Comments on: Bike flat tire repair kit inside tire levers

By: Bad Tux

Bad Tux — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:29:00 +0000

I use my regular tire levers around the house. This set stays in my undersaddle tool bag for use on the road, along with a spare tube and spiffy folding bike tool kit (another cool tool I picked up after validating that it would fit all common fasteners on my bike).

By: Bad Tux

Bad Tux — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:26:00 +0000

No they’re not larger than the normal tire levers. I have this exact tool set. I also have a set of normal tire levers and a separate pack of instant tire patches. I wouldn’t have bought this set if it were larger than the normal tire levers and patches, would I?

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:28:00 +0000

I constantly lose tyre levers, and end up using cutlery anyway (esp. spoons).

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Interesting that they’re called “levers”. The same thing used for non-bicycle tires is called a “tire spoon”. The ones I prefer are like a flattened spoon shape, with a very slightly curved wrinkle in the middle to catch the wheel’s rim. They will work on any size or shape wheel, from bikes to suicide rims, but are too heavy to haul around on a bike.

Northern tool has one, although not an exceptional specimen:
http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/145898_lg.jpg

By: legsmalone

legsmalone — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:16:00 +0000

I thought that’s how you seated a tire on the rim. I’ve never used a lever to mount the bead, just to get them off.

By: hymenopterid

hymenopterid — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:49:00 +0000

A dollar bill works too. You can even use a dollar to patch a puncture in a tube as long as the puncture’s small enough. The pressure between the tire and tube is enough to make a seal.

By: hymenopterid

hymenopterid — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:39:00 +0000

I used to work at a bike shop. Every March we would sell a lot of slime tubes because that’s when the goat heads come in around here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris I’ve seen tires with over 30 stuck in them, and they break off so you can never be sure if you’ve got the last one. Even worse, the little needles can stay embedded in the tire so that when you put in a new tube they puncture the tube as soon as you inflate it.

If I sold a customer a regular tube in goat head season they would be back as soon as they went for a ride. If I sold them a slime tube they would not come back. Goat head season lasts all summer till the rains come, at which point the extra weight of a slime tube and rim strips is unwarranted.

Of course you could just splurge on some Continental gator skins or some other tire with Kevlar protection.

By: brainflakes

brainflakes — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:18:00 +0000

Is it just me, or are these actually bigger than a set of normal tire levers and a separate pack of instant tire patches would be?

By: alexb

alexb — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:11:00 +0000

Yeah. Sorry, but a decent set of reliable tyre levers. Spare tubes (always 2) and instant stick on patches take up relatively little space and can be hung under the saddle in a wrap of fabric held in place with a toe strap. Or in a saddlebag.
These are not really solving a problem. You still have to put them somewhere and you still need a pump.

By: mdrewry

mdrewry — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:27:00 +0000

Great stuff thanks

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:21:00 +0000

Never got Slime to work properly, though their plastic tyre-liners are amazing. I’ve hat mine the best part of a decade, have ridden home with a 1/2″ gash in the tyre (but a puncture-free inner tube, and sailed blithely through umpteen piles of glass shards with nary a pop or a hiss. Best £10 I’ve ever spent on bike accessories.

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:18:00 +0000

I usually just keep a couple of patches in my wallet.

By: MikeKStar

MikeKStar — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:04:00 +0000

This guy does it against the ground. I hold the wheel up against my stomach but it’s the same basic technique.

http://youtu.be/343uBcQs3ac

Works best with skinny tires but with practice you can use it for big mountain bike tires too.

By: Evert Jan Boon

Evert Jan Boon — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:32:00 +0000

This is what you are looking for:

http://hollandbikeshop.com/fietsonderdelen-racefiets/racefiets-banden/fietsbanden-reparatie/simson-lekzoeker/

By: mdrewry

mdrewry — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:21:00 +0000

“If you learn the technique of rolling your tires onto the rim with your hands you don’t need levers at all.”

This sounds like magic! Could you share a video at all?

By: MikeKStar

MikeKStar — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:48:00 +0000

Another tip is to take along a small section of cut up sidewall from an old tire….2-3 inches or so. This way if you get a substantial rip or slash you can put this inside the gash and it will keep the tube from bulging thru the hole long enough to limp home. Some cardboard or newspaper can also work in a pinch.

By: MikeKStar

MikeKStar — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:38:00 +0000

Slime sucks. Great for preventing flats but it’s heavy and screws up the balance of your wheel. Tire liners are better.

By: MikeKStar

MikeKStar — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:33:00 +0000

If you learn the technique of rolling your tires onto the rim with your hands you don’t need levers at all. Plus you avoid pinch flats. Takes just a little practice and you can get even the most stubborn tire nicely seated onto the rim.

Also, the single greatest piece of advice when changing a flat….run your finger along the inside of the tire before you put the new tube in to make sure whatever caused the first flat doesn’t cause a second.

By: retrojoe

retrojoe — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:26:00 +0000

When my car gets a flat the side of the road is my only option. When my bike gets a flat I can typically pick it up and walk it a little ways to a safer location.

By: firebus

firebus — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:51:00 +0000

they’re fine tire levers, but the little bars that hold the patches in pop out if you sneeze, and each side holds no more that one patch, which is not enough.

By: hotel

hotel — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:20:00 +0000

Assuming the flat is not a pinch flat (i.e. a hole on both sides of the tube caused by running under-inflated tires), then the way to narrow down the location of the hole in the tube is to find the hole in the tire before removing it.

By allowing you to make sure there’s no significant hole in the tire and no foreign matter embedded in the tire, you also make sure you won’t immediately get a second flat.

It’s also handy to carry a bit of white chalk to mark the tire and tube when fixing a flat.

As for this tool kit, I carry two levers and a pack of self adhesive patches. This a) occupies no more space than the kit shown here, and b) allows me to use whatever my current favourite kind of tire lever is.

When it comes to preventing flats, I run tires with a very tough casing (this probably slows me down, but I’m not especially speedy in the first place), and I use tire liners. I also don’t try to really, really push the life of the tires down to the last micron of tread :)

By: Eark_the_Bunny

Eark_the_Bunny — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Get some of those tubes with the sealant goo inside. I use that and I have not had a flat in years. Also liners help too.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:00:00 +0000

feel it’s draft with your lips from a close proximity

Thats interesting. I have never tried that.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:51:00 +0000

If your leak is so slow that you can’t feel its draft with your lips from a close proximity, you can just pump every hour and fix it at home.
Or you could slime your tube beforehand and not have that problem at all.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:32:00 +0000

I would love to see a way (preferably on the road) to find the leak in a tube. Its easy if you have a body of water handy, but that is not always possible on the driest continent, and I only have so much spit available.

Also, I would like to see better ways to store these things on the bike. How about a last ditch puncture kit which fits inside a handle bar, and incorporates a handle bar end plug?

Previously I put my tools and materials (spare tube and patch kit) in an old bottle on the seat tube bottle cage, but that space is taken by my lighting system battery pack now.

By: EH

EH — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:17:00 +0000

That’s fine if you don’t get more than one flat in a ride. :)

By: CrackWilding

CrackWilding — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:05:00 +0000

These look like they would snap if you so much as glanced at them.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:54:00 +0000

My nesting (plus they’re solid and sturdy) tire levers take up SO much space.

#solutionstoproblemsthatdontexist

By: laurencerowe

laurencerowe — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:47:00 +0000

You really don’t want to be patching an inner tube at the side of the road, if at all. Take a spare tube instead, it’s barely larger than a patch kit.