A cast steel body, folding stainless steel case, & replaceable pin…
My home-shop chain tool has been a Park Tool CT-6 as far back as I can remember. At one time, living light but packing heavy, it was my only chain tool and lived in my riding pack as well. Now, even after I retired it from trailside travails in favour of a lighter option, the CT-6 takes care of 99% of my chain-breaking duties. It’s the only dedicated chain-breaker I own.
It folds up small, but the leverage from the stainless steel handles, which double as a case, smooth threaded action, and solid forged body make it excellent to use. Better, in fact, than many or even most of the fixed-not-folding chain tools that I have tried.
Years ago, my original CT-6 went walkabout, along with my whole tool roll, at a riding event, and without a second’s thought, it was the very first tool I replaced. By then, the bikernet link to the Park Tool CT-6 folding chain tool was redirecting riders to the CT-6.2.
I can’t remember there being any significant differences between the two tools. The internet remembers the 6.2 having more leverage than the original. At any rate, my CT-6.2 has been involved in nearly every chain installment on our fleet of rigs and bikes I’ve reviewed, from BMX chains through 12-speed SRAM T-Type. I cracked off one of the tines, battling one of the Wippermann Connex 1R8 chains I used to run on my single-speed, but it’s been bombproof otherwise.
{Photo: MEATengines}
At some point, the CT-6.2, but not my 6.2, was retired and replaced with the more complicated CT-6.3, which added a peening anvil for Campy’s 11-speed stuff and added 12-speed to the listed compatibility. It also maintained the same so-so-smooth shop-level action from a chain tool that folded up as small as many inferior trail-rated {though lighter-weight tools.
Did the addition of the vestigial-for-most-folks peening anvil kill the Park Tool CT-6? I don’t know anyone who has used this tool, which has heavy mountain bike vibes, to install a Campy chain, so I can’t comment on its functionality.
Park says the series’ retirement is down to a combination of low sales and high manufacturing costs. Fair, it was a comparatively expensive portable chain tool, and even then, the manufacturing costs undoubtedly made it a lower margin product.
{Photo: MEATengines}
Still, I pine for a CT-6.LTD re-release of the CT-6.2. Skip the anvil, keep the 5-to-12-speed chain compatibility rating. Oh, but call it 5-to-13 now, I guess. Charge a fair amount reflecting what it costs to make. But, recognize that it’s one of the nicest, most unique pieces that Park Tool has ever put onto the market, and it’s worth taking the minimum possible margin to put more of them into riders’ hands.
No, I don’t carry it in my pack anymore, but in some Mandrew’s-still-a-one-bike-&-tool-roll-minimalist alternate universe, if I only had one chain tool, this would be it. I love my Park Tool CT-6, and wish I could recommend it to you. RIP.
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