Wrasslin' tires on and off rims

[NHpug]

I have a set of wheels on my Big Dummy cargo bike that Peter White
built for me using Rhyno Lite rims. They are great rugged wheels (SON
front, Phil rear). Yesterday I spent what felt like half the afternoon
taking the Continental Town & Country tires off and mounting the
Nokian W240 studded tires. Both sets of tires were really hard to
wrassle on and off the rims - I broke various plastic tire lever items
in the process. I'd like to find some good old fashioned metal tire
irons so I don't have to repeat this - suggestions please?

Thanks
Marc

[shiggy]

I have a set of wheels on my Big Dummy cargo bike that Peter White
built for me using Rhyno Lite rims. They are great rugged wheels (SON
front, Phil rear). Yesterday I spent what felt like half the afternoon
taking the Continental Town & Country tires off and mounting the
Nokian W240 studded tires. Both sets of tires were really hard to
wrassle on and off the rims - I broke various plastic tire lever items
in the process. I'd like to find some good old fashioned metal tire
irons so I don't have to repeat this - suggestions please?

Thanks
Marc

Rhyno Lites are notorious for being tough.

Use a thin rim tape. I prefer fiber reinforced strapping tape. Velox is the worst.


Then use proper technique: http://www.teamestrogen.com/content/asa_levers

[BrianMc]

Fun write up on tire removal, even for old hands. (In spite of traffic, still around to get older!) Occasionally you get extremes, as the author said. I had a pair of 27 x 1 1/8" Bontragers that got too easy to dismount and allowed the tube to balloon out and expolde. Suspected a bead wire failure (rare). The previous dismount had been too easy: a clue. So they were history. The very next pair of tires were cheap higher volume Kendas in 27 x 1 1/4 to deal with the poorer winter road surfaces, but seemed to be a tad under size. Maybe why they were on sale. Difficult to mount. Worse to dismount. So on my next order after a flat I got a set of steel tire levers from YJ in Madison,. Don't need the levers, but it is nice to know I have them. If the plastic ones will do, then you likely don't need any. If you really need levers, the plastic ones likely aren't up to it.

[GregB406]

My old mountain bike has Kendas and Rhyno lites. A bad combination to remove if you get a flat. I have since found that almost anything else works better for service than Kendas and Rhyno lites.

[Mojoe]

Yep, I have a RynoLite on the rear of my Big Dummy. I use the big steel Park downhill levers for getting tires on and off.

[Leopold Porkstacker]

On any sort of tire mounted on any sort of rim, I just sort of stand on the bead until it unseats from the rim. I started doing this once going to 65mm wide rims shod with 3+" wide tires, but the process seems to work great for pretty much any tire/rim combo (Continentals are a b¡tch).

[BrianMc]

Agreed. The 'break the bead' (meaning bead sticking to rim, not braking the wire or kevlar reinforcement), is standard tire removal technique (try truck tires with hand tools as we did on the farm, if you want to know 'difficult'). The set of tires I had trouble with came off the bead fine, it was getting the bead up over over the rim lip that was the issue, Even with the other side in the low spot of the rim. Wouldn't have believed it if I had not experienced it. I suspect that they were returned as 'unmountable' to the lbs as they were on sale for $8 the pair.

[Fungazi]

Rhyno Lites are notorious for being tough.

Use a thin rim tape. I prefer fiber reinforced strapping tape. Velox is the worst.


Then use proper technique: http://www.teamestrogen.com/content/asa_levers

+1. Put a layer of electric tape under the strapping tape for ease of removal (spoke repairs), and you have the perfect "rim tape" for rhynolites, and a great basis for "ghetto tubeless".

[vik]

This technique works...you may have to still use a lever or two on tough fitting tire/rim combos, but it will make the process much easier:

http://thelazyrando.wordpress.com/20...-to-fit-tires/

[LongtailJunkie]

These are pretty stout for plastic. Nice and big. Works good for me.http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...2_175248_-1___