Tyre Glider – Christmas Sorted

The Tyre Glider says it makes changing tyres fast and easy.

Here’s another little stocking filler for your lycra-lout, something to keep them happy on Christmas morning and out on the bike. The Tyre Glider is a clever twist on the humble tyre lever. Rather than relying on levers that have a tendency to snap to remove your tyre, they use a wholly different technique.

The Tyre Glider is a small and compact evolution of the traditional tyre lever. It’s unique design and features allows you to change tyres using your body-weight and the specially shaped tool. No more cursing as you watch your tyre levers bending rather than removing the tyre. Flip it over and it’s shaped wing section pushes that tight tyre back on to the rim.

The added benefit of the Tyre Glider is you won’t be scraping your knuckles on the spokes as your struggle to shift a tight tyre. While not all tyres are a nightmare to remove, having the Tyre Glider in your back pocket could make all the difference to road-side repairs.

Features and specs

When fitting a tyre the Tyre Glider’s patent ‘wing’ clips on to the rim and ‘glides’ the tyre back on to the rim. With the tool braced against the rim and your applied force the tyre can only go one way. Once the tyre starts to get tight the ergonomic design allows you to use the full force of your bodyweight. No more struggling with bendy, breakable tyre levers.

When it comes to removing the tyre, the wide scoop gives a good purchase. When you pull back on it, it again rests against the side of the rim. As you push forward the rim braces the Tyre Glider, so you just have to use your bodyweight to keep it moving.

Not convinced? There’s a lot of YouTube videos showing this tool in action and they all seem positive. During my time as a bike mechanic we would often come across difficult to remove tyres. Usually it would result in us passing the wheel around until, finally, one of us managed to shift it. This could have saved us time and scraped knuckles, so I’m keen to try one out. I’ll let you know how we get on.