I've seen that valve stem puller thing on sale and wondered how effective it is. If it worked it would make life a little easier but there are so many snake oil gadgets around in the bike world that cynicism is usually my first response these days. It does work then - does it?

I usually end up using the Churchillian method of tyre changing - " nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat", and when I've failed to get the valve stem in place after about twenty attempts there's usually plenty of all of that all over the tyre as well as soap, WD40 and just about any other liquid I have to hand. I mean, how hard can it be? It's usually at this point I start fantasising about alternatives like split rims or .... paying someone else to do it. A little window flap on the side of the tyre that you could open and get the valve stem in place that way would be nice but I'm sure there's a downside to it somewhere along the line.

Pride however means I end up determined to see it through irrespective of the state of my fingers afterwards. I know many of you here are seven feet tall with fingers of steel and able to rip a tyre from its rim with your bare hands
so none of this poses a problem but my lily white girly fingers have a hard time with many enduro type tyres. Some of these things have sidewalls made of concrete and you just cannot get any space under them to reach the valve stem. My record (fortunately some years back now) is a day and a half to change a rear Michelin Desert on my CCM Excel rim. And that was in my garage. It would have been a long and lonely session at the side of the road.