Tru-Tension | Tyre Monkey | Tyre Lever | Bicycle Tools & Accessories

Came to this tool somewhat sceptically, then…10km into endurance race a puncture. Tyre tough to get off and even harder to get back on, suddenly remembered I had this tool. Easy to use, tyre popped right back in first attempt. Needed some strength, but nothing compared to levering in the tyre. All other levers relegated to garage, this great tool has permanent place in saddle bag.

Took a while to get the hand of it, but after a couple of tyres I got the hang of it. Found it much easier to use than my other levers.

Advertisement of the product looked too good to be true. Excellent product and so simple to use 👍👍Why did you choose this product over others?:Single item use rather than the traditional 2 leavers requiring 3 hands 🤦🏼🤣.

Very strong tool. So far so good. Handles some very testing tyres to get on rims which most lever types have failed to do without snapping or just not man enough for the job.

So, another tyre fitting gizmo, hoping to improve upon the humble tyre lever. I have a draw full of such things - and none has yet succeeeded in this seemingly simple task. But this one does come close - and with some thoughtful improved design could actually work. My experience is with tubeless mountain bike tyres, which may be at the harder end of the tyre fitting spectrum.Taking off - design fault 1 - not quite long enough (both in the lip to get under the bead - and in overall length to provide leverage) to get under the bead, so needed a well designed tyre lever (personal favourite muc-off rim stix - nice thin end to get under bead, but chunky and long enough to lever bead off) to make enough room to get the gizmo under the bead and start unseating the tyre over the rim. Without the extra tyre lever in play, you can't actually get the bead over the lip far enough for it to remain there - just pings back in behind the gizmo. With extra tyre lever locked onto a spoke, gizmo starts to unseat the tyre.... until tension rises in the bead as you stretch it over the edge of the rim - and you come to a juddering , knuckle grazing halt. Note here that I am very careful to move the entire bead of the tyre into the 'gulley' in the centre of the rim before starting this process, to keep bead tension to a minimum - this is error no 1 in most tubless tyre fitting issues. Here is design fault no 2 - the gizmo is too short to hold firmly enough with your whole hand to push hard enough to get past the sticking point (note - muc-off rim stix size would be about right dimensions). Why is this tyre lever gizmo so small? No-ones hands are this small. Daft design decision. Make it bigger, it's only a few pence worth of plastic!!Design fault no 3 - when you have levered the bead off, the angle of the bead hook to the main lever you are holding is too low, and your knuckles are grated by the spokes. Increase the angle so pressure can be applied to the body of the lever while the hook is under the bead without losing your knuckles.But if you can get enough pressure on, with the extra tyre lever in place - bingo, off comes the tyre. The principle of the gizmo is good - the design execution, not so much.Getting the tyre back on - actually really only one design flaw here - it does do a good job of pushing the trye over the edge onto the rim and keeping tension on the tyre bead while you do it, so the edge behind the gizmo is not falling off (which is what tends to happen when doing this manually). However, the same design fault (no 2) as pertains to removing the trye in terms of it being too short and too small to apply enough pressure also holds here - when you get to the last 6-8 inches of tyre bead, tension reaches a maximum and it is nigh on impossible to apply anough pressure with the measly dimsenion of the gizmo to complete the task. But with enough effort, it does pop on. Just make the damn thing bigger!!! You are charging an outrageous £10 for this small piece of palstic - making it 50% bigger (and angling the handle to the bead removal hook) will still leave you with a very reasonable profit margin!

Bought this tool to solve my Continental GP 5000 issue of mounting and removal on Campagnolo wheels. The Monkey works well to get under the bead and prise the bead over the rim. However that’s as far as I could go, I just couldn’t apply sufficient force to get the tool to slide around the rim. Even using body weight behind the pushing force, no movement. Not the strongest of people by any means but also not the weakest, but try as might I couldn’t shift it. Used additional conventional levers (which I originally couldn’t even get under the tyre bead) to finish off the process.Refitting was the reverse problem. The Monkey guides the tyre nicely back over the rim until the last 20-15 Cms, it then jams under the increased tension of the tight bead and become impossible (for me) to move any further. I had to resort to the risky job of using additional lever to help prise the bead over the rim.All the above was tried whilst still using the method of creating less tension by repeatedly pinching the bead into the center of the wheel well to lessen tightness, trying some more and repeating. So for the above tyres in 25c does not do the job.In conclusion :…….. I FOUND THE TYRE MONKEY TO BE AN ASSISTANCE WITH THE USE OF CONVENTIONAL LEVERS. THEREFORE NOT WORTH THE EXPENSE. VERY DISAPPOINTED. ☹️☹️☹️

I usually struggle a lot with anything related to bike maintenance, and changing tires used to be such a frustrating task. But this tool made the process so much easier! I managed to change my tire quickly and without the usual stress. If you're someone who finds bike things confusing or overwhelming, this tool is totally worth it. Super grateful I found it!

Arrived very quickly good strong quality and cleverly designed. Bright and compact. Not used yet but the concept is clever.