King Cage Titanium Tire Levers

I'm not very gentle on tire levers. A couple of weeks ago, I was swapping out tires on my 5 year old's butterfly bike (yes, I said butterfly bike) and snapped my last lever. That makes about 1/2 dozen levers snapped in the last year or so. After I was done pulling the old tire off (used tin snips to cut through the bead) and mounting the new tire, I hopped online to look for some levers that might be a bit more durable.  I eventually came across King Cages out of Durango, Co.  They make steel and titanium bottle cages as well as titanium tire levers. Hmmm, titanium tire levers sound pretty durable. At $8.00 dollars, they are pretty affordable as well. A quick interweb transaction and less than a week shipping time and I had a brand new pair of titanium tire levers in my hands.

Like all things titanium, they are extremely light, weighing in at 10 grams for the pair. They are also pretty small in size (120mm). I tested them on an older Kenda tire which has a notoriously difficult wire bead to remove. The tire was no match for the levers. Getting underneath the bead and popping it over the sidewall was effortless. There was no moment of panic I usually experience with plastic levers when they start to bend. On the contrary, I probably was a bit more rough with the lever than normal. Pretty cool addition to the tool kit and the added bonus of supporting a US craftsman. I see a couple of titanium bottle cages in my future.