the humble tyre lever

[mig]

seems that a friend has 'borrowed' my old set out of the shed. thanks mate.

what are recommendations for the usual sized lever? not those black rubbery ones nor anything huge/overkill. just a good, stiff, regular set of tyre levers.

ta.

[Cyril Haearn]

Old rounded spoons are almost perfect
Some metal tyre levers have sharp corners

[RickH]

I've been using a set of Schwalbe ones for a number of years - they seem to work well enough (the hook for the tyre bead it short & wide), aren't expensive (less than £5 for a set of 3) & seem pretty indestructible (I haven't managed to break one yet).

[slowster]

If you are not particular about the type, brand or model of tyre lever, I think the current price at Wiggle/Chain Reaction of £3.56 for 3 Park tyre levers and glueless patches is pretty good value, especially considering the price of buying the levers and patches separately (£2.89 for the levers and £2.39 for the patches) .

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/park-tool-puncture-kit-with-tyre-levers/

[Bmblbzzz]

I like the Park Tool blue ones. Seem stronger than most and easy to use.

[MikeDee]

Use only plastic levers. Metal ones damage rims. Kool Stop make good tire levers.

[CliveyT]

The Park Tool blue ones are also my go-to in the tool box but I'm just about reaching saturation with all sorts of makes and models. There's a set in all my forms of luggage, 2 sets in the toolbox and a set at work. If the alternative is walking home and they''re cheap then why not?

[mjr]

Schwalbe, Park Tool, Bontrager and Continental all seem pretty good at the moment, having both thin tips and good shapes for levering/rolling the bead off. All except the Continental have lips to help, I think, but somehow the Conti doesn't seem to need it. And then there's the legendary Pedros. Buy whichever of those you can find at a reasonable price IMO.

Park and I think Schwalbe come in 3s. Contis and Pedros come in 2s and seem OK but Bontrager come in 2s but sometimes on narrower tyres, I feel like they need 3...

[foxyrider]

My favourites are the Tacx ones - quite cheap, choice of colours and they clip together - each of my bikes has a set in a different colour!

My personal experience of the Park levers is that they can be a bit brittle - i've broken quite a few in my time. Some of the cheaper offerings have a tendency to bend which isn't helpful either. I do have some classic steel jobbies in the toolbox - they rarely come out, last time was to help ease some new tubulars onto a rim!

Never found the tyre stick things to be that easy to use although useful on tight fits.

[scottg]

VAR levers, good for regular and moderately ill fitting rim/tyre combos.

Honorable mention, KIng Ti levers.

[Brucey]

some cheap puncture repair kits ( £1 and upwards) contain steel tyre levers that are durable and effective. Made to a cost, they are not heavy.

Sometimes the poundland repair kits contain plastic tyre levers (which are rubbish) or steel ones which are OK. Blackspur kits contain steel tyre levers



and so do the ones from Marksman and Poundworld, the latter of which are nigh-on identical to this


It is worth buying the kit just for the tyre levers in many cases. A typical kit from china these days often contains these things



which are all of some use apart from the abrader and the glue, which are best filed in B for bin.

The glue that comes with the poundworld kits is particularly useless. Not sure if this is behind the many closures of their stores but it can't have helped...

Note that despite costing peanuts the steel tyre levers in these kits nearly all share one common feature; they are flat and burr-free where they bear against the rim. This means that in practice, you don't damage rims unless you are incredibly careless with them.

cheers

[Tilley]

https://www.facebook.com/CleverStandard/
These also double as quick link removers.

[gaz]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=105974

[JakobW]

[...]which are all of some use apart from the abrader and the glue, which are best filed in B for bin.

The glue that comes with the poundworld kits is particularly useless. Not sure if this is behind the many closures of their stores but it can't have helped...

Useless in what sense - doesn't actually act as a rubber solvent? I've got various random glue tubes in the bits box, many of which have come from cheapo kits, but most were I think from Lidl/Aldi, and were OK on the thankfully rare occasions I've had to use them.

[Brucey]

Useless in what sense - doesn't actually act as a rubber solvent?....

pretty much. Had I not repaired hundreds of punctures in my time I'd assume that my technique was off, but I failed to make patches stick using the poundworld stuff; disappointing since the kit came with a nice large tube of the stuff.... I've not used the Aldi/Lidl solution but I'd expect it to be somewhat better quality than the pound shop stuff.

The small tubes that come in various cheapo kits all suffer the same problem (whether the solution works or not) which is that the things dry out before you get a chance to use the stuff...

cheers