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The ultimate 3-Way tool? Soma Fabrications turns out Y-Ratchet Hex Wrench

Written by Zach Overholt
15 Comments
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Depending on your personal stance, the 3-way wrench is likely either your favorite tool or one that is reserved only for quick adjustments. Regardless, the 3-way is a pretty handy tool to have around – even more so with the new Y-Ratchet from Soma Fabrications.

The ultimate 3-Way tool? Soma Fabrications turns out Y-Ratchet Hex Wrench

Fairly self explanatory thanks to the name, the Y-Ratchet is a ratcheting hex wrench in the classic 4, 5, 6mm 3-way combination. However, the wrench is compatible with any bit with a 4mm shank so you can customize the bits to your preferred combination.

The ultimate 3-Way tool? Soma Fabrications turns out Y-Ratchet Hex Wrench

Measuring 16.5cm across, the tool has a sturdy aluminum body and each bit has its own 3-position ratchet that allows you to loosen, tighten, or lock the ratcheting mechanism. Available from their web store or your local bike shop, the Soma Y-Ratchet sells for $24.99 with 4, 5, and 6mm bits. Available now.

somafab.com
Zach Overholt
5,725 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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15 Comments
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Moby
Moby
5 years ago

Great idea, and I was all in until I went to the site to order and found they wanted to charge me $15 to ship. Cancelled that…

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Dolan Halbrook
Dolan Halbrook
5 years ago
Reply to  Moby

Yeah, SOMA’s shipping prices are a bit crazy. I remember paying $9 to ship a $20 stem.

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Dan
Dan
5 years ago

Really???? 4mm shank bits and not the industry standard 1/4″. Sorry, but this is a major fail, also there are other companies that make tri-tools that take the standard. Also, the main reason to use a “Y” style tri tool is to speed up the process as you can use it like a “T” style wrench. The tiny ratchets in this tool are not making life any better and more likely than not are going to be prone to failure.

Sorry Soma, I like a lot of your stuff, but this aint it…..

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Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Yeah, that sums it up. 4mm is fine if you’re going for small and portable, which I don’t consider a Y wrench to be. I’m also not sure about what kind if torque they can take (though it’s probably not an issue).

If they had used 1/4” bits, they could have been reversible, so you could get an additional 3mm, T25, and T10, for instance.

Besides a Y wrench being easy enough to spin, a ratchet also makes it harder to do something where you want to quickly reverse direction, like take the slack out of a cable.

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Pete Hamer
Pete Hamer
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark

“…each bit has its own 3-position ratchet that allows you to loosen, tighten, or lock the ratcheting mechanism.”

It could work well for tight spaces, like water bottle cage bolts on a seat tube where a normal y-wrench would hit the down tube. Then lock it for other stuff.

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Rodrigo Diaz
Rodrigo Diaz
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Agreed. Was excited about this since I already have some unused 1/4 in bits at home. Even was checking other stuff at the Soma store (tape, tubes) to round up an order.

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Jim
Jim
5 years ago

1/4′ was tried, but made the body of the tool twice as large, and very unmanageable. We’ve been testing them for over 2 years without failure.

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Frederic CREMERS
Frederic CREMERS
5 years ago

it doesn’t NAIL it…

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Tom
Tom
5 years ago

I want a simple, fixed 3, 4, 5 mm hex wrench.

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Cheese
Cheese
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Then buy one.

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Sevo
Sevo
5 years ago

Any one who has spent time working in a shop environment or as a wrench for a race team will tell ya this is brilliant. 25 years wrenching on bikes, when I saw this I wondered why no one had thought about it sooner.

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Josh
Josh
5 years ago

Yea, I just went to buy it. Then canceled, I’m not paying $15.00 to ship it.

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Jason Quade
Jason Quade
5 years ago
Reply to  Josh

Amazon has set the expectations in an unfair place. $15 for a UPS package isn’t unfair but when so many retailers are willing to subsidize their shipping costs it seems excessive.

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Tim
Tim
5 years ago

I designed this 4 years ago….just never took it to market, glad someone finally did. There is another component to this design, that when added, would make it the holy grail of tools.

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Pete Hamer
Pete Hamer
5 years ago
Reply to  Tim

Torque settings!

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