Tyre levers are hardly the most exciting product, but they are a necessity unless you swap bikes faster than you go through tyres. The Crank Brothers Speedier lever RRPs at £6.50 each.
On the face of it, it can seem that all tyre levers are pretty much the same thing, just a piece of plastic with a slight lip. We've gone through quite a few cheap levers and a a couple of sets of Park Tool blue levers all of which ended up violently snapping at the most impromptu moment.
Our local bike shop advised us to try one of these Crank Brothers levers about 18 months ago and we've been very impressed by it. So impressed we bought another one to make life even easier.
The tool has much more flex compared to most other levers, but they simply do not snap. You can put a huge amount of force into the lever and it just bends until the tyre comes free. The knuckle guard means that if the tyre does come off suddenly then you don't bash your hand into the rim.
The lip is also quite a bit wider when compared to most other levers, so it's significantly easier and quicker to get tyres on and off with the Crankbrothers tool.
There aren't many mountain bike products that feel like they cannot be improved on, but the Speedier lever really feels like it's been designed properly from the ground up to complete the task it's built for. Forget any other levers, buy a couple of these and don't look back.
