Plastic tyre levers...

"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

...are rubbish. York was out yesterday because of all the heavy rain, as

was

Quoted message said:

any sort of riding. So today I decided to ride across the Humber Bridge

into

Quoted message said:

Lincolnshire. Not a bad decision as there was a half marathon on and I
managed to blag some supplies at their regular feed stations!

After about 30 miles I got my first puncture on a road bike. Luckily it

was

Quoted message said:

in Hull and there was a nice bench nearby to sit on. I had my Lidl toolkit
which included 3 tyre levers, which turned out to be completely useless.
They were far too bendy to take the tyre off, but as it turned out there

was

Quoted message said:

a screwdriver in the kit and I managed to get the tyre off with that.

So it's off on another rolling experiment to find out the most puncture
proof tyre in 23 mm size. My hybrid experiment (36 mm) ended with
Continental Contact and Schwalbe Marathon Plus (F+R), so I will start with
those makes first. The punctured tyre was a Vredestein Ricorso.
--

Not all plastic tyre levers are like that. Mine have fixed numerous
punctures over several years and are so tough that they hardly flex at all.
It sounds like yours were useless, but don't assume that all plastic tyre
levers are just as bad.

Mark

Simon Mason said:

...are rubbish.

I beg to differ. No doubt *some* plastic tyre levers are [censored], but
certainly not all. Besides, what is the alternative, metal levers on
modern aluminium rims? No thanks.

Mike Dyason sells plastic tyre levers at 3 for a pound (last time I
looked), they are excellent. I also have a couple of Park plastic
levers which are a much wider and thinner design which also seem okay,
if a bit less sturdy.

Quoted message said:

I had my Lidl toolkit

Ah, yes well, I see where you may have gone wrong.
--

"Bob"

'The people have spoken, the [censored]'

Email address is spam trapped.
To reply directly remove the beverage.

Simon Mason typed:

Quoted message said:

...are rubbish.

Not all are .. I have some excellent levers in red, green and black from (I
think) James or St James cycles (can't remember the name correctly) in
Chesterfield .. they're about 8 years old and have removed, and replaced in
some cases, loads of tyres with nary a flex.

Quoted message said:

I had my Lidl
toolkit which included 3 tyre levers

I think we've found the problem .. 😉

--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

"Paul - [censored]" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason typed:

Quoted message said:

...are rubbish.

Quoted message said:

Not all are .. I have some excellent levers in red, green and black from (I
think) James or St James cycles (can't remember the name correctly) in
Chesterfield .. they're about 8 years old and have removed, and replaced in
some cases, loads of tyres with nary a flex.

J E James IIRC.

I've had few problems with plastic tyre levers...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Helen Deborah Vecht typed:

Quoted message said:

"Paul - [censored]" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason typed:

Quoted message said:

...are rubbish.

Quoted message said:

Not all are .. I have some excellent levers in red, green and black from
(I think) James or St James cycles (can't remember the name correctly) in
Chesterfield .. they're about 8 years old and have removed, and replaced
in some cases, loads of tyres with nary a flex.

J E James IIRC.

Could well be .. thanks.

--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

Call me Bob <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason said:

...are rubbish.

I beg to differ. No doubt *some* plastic tyre levers are [censored], but
certainly not all. Besides, what is the alternative, metal levers on
modern aluminium rims? No thanks.

Mike Dyason sells plastic tyre levers at 3 for a pound (last time I
looked), they are excellent. I also have a couple of Park plastic
levers which are a much wider and thinner design which also seem okay,
if a bit less sturdy.

Quoted message said:

I had my Lidl toolkit

Ah, yes well, I see where you may have gone wrong.

I use the yellow plastic Michelin ones, some web dealers supply these
free with tyre/tubes, very effective also however very sharp so care
is required. Had very few punctures with Michelin Axial-Bi Sport 23's.

in message <[email hidden]>, Simon Mason

(') said:

After about 30 miles I got my first puncture on a road bike. Luckily
it was
in Hull and there was a nice bench nearby to sit on. I had my Lidl
toolkit which included 3 tyre levers, which turned out to be
completely useless. They were far too bendy to take the tyre off, but
as it turned out there was a screwdriver in the kit and I managed to
get the tyre off with that.

I bet screwdrivers from Lidl are completely useless too. Not all plastic
is cheese, just as not all metal is. You do get what you pay for, and
even good quality plastic tyre levers are cheap. I've used plastic tyre
levers for years and wouldn't have any other kind now. Apart from being
lighter and more convenient, they don't scratch your rims.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Wise man with foot in mouth use opportunity to clean toes.
;; the Worlock

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 22:05:09 GMT, Simon Brooke <[email hidden]>
wrote (more or less):

Quoted message said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Simon Mason

(') said:

After about 30 miles I got my first puncture on a road bike. Luckily
it was
in Hull and there was a nice bench nearby to sit on. I had my Lidl
toolkit which included 3 tyre levers, which turned out to be
completely useless. They were far too bendy to take the tyre off, but
as it turned out there was a screwdriver in the kit and I managed to
get the tyre off with that.

I bet screwdrivers from Lidl are completely useless too. Not all plastic
is cheese, just as not all metal is.

Although a lot of cheap metal screwdrivers are highly plastic! :-)

Quoted message said:

You do get what you pay for, and
even good quality plastic tyre levers are cheap. I've used plastic tyre
levers for years and wouldn't have any other kind now. Apart from being
lighter and more convenient, they don't scratch your rims.

