Flat tire, losing mind

[jobob]

This past Saturday my husband Lee & I went on the metric century graduation ride for our club's road riding academy. We hung in back with the newer riders.

One of the riders got a flat. She was having a hard time getting the tire off the rim so Lee offered to help. Mind you, he's very good at changing flats.

After several minutes of sweating and grunting and one plastic lever broken, he still didn't have the tire off the rim.

I then pulled out my trusty Crank Brothers Speed Lever and innocently asked, "Sweetie, would you like to try this???"
(you see, if I had offered it right off the bat he would have refused it. After 17 years of marriage I have learned a thing or two).

"Sure, why not?" he grumbles.

Click. Zip. Plunk. Tire off in 10 seconds.

"Hey, this is great!!!" he says.

Putting the tire back on again, I let Lee struggle for a few moments and then I innocently piped up "um, the Speed Lever is really good for putting tires back on the rim too..."

Click. Zip. Plunk. Tire back on in 10 seconds.

"Hey, this is great!!!" he says again.


A couple of lessons learned:

Some tires really are a pain to get off the rim. It's definitely not you !!!

Crank Bros. Speed Levers work really well (er, can't say I've tried them on Campy wheels though).