Park Tool TL-1 Tire Lever (Pack of 3)

No frills, but what I expected to receive. They're sitting in my bike bag for an emergency use so I have not used them. But they look decent and solid built.

Disappointing product. 2 sets were purchased for the road kit and the home kit to replace the Wrench Force 3 piece lever set that was lost. The Wrench Force were reliable and held up to several uses to change tubes as well as to remove and replace worn tires.

Used first time to change tire on 1998 GT Backwoods mountain bike I picked up at garage sale for $5 because the original tires were rotted, but nothing else was wrong with the bike--go figure.

Nevertheless, taking off the GT's old rotted tires was not as difficult with the levers as installing the new replacements. Installing the new tires was a mission. The replacement tire was a 26" x 1.75" and a tight fit on the Weinnmann rims. Last 7 or so inches of tire would not go on and the levers bent in the process and were rendered useless. Had to use the handle end of a spoon from our household silverware that was like Pedro's steel downhill tire lever to pop the remainder of the tire on each rim respectively.

I'm glad I was not on the road with the TL-1 set and had to change a tire. Don't know if the same would result with road bike tires.

The good thing was I contacted Park Tools. The customer service rep recommended their TL-4 set (2 in the package) for mountain bike size type tires and sent me a set. I have yet to try the TL-4 set, but I'm giving this product 2 stars since Park stood behind this product. Otherwise I would have given 1 star as the description would better serve the consumer with the recommendation that this product is not for use with tight fitting tires or mountain bike type.

I'm also thinking of purchasing Park's TL-5 heavy duty steel set or Pedro's Downhill Tire Lever to have on hand for those tough tires that are hard to reinstall with conventional levers.

I ordered these and they work but they don't really seem necessary. If I was a bike shop owner I would certainly own these but if your like me and only have to change tires once every few years you should be able to do without them. They also seem kind of flimsy but they didn't break when I used them.

Back in Soviet Russian we used to do with bare hands and/or tools. This is a far cry from those times. And instead of taking 15 minutes the process of changing a tube takes 3 minutes. Sturdy, well designed levers, and they come in a trio.

After buying the TL-1's I quickly had flats on the tube inside. Traced this back to the pointed end of the TL-1's. It's easy to side the point under the tire edge, so easy that you go too far and catch some of the tube and pinch it. The point also concentrates the force increasing the chance of that pinch creating a hole.

Have dicarded the Tl-1's and gone to levers that are flat across the top.