To fix a stiff link, get the chain, and put your thumbs either side of the stiff pin, and then firmly flex the chain to and away from you. We're not talkig about flexing it in the direction chains bend in anyway, though. This method works every time.
Hehe, puncher. Get a tyre with good sidewalls and you can run lighter tubes. I have a high roller and a bontrager tube, which is pretty much an average tube, and I've not pinched it. No, I have, once.
Use gloves? You could do what they do on Enter The Dragon where they punch gravel, lol. Seems to work, a bit of hard work like that makes your hands rough.