Bicycle tire lever based on Park TL-4

Simple bicycle tire lever based on the design of the now obsolete Park Tool TL-4.

There are many different types of tire levers out there, but one of my perennial favorites was the Park TL-4. It was simple, had a nice minimal hook which made it much easier to get in around tight beads, and it worked really, really well. It also didn't have spoke hooks which I never used anyway, so the lever felt better in my hand.

When Park discontinued the TL-4 for the TL-4.2, I didn't like the new one as much. The tip profile was similar but not quite the same, and they added the spoke hooks that I didn't want or need. Thus, this thing was born.

I have two versions, one with and one without my initials. If there's anything that I've learned in years of sharing things, it's that people get really butthurt about a logo or name on something that was shared for free.

Print instructions

This part is important, so please read it! 

All of these are oriented so they will load on the print bed on the side. This is intentional to orient the layer lines for the most strength. While you can print it on its back, it will not be as strong and the hook won't be as good, so don't do that.

Also, shells are your friend. Don't just load this up with defaults of 2 or 3 shells and expect it'll work. I print with at least 5 shells, and have printed with as many as 7 or 8 shells. With sufficient shells, you don't even need to print at 100% infill and can leave infill at the defaults.

There's also no benefit to printing at a low layer height. I always print this at 0.3mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle and the results are just fine. It prints in less time and is plenty strong.

What materials?

Pretty much whatever you want. I've done plenty of these in PLA and used them for a good long time. I've done PETG, ABS, CF reinforced, I've even printed a couple on my MSLA resin printer and they work just fine. PLA is stiffer but theoretically more brittle, but I've not had one catastrophically fail. PETG and ABS are both more flexible. Any one of those materials may fail on really tight tires, but it's easy to print more and have a supply on hand.