I can’t seem to keep any multi-tool in my saddle bag for very long, as they always seem to get rusty. I rarely ride in the rain, but it’s 80%+ humidity almost every day when I ride. A tool usually lasts me less than a season.
Even tho I know this, I still splurged on a small set of PB Swiss tools to carry in my saddle bag. I thought for the price, maybe no rust. Buttttt, Lo and behold, a few months later they are all rusty.
However, instead of throwing out this time dropped in a cup of vinegar and 60 mins later after a quick scrub w the back of a sponge, no more rust! I then sprayed w t9 lube to hopefully keep the rust away, and now back in my saddle bag.
This might be commonplace to keep your tools clean, but I never knew! Maybe you’ll find use of out of it.
An additional option is to go with a stainless multi-tool: https://ride.lezyne.com/...products/sv-pro-tool
I’ve had great luck with mine; but I live in low-humidity NorCal, so not really testing its limits.
I’ve got a stainless one from Lezyne that is still nice and shiny, years on.
Wet and rainy Britain.
I do put the tool is a small plastic zip-lock bag to keep the worst of the wetness off it though (in response to years of other tools rusting).
I think from memory, Silca do a stainless ‘Italian Army Knife’ multi-tool too, that looks really nice. There was a thread that included some back and forth with Josh from Silca about stainless tools a couple of years back.
I live near Houston where it is so humid that going for a run also counts as a swim … everything rusts including stainless. I put my multitool in a ziploc bag with a few squirts of CRC 3-36 and it never rusts.
I’m same as you , having every ride end completely drenched.
I’ve tried so many stainless steel products … it’s certainly not low quality tools not rusting.
I’m avoiding the plastic bag (like I already do w batteries), tbd if the lube will do the trick on its own