Autonomous Motion

Pedro’s Tire Levers

Must-have cycling tool

Pedro’s Tire Levers are a cheap but beloved tool for working your tire off or onto your bike. A pair on Amazon cost me just $5. If you want some for yourself, the link in the description helps to support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.

When your bike has a flat, it can be incredibly hard to pop the tire and tube off your wheel if you don’t have a tool for it.

Pedros Tire Lever isn’t particularly clever, but it works well and it’s cheap enough that you can buy a set for every bike in your home.

They’re lightweight, but strong, made from a composite plastic similar to milkcrate plastic. And they snap together like Legos, making it easy to keep them together.

Using them is relatively easy. If the air isn’t already out of your tire, you can use the corner of these to push in the valve and get it fully flat. You then wedge the curvy lip under your tire and leverage it over your rim.

Now at this point, if you don’t hold it, your tire will likely pop right back. The cool thick on the Pedro lever is this notch on the other side that hooks onto your spoke to keep the lever in place.

With both hands available, you can now wedge the second lever in and work off the rest of the tire bit by bit.

Then, with the tube patched or replaced, but still flat, you flip the lever over and use it this way to squeeze the tire back up and over the rim.

So that’s a look at Pedros Tire Levers. I wouldn’t say they make the process of changing a flat painless. It still takes some time and elbow grease. But for $5 you really have no excuse not to have a set around as part of your bike kit. Even if you have something nicer, you could be a total hero and give these away when a friend has a flat.

You can pick them up using the link in the description. And remember, you can see thousands of reader recommended tools like this at Cool-Tools.org.

-- Donald Bell 06/5/18

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