Favorite tire levers?
 

Today I finally broke my cheap $2 tire levers after two years of fine service. I consider myself pretty handy and appreciate well designed tools, especially if I use them often. I would like to know what your favorite set of levers are. Am I asking for trouble if get a set of steel levers like these or should I stick with plastic? I have yet to damage a rim and I haven't pinched a tube during replacement in a long time. What shall I buy?

I use the Park levers at work. My personal levers are Minoura alloy levers with the hook sawed off and the end filed smooth. I have some of the Minoura levers at work for the really tight tires, they are very thin and work great.

I can tell you which one I don't like. I have the Crank Brothers Speed Lever, and found it to be a pain to use. I kept expecting it to break. And I really had to lube up the tire at the beginning to remove the tire, and toward the end when mounting the tire. Even then, it didn't want to slide well. I was also concerned it was going to damage the tires.

On the road, Park TL-2's have been a life saver. They're strong and wide. The tires on my hybrid fit like they're a half-inch too small. It takes an act of God and serious leverage to get the beat popped over initially. The width of the park TL-2 helps a lot, but they're still narrow enough to fit between mountain bike spokes.

My favorites are some old Mafac tire levers that I got in the early '70s. Just like the three in the lower left of the picture.

http://landship.sub.jp/stocktaking/archives/MAFAC_2.jpg

They go with me everywhere. In fact once I forgot they were in my backpack when I was flying to Iceland.

The Homeland Security people said that they weapons, but "gracefully" allowed me to mail them back to myself at a great expense. I guess that set off bells and whistles. I was given the full search seven times before reaching Iceland. My backpack was tested for explosives and some Medjool dates I was carrying got sent through a special X-ray scanner.

Weapons? Ha! I recently forgot to take my old Campy peanut butter wrench out of my bag while on the way to NYC. I was concerned I would have to trash it, but the benevolent TSA agent said it was ok since it was under 7" long and a only tool (knives aren't tools?), so I got to carry it on the plane with me.

I have these. Very happy with them. I've broken many plastic levers.

I'm not a pro but I really love my QuikStik. I stumbled upon it by accident when it was included in an old bike tool bag that I found in a Thrift Store.

My weapon of choice is a "Quick Stick". I don't know who sells it. Most times I don't find it necessary to use any tire levers at all. On really tight tires, the Quick Stick doesn't work so well and I have to use something else.

I use the Soma steel core levers.

Pedros. Those thick yellow jawns..

Best lever ever.

SOMA steel core levers. Lots of power without the threat of marring a rim. Almost completely unbreakable. Though I did manage to break one trying to get a Nokian Extreme 296 off a Rhynolite rim.

I don't know if they are even available any more but Specialized sold tire levers called "Pry Babies". They were plastic and came in sets of three. They were thin and wide and would pry off tight tires and install tighter ones with out pinching the tubes. I managed to break a couple but they were both cheap and very well designed.

http://www.garmentdistrict.com/store...edro_patch.jpg
Vote for Pedro(s)
They're light, and don't break. I've been through several plastic, and several metal levers. Pedros beats 'em all.

REI sells Quikstiks. I can use my hands for most of the way until the very end.

Also the Quikstik is good for really old tires where the bead has "sealed" and is hard to break.

Want some new ones? What 'cha got for tradeing stock?

I use Quikstiks for most jobs, but they do break after changing a couple hundred tires. That's probably not a problem for most home users though, and when they do break, they're cheap to replace.

For really stuck tires, the Park TL-5 steel levers work well. Expensive but worth it for the occasional nightmare tire removal or installation.

I use Irish Tenfingers. Very effective and portable.

I thought the British outlawed the harvesting of those for being cruel and unusual.

also count a pint pretty well :beer:

Maybe cruel, but not unusual.

Love the Pedros. They were great back when they were white. Still great in yellow ;-)

I use several weapons depending on need. I also use the QuikStik which I've had for over 10 years and used it more times then I can count, and it has yet to break. If the tire is really stubborn I go to my VAR that just snaps on the last 3 or 4 inches of beading without any possibility of damage to the rim, tire or tube. I also carry a set of 25 year old aluminum SIDI tire levers just in case the QuikStik were to break.

Soma, Soma, Soma. Best tire lever ever. Strong, won't mar your rims, won't snap in cold weather. Just a bit thick for really tight tires, though.

Definitely Pedro's
http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_d...cid=GoogleBase

Why didn't we have these back in the day?