tyre levers, tyres & punchures - advice

on2wheels

had a punchure today, also broke 2 tyre levers trying to get the damn tyre off, if a friend hadn't been there with some metal tyre levers I'd have been stumped!

Also my father-in-law, a cyclists of 60 years, had 2 punchures and phoned to blag a lift!

I have been told that Conti 4 Seasons and Gatorskins are really tough tyres especially for the winter

My questions are 1. good, strong tyre levers, what would you recommend? and 2. the tyre, I would love a tyre that never gets a punchure as we all would, what is the best for riding in the english countryside in the winter

webbhost

what thickness tyre are we lookin at?

if you are referring to road tyres (I presume you are as you are posting in road area), I would recommend the Michellin ProRace 2 tyres. A avery good tyre and good puncture resistance (assuming you maintain 120 PSI)

A good set of tyre levers? Any that are metal. Dont go for the halfords puncture repair kit set that gives you plastic ones, they tend to last 5 minutes.

fossyant

All the tyres you have mentioned are good - be careful getting them off - I'm a Michelin fan and can get the Pro Race 2's off easily - just use a lever to ease off the rim, change tube then refit by hand - no leaver.....

Don't use metal, get a plastic lever from someone like zefal and the other well known makes.

Some tyres can be pigs to get on/off, but care should get them on/off OK.

synchronicity

http://www.tenerife-training.net/Teneri ... yre-lever/

(metal tyre levers tend to dent alloy rims)

webbhost

(metal tyre levers tend to dent alloy rims)

Point noted... Think I might need a small change in equipment.

feel

park make some very strong tyre levers here

Lagavulin

I use these and they've been excellent. Steel core, nylon outer.

JWSurrey

I have been using those Park plastic levers for the last few years without a problem.
I also have a VAR tool for getting tight beaded tyres back on the rims (available from BikePlus and SJS Cycles mail order).

Am running GP4 Seasons, which are vastly superior on greasy wet roads, grip-wise, to the GP4000 that I ran last season (25c).
There have been a lot of negative posts about the Gators, which people reckon puncture too easily. Most winter tyre posts seem to radiate between Contis and Michelins.
For an alternative, Panaracer make some chunky looking looking winter tyres - not tried them though.

As an aside, I did a friction test (mostly dynamic) - Placed same wheel at 90psi on glass surface, and dragged it, measuring resistance - the GP4000 produced noticably less resistance to the GP4 Season.

cyclingfury

Another vote for the Park levers! I also find folding tyres much easier to manipulate on and off wheels than those with metal beading.

meagain

I'd rather have tyres that are easy on/easy off rather than some of the p-resistant on the grounds that ALL blow sometime!

For winter, fill 'em with slime. I hate changing tubes when my hands are cold and wet.

songwriter

If it's any consolation I could have wrote your post. I spent 25 mins road side on Sunday with broken tyre levers etc...

duckiciao

meagain wrote:

I'd rather have tyres that are easy on/easy off rather than some of the p-resistant on the grounds that ALL blow sometime!

For winter, fill 'em with slime. I hate changing tubes when my hands are cold and wet.

I filled my tyres with Slime, and then had the mother of all blow-outs due to a snake bite. Frikking huge it was, the holes were easily 5mm in diameter (bearing in mind there's two of them).

Slime went everywhere! Me, the bike, the rims, the chain, the mechs, brakes, spokes, frame, road, bloke-next-to-me.... well, you get the idea.

Changing a tube takes me less than 5 minutes anyway.

on2wheels

thanks for all your posts, I will get some new levers and change my tyres

Great forum, always get good info... cheers