After my 19 year old 105 shifter stopped working as a shifter (braking works fine) and the WD-40 trick flood didn't help, I decided to give 1x a shot. Using the Sheldon Brown gear calculator, I figured a 44t chainring and an 11-36 cassette would work for my terrain, but my RD-5701-GS couldn't handle that cassette range. The RoadLink has worked out very nicely for adapting my setup for the 11-36 cassette and I'm happily riding 1x on the road.
The only negative is the price, seems a bit expensive for a piece of steel and a few bolts...but, without it, you can't customize your bike storage, so in some cases, it's necessary to have, as it was for me. In my case I was using a tall Nalgene 48-ounce bottle which when mounted to my fork would not allow the bottles to pass under the down tube as I turned the fork in one direction or the other, so by putting on the B-Rad it allowed me to be able to bring the bottles lower down on the fork and now the bottles clear the down tube.
B-Rad stands for Bottle Relocation and Accessory Device, it means what it says.
That's just one use for them, there are many other ways to use them. While I bought the shortest version of the three. With planning you could use one of these to hold two bottles instead of just one the bike was built for, or one larger bottle.
As the B-Rad stands for it can also hold accessories, and Wolf Tooth sells optional straps to make it work in that regard. With the straps you can hold a dry sack with a sleeping back stuffed into it for one example, lots of variations can be thought of with this mounting base, as long as the strap can fit around something it can be held.
These are just short enough to fit neatly into my saddlebag, unlike the other master link pliers I looked at. And very light. Have yet to break a chain on the road, must test them at home next time I wear out a chain.
A trick: slide a short piece of old tube over it (28-32mm size fits snugly onto this tool). This will keep it closed and so eliminate any possibility of losing your spare master links, and if you cut the piece long enough the end will keep the "teeth" at the business end of the tool from poking through other items (spare tubes?) in your saddlebag.
