Two summers ago my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting friends in Switzerland. The country is so expensive that I took home only two souvenirs: white Assos socks and a pair of Lezyne tyre levers. I assumed Lezyne was a European company. It was in this Swiss bike shop and I’d never seen the brand in an American store, ever. “Ewwww, exotic Swiss tire levers, I can afford these.” The levers were white “composite matrix” with a natty neoprene sleeve but really I bought them because I could fit them in my luggage and they were affordable ($4 US). Switzerland wisely (for them) never joined the EU but the Swiss franc makes buying swag painful. As a side note, the Assos socks are really well made. They look a tad less white now but have retained their essential Assos sock essence in every other respect.
Two years on and these levers have earned and kept the coveted number one position in my mobile rear pocket man-sachel. They are superior levers. Their hook design works better than levers made by Park, Pedros or King. I haven’t tried the Mavics Bretto has revered. I don’t know what the “composite matrix” is but it is strong as hell. Should it be so hard, designing an effective tyre lever? These are like medical instruments. Nurse, Lezyne tyre lever please. The thinness and specific curve of the bead hook makes these the levers used atop Mt Velomis.
Michelin tyres and Campagnolo rims (my favorite pairing) are at opposite ends of the clincher fit tolerances. They are wicked tight, harder to get off and on than the recently abandoned tubeless Hutchinsons. No other levers so easily get under the Michelin bead and take the horrible strain like these Lezynes do.
Sitting on the edge of the road in Kuala Lumpur, sweat pouring down your face as you bend to the task of switching inner-tubes, the sounds of snapping stalks from the jungle getting closer. Do you want the best tyre levers in your sweaty trembly hands? For you tubular riders, these might be excellent for husking that punctured tyre off the rim. At 26 grams, it would not be a bad bet. Hell, if you have to defend yourself against the enraged Malaysian monkey, a mini-pump in one hand and an unbreakable Lezyne medical instrument in the other might work out for you.
There, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve written an article singing the praises of a tyre lever and I can’t stop spelling tyre with a “y”. It’s what we do here. We obsess.
Disclaimer: Velominati has a friendly relationship with Lezyne and we have received some very well designed and well executed products of theirs, as have Keepers Tour riders from the 2012 Belgian love-fest. As I stated at the begining of this post, I bought these tyre tools when I didn’t know the first thing about the company. I admit that I was so impressed by their tyre levers I was inclined to try more of their products but my dirty Schleck love for these levers is not influenced by our relationship with Lezyne.
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@motor city
No. We are confused enough here. No need compound the troubles.
@the Engine
That is beautiful. We have been whipped for centuries.
Gold.
This is a good article, one we can all relate to and one where the object of reverence does not involve the need to sell a kidney or a time machine to obtain. I have Michelin levers which while incredibly flexible seem thin enough to slip between my tyres and the Campy rims and do an awesome job of unseating the bead. I also have some Maxxis levers which while stronger than Thor's hammer are also so thick they can only have been designed for unseating tractor tyres. (See, tYres, not tires which is something riding does to me).
Thank you for the information on aluminium rims vs aluminium levers (see there's another letter snuck in there too, to correct the spelling), these are the only Lezyne ones I have seen to date.
20some years after their intro, i still like the quikstick. i do carry some levers similar to these lezynes as well, albeit prefer to use bare hands.
@Giles
Yeah, $4 US for Lamborghini of tyre levers! That is a deal. One can't even buy a damn inner-tube for that and the levers may last until you lose them.
I'm with Giles. I too use Campag rims and Michelin training tyres. The Michelin levers have been my favourites for as long as they've been available but when I went to my LBS recently to buy some to give to a group of kids I was training for the Great Victorian Bike Ride here in Aus I was told they don't make them anymore. Lezyne may be as good, but I struggle to accept that they could be better.
@Pistolfromwarragul
Fair enough, don't struggle. I don't think the Michelin levers are available too often in the US. Tyres yes, levers, not so much. I don't think I've ever seen them.
Nicely done. I've never put much thought into levers (leavers?). I'll check 'em out, they're probably lighter than what I'm carrying now.
@gaswepass
Why not your teeth?
@Beers
It depends. Here in the UAE and I think the Gulf generally what you learn depends on what school you go to and which curriculum they follow. So there are British schools, American schools, Australian schools, French lycee etc who will all follow the curriculum of their affiliation.
At a British school you would do GCSEs and A levels, and I assume the others do their respective examination courses and learn the appropriate spellings, formulae and shit like that.
Many kids come in and out of the system at some point from or to their home countries so it has to be transferrable.
In terms of general spelling in public on shops, labels, brochures, even road signs... frankly you're grateful if the writer has managed to convey the meaning with some approximation of syntax and grammar. Spelling is the cherry on top of the cream on top of the icing on the cake.
Even the transliterations from Arabic are not standardised or standardized. You can see the same place name spelled differently on three consecutive road signs. And names... it could be Mohammed, Mohamed, Muhamed, Mohamad and I'm sure I've left a couple out.
That said, their English is a lot better than my Arabic. Arabic is a hard language to learn and a very very difficult language to write. I know a few people who speak reasonably good (if non-standard) Arabic but couldn't read or write it to save their lives. The letters change depending on the word.
So where English uses combinations of letters to change a sound, Arabic uses the same letter but the sound depends on the shape and position, not unlike Pitman shorthand if anyone has ever done that.
Plus there are many words for the same thing. The way it has been explained to me is that the word and the adjective are combined. So we have a noun like Lion and then use an adjective to modify it such as old, angry, fierce etc. In Arabic the word for an angry lion is different to the word for an old lion.
Which I know is a lot more than you asked but I'm just putting in context that whether it's tire or tyre really doesn't show up on the radar.
@G'rilla
too sharp