Review on 🚲 Enhance Tire Change Efficiency with Crankbrothers Speedier Lever: A Game-Changing Tool for Quick & Easy Bike Tire Removal by Gavin Ghram

I've changed a lot of bike tires and replaced/repaired a lot of inner tubes since I started cycling as a kid. Probably most of the readers of this blog post have. For me it was the tires and tubes, starting from the huge ones on the first bike I owned - a vintage cruiser (original type that was decades old when I got it, the look with huge springs and metal front end, not modern retro models) by thin (sometimes stiffer and more difficult to change) tires and tubes for road bikes. metric age or something like that, and blow out a tire and have to fix it off the road. Punctures, cuts, cuts, worn tubes and tires - at some point you will need to change a tire or hire someone to do it. Well, unless you're my Canadian friend Stephen, who is very lucky. There might be a Canadian joke somewhere, but I'm not smart enough to think of it. Anyway... I'm pretty good at changing tires and can change a tire quickly with regular tire levers. Some of them are good, some are bad and bend, some have fun shapes that are supposedly designed to be easier to assemble or work with. But before I continue, I want to digress a bit and significantly reduce the number of flats I've had over the last few years by using Stop Flats2 tires (make sure you pick the right color for the right tire size) . This is extra protection between the tire and tube in the form of plastic, nylon, or other material that surrounds the outer portion of the tire. It won't protect your sidewall, but of course the vast majority of road debris will pass through the part of the tire that actually contacts the road. I think weight lovers will complain. But the earbuds are great, and the light weight of these things is negligible, if not worse. You can also buy a Continental Gatorskins or similar puncture-resistant tire, but for the most part you're doing the same thing as installing the inner liner in a regular tire. If you're like me, you remember cutting up old inner tubes as a kid and doing the same thing to avoid flat tires, which was often amazingly effective, but inner tubes were a bit thicker then than they are now, adding weight and bulk. With the modern liners I use I have sometimes noticed huge holes and cuts in the tire that would rip my tube out, but the sealant did its job and protected the tube and in fact the liner itself is usually intact as the tire can appear he would have driven through a war zone. . Heck, I usually ride it for a while with no problems. I don't like driving without a liner on the dirty, rubble-strewn local roads. But sometimes even the liners won't stop a particularly large piece of metal, a long screw, or large pieces of glass. At least, from my casual observations, the rear wheel is more punctured than the front. I suspect that often over time a piece of sharp junk has settled relatively flat and the front wheel has pulled it up or wobbled like that. a way to position it to pierce the rear wheel. And some of these things will go through anything - liners, puncture free tires etc. And of course tires in general wear and age, as will inner tubes. Or you may need to change to a different tire for a different surface or upgrade your tires or tubes, change to a training tire or something lighter or something thinner or whatever etc. Usually at some point there will come a time when tires or tubes need to be replaced. anyway, after that sidetrack, let's move on to the actual review. I thought I'd like to try one of the so-called quick tire change levers or tools - both for my own evaluation and use and for a good blog review. I especially want to be able to make changing tires easier (and faster) in colder conditions, when in some cases it's much more difficult, time-consuming and also hard on the hands. The quick exchange overall is of course a big bonus! I decided to try the Crank Brothers Speedier Tire Lever as it generally got good reviews online and was often listed alongside other quick change and easier levers and tire changing tools. and their lists. After carefully examining the images of the Crank Brothers tool on the web; I could see that this concept seemed to make a lot of sense. But does a good idea become reality? that I didn't notice the lever at the bottom of the box at first). I would like to mention here before I continue that the tool comes with a lifetime guarantee. I know from some reviews people managed to break it right away, I suspect abuse and lack of experience and common sense. Or maybe a bad lever. Visually, the lever looks moderately heavy compared to many tire levers, but is a bit wide to carry around in a bike saddle bag due to the dual pieces you slide your hand through. If you're using a Crank Brothers Speedier tire lever (which I'll get to in a moment), it might be worth the extra millimeters of space it takes up and you could replace two or three regular tire levers with just that. , also has the Crank Brothers Speed Lever Tool, a bit older. Note the difference between the nicknames "Speed" and "Speedier". The Speed Lever uses a different concept, attaches to the hub and allows you to rotate it. I couldn't find it on Revain, but if you look around you'll probably find a video of it, and