Difficult tyre removal : puncture.

[axel_knutt]

At the risk of thread drift, how many punctures before you bin the tube.

Any number. I don't bin a tube unless it can't be patched for any reason.

I think all this throwing away perfectly good tubes is just symptomatic of a throwaway society in general. A tube costs about a fiver, about 20 minutes pay on average wage, and it doesn't take that long to put a patch on so it's still economic to repair one even now.

[Cugel]

At the risk of thread drift, how many punctures before you bin the tube.

Any number. I don't bin a tube unless it can't be patched for any reason.

I think all this throwing away perfectly good tubes is just symptomatic of a throwaway society in general. A tube costs about a fiver, about 20 minutes pay on average wage, and it doesn't take that long to put a patch on so it's still economic to repair one even now.

Patches are profligate spending and consumerism! So are inner tubes. Go tubeless and let the latex goo do the "patching".

Mind, one could argue that latex goo is profligate ....... Perhaps really sticky mud from the roadside will work as well? (The modern equivalent of stuffing a tyre with grass ... which didn't work either).

[maanderx]

Mind, one could argue that latex goo is profligate ....... Perhaps really sticky mud from the roadside will work as well? (The modern equivalent of stuffing a tyre with grass ... which didn't work either).

Why stop there. Why not go solid rubber tyre instead?

[axel_knutt]

Bottles and carrier bags are cheap too, and look what happens to those:
https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.9421df60a6f ... ImgRaw&r=0
It all ends up somewhere. Unless it's not produced in the first place.

[Brucey]

when I was at university (in the 1980s) plastic tyre levers were still quite a new thing, often advertised as 'unbreakable'. I didn't witness the event, but I heard about it afterwards. On a clubrun, someone punctured, and a good-natured, but possibly over-helpful chap proudly produced these supposedly 'unbreakable' tyre levers, whereupon he promptly broke them. This event was immortalised in cartoon form in the next club newsletter; the cartoon showed a mangled bicycle wheel, and some hairy and muscular arms wielding some (according to the caption) 'unbreakable' tyre levers. That was nearly 40 years ago now, but I still prefer metal tyre levers.

[531colin]

.........
Park tool make a longer 'workshop' tyre lever, but IMHO the extra leverage it offers is as likely to cause tyre damage as anything else, in the wrong hands.

At Spa we used to see lots of tyres where somebody had just jammed a lever under the bead and heaved on it. There were usually a few places where the carcass over the bead was chewed up, and one place where they had finally succeeded in going right through so the tyre wall came away from the wire bead.
Mysteriously, that was always our fault....the tyre was "obviously" faulty.

I still have and still use the tyre levers I bought when I was at school; obviously they are steel, the only thing we had that was close to plastic was bakelite, which wasn't up to the job. As long as the surface is smooth, I don't see how you would scratch a rim.
Blimey, I just Googled "Terry tyre levers" ....people are trying to flog them as "vintage"......which I suppose they are, but who cares?

[UpWrong]

I use 3 tyre levers for my hard to remove tyres.
1st one under tyre bead and lock it to a spoke.
2nd one the same. 3rd one and lock to a spoke.
Remove 2nd one and this leaves tyre bead outside the rim. 2nd lever again, either outside 3rd (or 1st) and lock.
Remove 3rd to outside and so on until there is enough free bead that allows a lever to run round rest of rim.

For difficult tyres I use 4 levers
Lever the middle two simultaneously.
Then lever the outer ones individually.
Remove the inner ones.
Reverse a removed lever, reinsert and run it round the bead to get all of the tyre of the rim.

[briansnail]

Patches are profligate spending and consumerism! So are inner tubes. Go tubeless and let the latex goo do the "patching".

I did ask my cycle shop about this option.Very expensive to convert from standard.Meanwhile if we have problems with any brand.We need to try and get things changed.In Britain unlike USA.We do not complain.Email the manufacturer.Tell them their product sucks (good for puncture resistance.Terrible for getting on/off a wheel rim).Be bold suggest a free replacement.Your saving them a fortune on R and D.

[531colin]

…..Terrible for getting on/off a wheel rim)…,

Go about it in the right way it’s a piece of cake

[LucyEliz]

As long as the surface is smooth, I don't see how you would scratch a rim.

Genuine question - and bearing in mind that I’m clearly rubbish at removing tyres - given that I have a matte black metal rim, how can I NOT scratch it by running a steel level along it? The metal edge of the lever lifts some of the finish from the rim.

[531colin]

I don't run a lever round the rim to take the tyre off; once I lever the first bit off I just get the rest off with my fingers.....I think!
but maybe my rims are scratched and I haven't noticed, I'll try to remember to have a look.

[LucyEliz]

I do end up running the lever along the rim for at least a few inches to release more of the bead, depending on how chaotic / frustrating my progress is (I think I need to study the techniques listed above re lever insertion). But even if only just inserting the steel lever and not moving it further, I think that could be liable to scratch the rim. Perhaps only if you’re as cackhanded as me.
(On a tenuously related note I find that the paintwork on my Elan frame scratches monstrously easily, so I’m not really in a position to be fussy about scratches).

[bluespeeder]

For those of us who have a limited number of hands I find the levers which hook onto the spokes really useful with difficult tyres. I currently use vittoria tyres which do seem easy to remove. I can manage to remove tyre completely (both beads) plus inner tube without levers, on a good day. Warmer temperatures help, also getting as much air out of the inner tube as possible then tightening the valve.

[Geoff_F]

As long as the surface is smooth, I don't see how you would scratch a rim.

Genuine question - and bearing in mind that I’m clearly rubbish at removing tyres - given that I have a matte black metal rim, how can I NOT scratch it by running a steel level along it? The metal edge of the lever lifts some of the finish from the rim.

To prevent marring of motorcycle rims, plastic clips were available (which clipped onto the rim). For bicycle rims with a matte finish, it seems to me that a run of thick adhesive tape should do the job.

[Brucey]

FWIW it is childishly easy to make any steel tyre lever non-marring. Simply cut a strip of firm plastic (eg. from food packaging) ~8x60mm in size, and bind it to the tyre lever using sticky tape. The sticky tape will undoubtedly get damaged in use, but the damage should be localised, plus it is easy enough to renew the tape if needs be. A layer of double-sided tape under the plastic will help.