"David" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:Last night I was trying to mound Kenda Kwick 1.7" x 26" folding tires onto old Bontrager/Weinmann
rims. I've installed tires for ages, and never encountered a problem like this. How do you mount
extremely difficult tires without destroying the rim?
lots of other posters gave excellent advice. my paltry additions:
-sometimes something slippery, more slippery than talc, can help. like detergent.
-the muscular brutish hand motion used to force tight tires on is not intuitive becuase it Hurts.
every once in a while when i get one of those ridiculously bad fits, i come away from the job with
what amounts to a frikkin' burn on my palms😉
-koolstop (i believe) distrubutes a tool which is as best as i can tell analogous to the
'tire-jacker' device mentioned elsewhere. it costs something like 5 bucks wholesale from qbp, so an
LBS can order
it. it is a burly looking black plastic tool that gives you some non trivial leverage for getting a
tire on, but greatly reduces the risk of pinching the tube (nothing quite eliminates it,
AFAIK). there is also a smaller, portable device that i bought. for a few bucks. it is grey
plastic, and uses the same principle, but with a less robust, and much smaller design. it
doesnt have a manufacturer stamped on it, and i cant remember where it came from. it might be
convenient for tight tires on a roadside flat, but frankly i have only used it once or twice.
for everything but the tightest tires i use my hands. for the true beasts i use the invincible
kool stop import.
i really like tire removal and installation tools. for some inexplicable reason. this is off topic,
but my system is as follows: for 90% of flat tubes, i get the tire off with one park tl-1 tire
lever, which i appreciate for its unbreakableness and smooth edges, and get the tires back on by
hand. for the tough tires to dismount, i use a pair of the big park metal shop levers, until i can
slip the blue plastic lever (rim friendly, hand friendly) in and slide it around the circumference.
if im on the road, i woudlnt take those huge shop levers, but would instead take a pair of small
metal levers. i have a trio that i modified with a grinder and a file so they are much easier to
dismount tires with. and to get them back on, either hands or the koolstop thing.
thigns i dont like: just about every single plastic tire lever on the market, except for the park
tl-1, and the ones that come with mavic wheels.
