a chain tool

How I Ended Up Comparing These Two

Two and a half years ago, an 80 mile fall ride left me sore, with a flat I fought for twenty minutes on a gravel shoulder, and a wrong turn on the way home that added six miles I did not have in me. The flat was the small part. I had one spare tube, a patch kit that had gone stiff in the heat, and two plastic levers, and I sat in the gravel with my back against a fence post to get the tire off. Then I pinched the new tube with a lever putting it back on, which is a thing I knew better than to do and did anyway, because my hands were tired and I was in a hurry. I patched that tube at the bench two days later and it has been my spare ever since.

In the first week of March the following spring I replaced my kit in one pass, and the M19 was part of that order. I bought it myself. Nobody sent it to me. Before I ordered, I made a list on the back of an envelope of every bolt on the bike I could not turn with what was in the bag, and there were six of them, starting with the seatpost clamp and ending with the 8 mm open wrench I needed for a rack bolt that had rusted in place. That list is why I bought the nineteen function tool instead of a smaller one. I have used it for about two years now, roughly 8,000 miles, on a steel touring bike with a 9 speed drivetrain, rim brakes and 32 mm tires. Most of my rides are 50 to 70 miles around Prescott and Chino Valley, twice a week, spring through fall, and since town sits at about 5,400 feet, most of those rides include real climbing.

Ed bought his IB-2 years before I bought anything, back when he was still carrying mail and riding twenty miles on his days off. He keeps it in the same seat bag pocket, and every time we stop for a bolt that walked loose or a saddle that slipped, out it comes. I have watched him use it enough times that I know exactly what it does well and exactly where it runs out. I have also handed it back to him and dug my own tool out of my bag for the same bolt, which is the most honest comparison I can offer you.

I have used the chain tool on the road exactly once in about 8,000 miles. That once was the difference between riding home and calling my daughter Beth in Tucson for a lift.

Where the Crankbrothers M19 Wins

The tool count is the whole argument, so here it is without decoration. Hex keys in 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 mm. Spoke wrenches in 0, 1, 2 and 3. Phillips #1 and #2, a flat #2. Open wrenches in 8 mm and 10 mm. A Torx. And a chain tool rated for 8 to 12 speed chains, which covers my 9 speed and the 11 speed bikes two of my neighbors bring over for a quick fix. It is chromium-molybdenum steel, 175 grams on my kitchen scale, and it folds down to 3.5 by 2 by 0.5 inches. It has a lifetime warranty, which I have never had to use.

In practice I reach for three of those on a normal ride. The 5 mm does the seatpost clamp and the rack bolts. The 4 mm does the bottle cage and the brake pad bolts. The 8 mm open wrench handles the rack bolt I mentioned, the one that rusted in place and that I now grease twice a season whether it needs it or not. The 2.5 mm is for derailleur limit screws, and I have used it twice, both times on Ed's bike when a shift started skipping at the top of a climb. The 6 mm comes out about once a season when a crank bolt works loose, and it always works loose on a climb, never in the driveway where I could deal with it comfortably.

The chain tool is why it stays in my bag. Mine let go on a climb outside Chino Valley about a year and a half ago, and I broke the bad link, pushed the pin back, and finished the ride on a shorter chain with one gear I did not trust. It took me eleven minutes with cold hands. Eleven minutes beats a phone call and an hour of waiting by a fence line. The spoke wrenches have also earned their place. I have taken a wobble out of my rear wheel twice with the number 2 slot, once well enough to ride the remaining twenty miles without thinking about it.

The side grips matter more than they sound. On a cold morning my hands are stiff before the first hour, and thin folding panels are hard to hold with gloves on. The grips on the M19 give you something to push against, which means you can actually get a stubborn bolt moving instead of rounding it off. That is a small thing right up until it is the only thing.

Where the Park Tool IB-2 Wins

It is lighter than mine, and not by a hair. Pick both up and you can tell. The body is a flat beam that fills your hand, and when Ed leans his weight into a seatpost bolt that has been sitting outside all winter, he gets more of himself behind the key than I can with folding panels. On a tight fastener in a bad spot, that hold is worth more than four extra tools you are not going to touch.

I know that because I tried it the wrong way first. One afternoon in his driveway, with the temperature somewhere around 50 and a seatpost binder bolt that had seized, Ed put the IB-2 on it and leaned. The bolt moved. I put my folding set on the same bolt and the panels flexed enough that I stopped before I rounded the head off. I put a drop of oil on it, waited ten minutes, and the M19 got it on the second try. The difference was not the tool. It was the leverage, and his flat beam has more of it than my hinged panels ever will.

It also folds slimmer. Ed carries his in a jersey pocket on warm days and forgets it is there, which is not something I can say about mine. And the four hex sizes it does carry, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mm, cover nearly everything on an older steel bike with rim brakes. Fewer pivots means fewer things to work loose and less to keep clean. For a rider who already carries a chain tool, or who rides routes where a broken chain means a call for a lift anyway, the extra tool count on my M19 is just weight.

One thing to say plainly about both of them: neither has tire levers and neither has pliers. If you need levers, that is a separate item and both of these leave it to you. I carry two plastic levers and a patch kit alongside the M19, and Ed carries his levers in the other pocket. Do not buy either tool expecting it to cover that.

The Small Annoyances

Mine is chunky in a jersey pocket. It lives in the seat bag and comes out at the bench, and I have stopped pretending otherwise. The chain tool is also fiddly with cold hands. The pin is small, the lever is short, and the one time I really needed it the wind was blowing and my fingers were numb. I got it done. It was not graceful.

Both tools are also only as good as the bolt they are turning. A folding set will never give you the leverage of a bench tool, and if you are doing real work at home, use the real tools. These are for the road, which is where the leverage does not matter as much as having something at all.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the Crankbrothers M19 if you ride long days alone, if your bike has a chain you would rather fix than abandon, and if the seat bag is your only toolbox. That is my situation exactly. I ride 50 to 70 miles twice a week with one partner and a lot of solo miles in between, and a chain tool I have needed once in two years is still the cheapest insurance in the bag. Riders on 8 through 12 speed drivetrains, on loaded bikes, on routes where a walk out would take hours, get the most from it. Check your own chain speed before you order anything, because that number decides whether a built in chain tool works on your bike at all. Mine is 9 speed and sits comfortably inside the range, and I checked it against the listing before I bought rather than after.

Buy the Park Tool IB-2 if you keep a chain tool in the garage bag, if you ride shorter loops close to home, or if weight and pocket space are what you think about most. Ed rides many of the same long days I do, and his IB-2 has never once been the reason he cut a ride short. He also keeps a chain tool in his garage box, which is the entire point. He does not need one on the bike, so he does not pay for one in weight. It does its job. It is just a narrower job than mine.

And if you are buying your first folding tool at 60 or 70, my advice is to buy slightly more tool than you think you need. The day you need the extra one is the day you will not care what it weighed. If your hands or back complain after a long day in the saddle, see your doctor if it does not clear up, because no multitool fixes that.