Best tyre levers.

ademort

Today i struggled to put a tyre on the wheel for the first time since i was a kid . I bought a pair of Vision team 30 wheels and tried to fit a pair of Rubino tyres. Two hours and six broken tyre levers later i gave up. I ended up fitting two new GP4000s tyres but even that was a hell of a struggle. Theres no point in going out for a ride if its gonna take me 45 minutes to fix a flat tyre . Please could anybody recommend me the best tyre levers for the job,I really have never experienced anything as bad as this my hands are still hurting.

ademort

oxoman wrote:

I use the old fashioned aluminium type tyre levers, I have sleeved them to stop them marking my rims, wouldn't dream of using them on my carbon wheels though. Have tried the plastic things that get given away with magazines and purchased decent ones all have have broken.

I used BBB and Park tools and Always worked but today was a bloody nightmare. Ended up using two old steel spoons with a bit of leccy tape did scratch the rim but not the braking surface thankfully.

ascurrell

I use Specialized ones as per link, they're not cheap but work well. They also store nicely using magnets.
https://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Speci ... lsrc=aw.ds

ascurrell

I use Specialized ones as per link, they're not cheap but work well. They also store nicely using magnets.
https://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Speci ... lsrc=aw.ds

fudgey

I have a set of Vision T35's and T25's and a new tyre can be a bit stiff to get on, but harder to get off.

I do find that if you put the tyre on and take it off a few times the bead must stretch as they are not hard after that to get on/off.

And i just use the park tools levers.

ayjaycee

Google 'Campagnolo Tyre Levers'. At £4 each they might seem quite expensive to some but they just work and, to me anyway, are worth every penny. They are made of a very strong plastic and do not damage my ally rims - don't know what they might be like on carbon.

SME

I'm quite fond of the blue plastic Schwslbe levers myself.

Boughtt a cheap folding MTB for day shift commutes. The tyres on it were tighter than a miser's wallet, but these levers worked well.

Nick Payne

My favourite are the Var tyre levers. I've been using them for almost 40 years. With them you can easily fit tyres that are very difficult to mount with conventional levers. One side of the lever sits on top of the opposing rim wall, the other side hooks under the tyre bead, and the shape of the tool gives you considerable mechanical advantage to lever the bead over the rim without any danger of pinching the tube:


SJS carry them: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tools/var-tyre-levers

Thick Mike

Why don't manufacturers just make tyres that fit rims, and rims that fit tyres?

Am I under-thinking this?

cycleclinic

The var lever is good but irc levers are better. Campagnolo levers are also good. Both the Campagnolo and irc levers are unbreakable, well I have never managed it. The var lever is soft in comparison.

Man Of Lard

Topeak 1.1 levers (on the road) and 1.2 in the workshop for me... At least I think it's that way around (I carry the smaller of the two anyway)

cycleclinic

I have tried the topeak levers and they are o. k. However i want more from my tools than o. k

faster97

I had exactly the same problem with exactly the same combination of rim and tyre (GP4000s - not Rubinos). The VAR tyre lever makes it pretty easy.

As another poster said, they are really flexy, but the fact that you can still get the tyres on is testament to how little effort you need to put in compared to when using conventional tyre levers.

You did well to get them on at all - I gave up after fitting one.

Pippy aston

Never had to use levers to get tyres on, guess I've got strong thumbs!! To get them off I use my Michelin ones. Used to get them included in the box when folding tyres first came out, I've got about 4 sets, only ever broke one.

LimitedGarry

Personally like the thick ParkTool ones. They survived stuffing a brand now Maxxis Ardent TR on my MTB, so they're probably bound to survive anything else.

ridgerider

Pippy aston wrote:

Never had to use levers to get tyres on, guess I've got strong thumbs!! To get them off I use my Michelin ones. Used to get them included in the box when folding tyres first came out, I've got about 4 sets, only ever broke one.

Have never struggled to get a tyre on a rim either...I start opposite the valve and make sure the bead sits in the centre of the rim profile as I ease the rest of the bead on. That way there always seems to be enough 'slack' left to flip over the last bit of the bead around where the valve is.

Getting tyres off, I've got an extendable Crank Brothers lever where the end of the 'handle' hooks around the axle. Works a treat every time without too much effort. Brilliant piece of engineering.

Moontrane

When I got a new DT Swiss rim I had the most difficult time installing my Schwalbe Durano. I was convinced that the rim was out of spec when, months later, I replaced the Durano with another and experienced the same difficulty. Then, when I got a new batch of Duranos and installed one, it fit easily.

I got a bad batch of Schwalbes. Could this be the case with your Rubinos?

BTW, I can install and remove tyres without levers. You don't have to be a circus strongman, either, it's mostly technique.

https://youtu.be/pLJhoqTpAaI

ademort

Moontrane wrote:

When I got a new DT Swiss rim I had the most difficult time installing my Schwalbe Durano. I was convinced that the rim was out of spec when, months later, I replaced the Durano with another and experienced the same difficulty. Then, when I got a new batch of Duranos and installed one, it fit easily.

I got a bad batch of Schwalbes. Could this be the case with your Rubinos?

BTW, I can install and remove tyres without levers. You don't have to be a circus strongman, either, it's mostly technique.

https://youtu.be/pLJhoqTpAaI

No the rubinos were taken from the old wheels and fit easily without tyre levers.

ademort

Hi all
Having trawled the internet for the best solution i went for these. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbO_03rKyPk
I have just used them and can tell you within 1 minute, probably less i got the tyre off and back on almost as easily as in the video. Must say they are quite large, suppose you could describe them as a sort of plastic knuckle duster. But they work brilliantly. Oh, by the way i bought two not one as is used in the film. One for work and one for training.

froze

I've tried a lot of different plastic levers and they either snap or get chewed up over time. Then I tried a brand of lever I've never seen reviewed but the design intrigued me so I thought I would try the Soma Steel Core Tire Lever, and to my surprise they have lasted a long time, the outer plastic shell is not chewed up or cracked either. Then after reading tons of happy reviews I got a set of Pedros for my other bike, they worked great too till one cold day they snapped in two, but Pedros has a lifetime warranty, except it would have cost me more to send them back then it would to buy another new set, so instead I got another set of Soma's.

I think any tire lever can fail, but I think these Soma Steel Core Levers are as tough as they come.

I also use the VAR tire lever, this thing surprised me because it's flexy and I though great this thing won't last long, while I don't use it much only on really tough tires, it's lasted me around 18 years...longer than any other lever I've ever had, but that first set of Soma's are about 12 years, old so they're catching up and they get used a lot more than the VAR.