Tight tires

[benb]

No one has mentioned it but if it's bad enough one solution I've done in the past is just to forget putting the tires on the wheel set I intended them for and to try them on another wheel set.

Generally most of the time my bike collection is not always going to be big enough to try that but anyone with a decent collection it's worth a shot, one of your other wheel sets is likely to be on the small side of the tolerances and the tight tires will work better there.

This is so much better to have a tight tire fit problem than the other. Once I had a loose fit problem and that was terrifying... I had several front wheel blow offs, amazingly just both of them were when I had come to a stop. 2nd time the tires went right to the trash and I haven't touched that brand again in the last 15 years.

edit: Ordered the tire-jack too.. that looks great. Whoever said the thread will generate a bunch of sales is right. It's hard for me to see the tire jack being worse for the rim than a normal tire lever.

[A1A]

Originally Posted by benb

No one has mentioned it but if it's bad enough one solution I've done in the past is just to forget putting the tires on the wheel set I intended them for and to try them on another wheel set.

Generally most of the time my bike collection is not always going to be big enough to try that but anyone with a decent collection it's worth a shot, one of your other wheel sets is likely to be on the small side of the tolerances and the tight tires will work better there.

This is so much better to have a tight tire fit problem than the other. Once I had a loose fit problem and that was terrifying... I had several front wheel blow offs, amazingly just both of them were when I had come to a stop. 2nd time the tires went right to the trash and I haven't touched that brand again in the last 15 years.

edit: Ordered the tire-jack too.. that looks great. Whoever said the thread will generate a bunch of sales is right. It's hard for me to see the tire jack being worse for the rim than a normal tire lever.

I think the Kool Stop is easier on the rim than standard levers although I'm no engineer. It seems like the force applied is more in the vertical plane plus if nothing else you are no longer "hossing" on the rim with the standard lever for an hour trying to pop the last 6" of bead over... What do they call that, metal fatigue?

I guess the ultimate test would be to see if you can mount a 700C tire on a 29'er rim with a Kool Stop!!!

[kingpin75s]

Originally Posted by benb

No one has mentioned it but if it's bad enough one solution I've done in the past is just to forget putting the tires on the wheel set I intended them for and to try them on another wheel set.

Generally most of the time my bike collection is not always going to be big enough to try that but anyone with a decent collection it's worth a shot, one of your other wheel sets is likely to be on the small side of the tolerances and the tight tires will work better there.

^ This. Cheaper rims tend to have looser tolerances based on my experience so I keep a cheap wheel around for prep mounting any Challenge-ing tires.

[chismog]

One more tip: (if you didn't buy a Bead Jack based on this thread)

Most folks avoid tire irons during installation to prevent pinch flatting the tube. If you have a really tight set of tires, first mount them up without the tube, using tire irons. No risk of pinch flatting, and the process of mounting stretches the bead a bit. Then stuff the tube in after it sits for a while. It's usually much easier to mount a tight tire the second time around.