The most awesomest tire levers ever
 

Actually bought a pair of these today after wrestling with a new tire and maddeningly flimsly little blue plastic levers. I proclaim these to be the most fantastic brake levers ever. They will survive the apocalypse. They will remove or mount the most absurdly tight beads. They are the acme of tire lever design. Granted, they're about 8" long, solid steel, and not exactly practical to carry around with you, but damned if they don't rock.

Where'd you pick em up?

Bike shop down around 3000 N Broadway. Johnny Sprocket?

I have these. I used to use them on my old mtb with maxxis hookworm tire. One of them did the job so well that I never used both at the same time. I am surprised you need these for road tires. Be careful though, they will scratch the edge of the rim.

I broke several dozen of the plastic tire levers before I decided to start using those same levers....but they have disappeared over time....go figure... newer bmx tires will break any lever....built for 120psi....and being mounted on triple wall rims....oh the insanity

My recent discovery of the most awesomest tire levers:
Pedros yellow levers. Big, flat, wide and stiff. They rock, run about $4, they are plastic and you can take them with you. Been raving about them lately which is weird, since they are simply tire levers. But the blow all others away that I've been using.

Sound like the ones you have found are great for the shop, Dave. Give these a try if you need ones for the road.

for plastic levers, i like the yellow michelin ones. i they're wide, and i guess they're impossible to break...i've used mine like, twice, but i hear they have a good reputation... the pedro's levers also have a good rep.

my personaly choice are the old metal tire levers that used to be my dad's. i took them with me when i went away to college. these things will pull any tire. if i'm at the shop and having trouble with a stupid tire, i just go into my bag and pull them out.

mmm....tire levers...

BTW, a little off-topic, but stay away from the pedro's spoke wrenches (if you're so inclined) we got some at my shop to try out and i split the red one (most commonly used) on the first wheel i tried it on. granted, the wheel was all nasty and the spokes were all frozen and whatnot, but still...the thing shouldn't have broke. then the next day, our head mech. was complaining that the wrench felt like it was flexing. i looked at it, and sure enough, split down the middle. if you're into spoke wrenches, the pedro's are a really great idea! they have a little hook that wraps around 3/4 of the spoke, to help keep them from rounding off, but they're just not heavy duty enough. we called pedro's and they said they had a bad batch, and they're sending us two new sets. i'm skeptical though. as far as everything else pedro's makes, it's all good as far as i'm concerned. their pedal wrench is sweet, they're headset wrenches are sweet, their cone wrenches are sweet, and of course all of their lubes are nice. i just have an issue with their spoke wrenches.