Tire levers that actually work?
 

I'm in need of some tire levers that actually work. i broke all three struggling to get a really tight tire onto a rim today. still not on, fortunately i had an extra wheel (front) that allows me to ride. riding is supposed to reduce stress, not cause it.

any recommendations? i actually found some metal ones from park tools. wonder how they leave the rim.

one trouble i have is that i only have two hands, i know, bum luck. it is hard getting the tire on with only two hands, one side of the tire always seems to come off while working on the opposite side.

Maybe you need a bead jack.

Kool Stop Bead Jack

I just saw the bead jack on one of RJ's videos. Looks east to use. I'll give it a try.

Check these out...

https://www.tyrekey.com/

https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plu...ting-tool.html

If your tyres really are that tight that you're snapping levers at home, imagine if you got a flat on a ride!

It might also be worth looking at a different tyre choice down the track. Some tyre-rim combinations can be a real pain.

^^^ This ^^^

If I buy a new tire and it won't go on the rim fairly easily at home I take it back to the shop for something else. Flats are part of riding, make sure they are easy to deal with to reduce their inconvenience.

Lyzene metal tire jacks work. I stopped carrying the Kool Stop bead jack. Tires beads seem to stretch a bit after some miles and with the Lyzene, I can get them off. Having switched back to tubeless again, I got my first "flat" yesterday in over 10,000 miles. It deflated to 22 psi from 45 psi and I just rode it home, if it were worse I would have Dynaplugged it.

You should not need tire levers to mount a tire -- they are for getting a tire off a rim.

The proper technique is more easily shown than described, so I recommend youtube videos. Also read up on tips and tricks, such as (1) start installing a tight tire bead 180 degrees from the valve hole, and finish at the valve hole, (2) make sure you are pushing the bead into the rim's center channel as you mount it, (3) leave especially tight tires out in the hot sun for a few hours before mounting, etc. Most important is the actual technique - how you push the beads up and over the rim. Best to watch a good videol

If you are using 'best practice' to mount the tires and still can't get them on the rims, then get different tires. Sometimes I'll even have one tire out of a batch that won't mount, so it gets returned or tossed.

For removing tough tires, I like these.

PS: if you are interested in [MENTION=537095]GhostRider62[/MENTION] 's recommendation, note that there is no company called "Lyzene." He is referring to Lezyne. Though I would recommend against metal tire levers; which would you prefer to break first -- the tire lever, or the rim's sidewall?

As above, proper technique helps a lot. Make sure your tire beads are in the bottom of the rim well (repeat as necessary). Wrestling the last 6" onto the rim is best done with the heels of your hands, and if that doesn't work, repeat the beads in the bottom of the well step.

My all-time favorite tire irons are the Soma steel core irons, though I only use those for getting the tight tires off the rim.

Not everybody has hands of iron.

I've never broken a rim with a metal jack. If it comes down to being stranded at 2 am in the rain in the middle of nowhere and a 0.001% chance of damaging a lousy $400 rim?

Get tubeless tires, use Silica (sic) ultimate sealant, dynaplugs, and it is highly unlikely you will need to take the tire off the rim. If you do, better have a real boot (and a tube) and not the Parke POS boot.

Even scrawny cyclists have enough arm and upper body strength to mount tight tires. It's a matter of technique more than of strength.

Let me guess--Continental tires?

A tip for the tire and rim horrendous tolerance stackup issue......put the wheel into the walkin and the tire into the autoclave.

Most beads do stretch a bit in time but some tubeless tires are impossible to mount on some rims without the aforementioned equipment.

wheels are tubeless ready. now seriously considering going this route.

how ever did you know?

I have the Kool Stop bead jack - purchased after fighting with a set of Continental GP 5000 TL's. It works great.

On the "what to do on the side of the road" topic, carrying the bead jack is certainly an option. I found that these tires loosened up a bit after the initial mounting, and that subsequent removal/remounting didn't require anything other than normal tire levers. It's also worth noting that I rode those tires until the tread wore out without ever getting a single roadside flat.

That said, I avoided the TL's moving forward. I have found the newer GP 5000 S TR to be much easier to mount.

its important to be able to do this out in the wild so waiting a few hours to warm up a tire is not an option. friday's flat was less than a mile from work so a short walk and my office to get things done. i'm finding that my hands are just not up to the task, especially thumbs, all red and screaming in pain. most videos i've watched (only 3 really) all seem to cut away while the tire is being put on which makes me think that they are struggling as well.

guess practice makes perfect, i can try again with the wheel i have at home while i ride the spare.

If your thumbs are sore, you're not doing it right.

Should be using the heels of your palms mostly. I'll try to describe it, but a good mechanic can show you in a moment's time.

As I wrote earlier, start opposite the valve hole, and make sure you are pushing the tire beads into the center channel as you go -- this is crucial, as it gives you more slack. As you get to the last few inches, right around the valve hole, put THAT section of the wheel AWAY from your body, holding the wheel almost perpendicular to your gut. IOW, you're holding the wheel like you're delivering a very large pizza, with the valve hole jammed into your belly button and your arms stretched out in front of you, palms resting on the opposite sides of the unmounted section of tire. THEN use your PALMS to push the last section of tire up and over the rim's edge...You will almost be 'rolling' your palms (really, the heels of your palms, the meaty part, mostly) on the tire bead to massage and push it up and over the rim's sidewall. As each section gets pushed more up and over the rim's edge, your hands are getting closer together until the last bit pops on. Again, you're mostly using the heels of your palms, which means that you get extra traction and protection from your cycling gloves (assuming you are wearing them).

Using your thumbs severely limits your leverage, and makes your success a function of hand strength -- hence GhostRider62 's comment about not having enough hand strength. But if that is your limiting factor, you're doing it wrong. With the right technique, you're using your arms and upper body to mount the tire.

FWIW, I'd add that even if you do end up needing to use tire levers or bead jacks, it's worth learning these best practices for mounting by hand. That way, you'll always be working with the tire instead of against it.

fwiw - regarding "only have 2 hands" someone here suggested & I started using & been using for many years, 1 or 2 toe straps, to help keep a tire in place, while I work on the other side

I'm psychic! Plus, it's always Conties. I can also predict the direction to look for a sunrise. I think they hate the thought that someone could actually seat their tires by hand. I've become pretty adept at doing it with small plastic tire levers but that's because I have lot of practice dealing with this roadside. It's much harder to do with big tire levers, btw.

Can't speak to modern tubeless stuff, but I would never use tire levers to get a tire on. If you need to, you can position the wheel axle against the edge of a work bench and lean into it.

The other choice would be Schwalbe (which would have been my guess). Also expensive, so you get to pay dearly for that grief, too.

It's not always Conti. I watched the head mechanic at my LBS spend 20 minutes mounting my Vittoria Randonneur on CR-18s. Alas, the stem was angled, so he had to take the tire off the rim and spend another 20 minutes getting it back on with the stem straight.