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Paul - [censored]" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Simon Mason typed:

Quoted message said:

...are rubbish.

Quoted message said:

Not all are .. I have some excellent levers in red, green and black from (I
think) James or St James cycles (can't remember the name correctly) in
Chesterfield .. they're about 8 years old and have removed, and replaced in
some cases, loads of tyres with nary a flex.

J E James IIRC.

I've had few problems with plastic tyre levers...

Me neither, though admittedly I've only used them twice, and my tyres
aren't as hard as some to get off the rim. The second time was
yesterday, when I had my first 'proper' puncture - rear wheel had been
ticking for a while, but I thought the stone would work it's way out...
no... should have stopped and removed it...

Not gone a mile from the tea stop on the ride when I decided the back
tyre was definitely not right, looked - and lo, it was utterly flat.

Previous to that it'd waited till I'd got home (front) to go flat, and
was caused by [censored] rim tape letting the tube work into a spoke hole.

Didn't take all that long to fix, and the plastic tyre levers were fab.
They came with my Topeak multitool thing.

I even discovered the reason why my back brakes had needed adjusting
(through being pants and not stopping me) a couple of weeks earlier.
The little levery bit to open them to get wheel out had managed to get
tweaked open some how... so that had to be sorted out at the roadside
too, before we could get the wheel out!

--

Velvet

Helen Deborah Vecht <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I've had few problems with plastic tyre levers...

A friend of mine shuns tyre levers all together. He manages to take the
slack out of the rest of the tyre to give enough free to pull over the edge
by hand. I challenged him to get a tyre off that most people thought was
difficult even with levers. He got it off in about a minute! I've practised
his technique, but just can't get it :-(

Graeme

Captain's log. On StarDate Sun, 27 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0100 received comm from
"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> on channel uk.rec.cycling:

: ...are rubbish. York was out yesterday because of all the heavy rain, as was

Not at all. Works perfectly here (used both Tacx and Michelin for many years).

: After about 30 miles I got my first puncture on a road bike. Luckily it was
: in Hull and there was a nice bench nearby to sit on. I had my Lidl toolkit
: which included 3 tyre levers, which turned out to be completely useless.
: They were far too bendy to take the tyre off, but as it turned out there was
: a screwdriver in the kit and I managed to get the tyre off with that.

As metal will possibly destroy your rim it's not any really good choice. Get a
good pair of QUALITY plastic ones and you can't get anything better.

These Michelin Tyre Levers are the old classics who just works and works:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/?ProductID=5360010439

Highly recommended!

Best regards,

martin törnsten

--
http://82.182.73.126/

Simon Mason said:

...are rubbish.

Many are, I'll freely agree. Especially the ones that come in noname
puncture repair kits. But Park Tools plastic tyre levers have taken
everything I've thrown at them thus far, and are IMHO Well Worth It.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 09:51:34 +0100, Peter Clinch
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Many are, I'll freely agree. Especially the ones that come in noname
puncture repair kits. But Park Tools plastic tyre levers have taken
everything I've thrown at them thus far, and are IMHO Well Worth It.

I have a set of unbranded ones which came from Halfwits decades ago -
they work fine, even with Stelvios on small rims.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Call me Bob said:

Mike Dyason sells plastic tyre levers at 3 for a pound (last time I
looked), they are excellent.

Seconded.

~PB

Quoted message said:

A friend of mine shuns tyre levers all together. He manages to take the
slack out of the rest of the tyre to give enough free to pull over the edge
by hand. I challenged him to get a tyre off that most people thought was
difficult even with levers. He got it off in about a minute! I've practised
his technique, but just can't get it :-(

Graeme

I never carry tyre levers. There are very few tyre/rim combinations
that require levers.

--
Peter Headland

[email hidden] (Peter Headland) wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I never carry tyre levers. There are very few tyre/rim combinations
that require levers.

So come on then, what's the trick? Us mere mortals need to know!

Graeme

in message <[email hidden]>, Peter

Headland (') said:

Quoted message said:

A friend of mine shuns tyre levers all together. He manages to take
the slack out of the rest of the tyre to give enough free to pull
over the edge by hand. I challenged him to get a tyre off that most
people thought was difficult even with levers. He got it off in about
a minute! I've practised his technique, but just can't get it :-(

Graeme

I never carry tyre levers. There are very few tyre/rim combinations
that require levers.

There may not be, but there are plenty of tyre/rim/technician
combinations that do, at least when I'm the technician. I'll stick to
levers.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; all in all you're just another click in the call
;; -- Minke Bouyed

On 28 Jun 2004 18:26:17 -0700, [email hidden] (Peter Headland)

wrote in message : said:

I never carry tyre levers. There are very few tyre/rim combinations
that require levers.

I do because the "very few" happens to include the two bikes I most
commonly ride, and those which don't require levers are often easier
with, especially if you don't want to get too grubby.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Graeme said:

[email hidden] (Peter Headland) wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I never carry tyre levers. There are very few tyre/rim combinations
that require levers.

I wouldn't go that far.

Quoted message said:

So come on then, what's the trick? Us mere mortals need to know!

Press both thumbs hard into tyre sidewall and force bead up and back then
ease off and let it pop outside the rim; repeat with adjacent section if
necessary then insert finger to whip rest off. Works on the more
looser-fitting tyre/rim combinations.

~PB