there might be one for sale. made of folded cardboard, but the lever itself also has very clearly "REMOVE" and "INSTALL" printed directly on the lever itself on opposite ends in case you forget or something. After reading the printed instructions, I took a closer look at the lever. In a way, it can resemble a traditional lever, but with an additional open space in the middle. Something like this I think take two tire levers and bend them out in the middle and clip them at the ends so you put your hand through the middle where it's protected from touching the rim when you're going around the wheel Walk around. Yes, the idea here is to ensure your hand and knuckles don't get banged, cut or burned as you slide over the rim. That's a good thing, because if there's a piece of metal or something stuck in the rim, or a rim edge is dented, then you're protected from that too. So I tried a tool on my road bike front wheel that needed replacing after thousands of miles, a bit of dry rot, and a lot of punctures. and cuts (again, this stuff would cause a lot of flat tires if I didn't use tire pads. Yes, I can't say enough about that. One of the things that people have mentioned, and also mentioned in the tool description, is how fast you can use it to slide over the rim to remove and put the tire back in. You use the REMOVE end by sliding the hook part under the bead and a small protrusion that sits just below the hook on the rim position. Then you slip your fingers through the hole and start. I've found here that it's possible to accidentally snag or pinch the tube when you do this if you're not careful. After testing different tires, it turned out found that this is much less likely to happen with a wider tire such as a mountain bike tire, and more so with thinner tires When compared to the tire size, they tend to be in a larger range, tew takes up more space than an inner tube, which is in a smaller range for the tire. By that I mean if you have a 25mm wide tire and you have an inner tube that is rated for 25mm to 28mm tires it will obviously take up more space in the tire than an inner tube that is rated for 23mm tires. , depending on the manufacturer of course. But you really can't go too fast or get too carried away with a relatively skinny road bike tire. Because both the best and worst of the Crankbrothers Speedier Lever Tool is easy and quick to use. Fitting a tire is just as easy, but catching a tube when things get tight is just as easy. Fit one side of the tyre, possibly using the tool hook for the last piece of bead (if it is tight you can use the tool on the first bead as shown below on the other side). the edge of the rim, directly opposite, with a small protrusion holding it. You put your hand in the tool and start moving it in a circle, putting on the last bead. The latter, as always, is more difficult, but with this tool it will quickly deal with most tires. But see below. I did a little test after a huge chunk of a beer glass punctured a tire and liner while driving (what kind of person throws their beer bottles on the curb to get smashed?). After getting home and maybe in a bit of a hurry but still being careful with the tube, it only took me 2:52 to remove the tire, swap out the tube and tire and pump it back up with the hand pump. Not that I'll be doing it in the "rush" department all the time, but it was fun to see how quickly I can get it done with this new tool. I also tried the lever on a friend's carbon bikes (I mounted a fender for my friend). It worked almost the same, although after the tire was popped on, the last part of the bead popping was very tight on both tires. The past I felt was safe to just move on. I didn't want to damage the tire or the new tool, so I used the Speedier Tire Lever more like a traditional bike lever and finished the last part fairly quickly, leaving the tool primarily for utility (gliding). but it worked great for that purpose. I think I could pump it up, but my philosophy with bikes is that almost nothing should be stressed or anything can break or be damaged in any way, unless it's a bottom bracket or something. I noticed one thing. After trying the tool on a few test tire changes, there is a bit of wear where you move the tool around the rim. Not much, just a little wear around the plastic. It will probably take a very long time to wear out, but it's there and something to watch out for if you're constantly changing tires or the like. Maybe it's just my experience with it. However, there is a lifetime guarantee. When it comes to replacing my existing airbag tire levers, I still have my doubts about going with a Speedier tire lever. It seems to be working fine for the most part, replacing a few levers. But I feel like I really need to give it more testing and time, especially for durability. But as a new workshop tool it's excellent and I highly recommend it. They use a little caution and common sense and don't go crazy with speed. Little worn after some use but otherwise pretty sturdy. Again, am I going to replace the tire levers in my bike bag now? Since August 2020 I've been using my regular tire levers on road bikes again - they seem to be more reliable and tube-safe. But for a mountain bike it works great, and as an extra strong lever for occasional use on hard road bike tires it works very well.