[tbc] tire levers

[Moni]

The following was on my favorite touring forum today:

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:43:40 +0100
From: M-gineering to touring at phred.org

All those people yearning for 'strong' tyrelevers make me wonder if this
isn't caused by a wrong technique and relying on brute strenght instead.
  Yes sometimes I encounter impossible combinations of tyre and rim,
but more often I see people who can't even fit a tyre without a lever
which I can remove without.

a proper procedure helps, and even if you still use a lever it will make
it much easier on you and your equipment.

to remove a tyre:
# Remove the wheel and deflate the inner tube completely. Push the valve
inwards to break it free, you might have to remove a locknut to do this
# The tyre beads are often stuck to the rim: go round and push both
beads towards the middle of the rim
# Grab the tyre at the valve with one hand, and lift the wheel. Try to
put some tension on the tyrebead by canting the tyre backwards. Starting
at the bottom squeeeze the tyre into the rimwell and work your way up.
Do this for boths sides and you will see the gap between rim and
tyrebead at the top increasing. Keep some tension on the tyre at all
times so that the bead will not slip back
# If you're handy and the wheel cooperates you often have enough room
now to ease the bead over the rim (use both hands) , but if not insert
two tyre levers 2" left cq right from the valve underneath the tyrebead
# fold the tyre levers over (one at a time), if you need a lot of force,
retry after you have pushed the tyre bead back in the rim well
# If the tyre bead is still tight after you have flipped a section over
the rim , remove one lever (hold on to the other one) and use it to fold
back another 1-2"

Always start removing the bead near the valve, this way the bead won't
have to slalom around the valve which takes up valuable clearance

--
mvg