Plastic tyre levers...

....are rubbish. York was out yesterday because of all the heavy rain, as was
any sort of riding. So today I decided to ride across the Humber Bridge into
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
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.

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.
--
Simon Mason
Anlaby
East Yorkshire.
53°44'N 0°26'W
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
...
...are rubbish. York was out yesterday because of all the heavy rain, as
was
any sort of riding. So today I decided to ride across the Humber Bridge
into
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
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.

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

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0100, "Simon Mason"
wrote:

...are rubbish.

I beg to differ. No doubt *some* plastic tyre levers are crap, 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.

I had my Lidl toolkit

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

"Bob"

'The people have spoken, the *******s'

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

Simon Mason typed:
...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.

I had my Lidl
toolkit which included 3 tyre levers

I think we've found the problem ..


--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

"Paul - xxx" typed


Simon Mason typed:
...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.

J E James IIRC.

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

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

Helen Deborah Vecht typed:
"Paul - xxx" typed


Simon Mason typed:
...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.

J E James IIRC.

Could well be .. thanks.

--
Paul ...

(8(|) ... Homer Rocks

Call me Bob wrote in message . ..
On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0100, "Simon Mason"
wrote:

...are rubbish.

I beg to differ. No doubt *some* plastic tyre levers are crap, 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.

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 , Simon Mason
') wrote:


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.

--
(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
wrote (more or less):

in message , Simon Mason
') wrote:


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! :-)

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 wrote:

"Paul - xxx" typed



Simon Mason typed:

...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.


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 crap 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