Mounting new bike tires (especially tubeless and/or heavy duty casing) seems to go one of two ways...it's either a brief, effortless, simple experience or it's an exercise in torture, pain, confusion and mystery.
I figured it's time compile the Vital community's decades of expertise into one place with your tips for changing and mounting new tires. Let's here 'em!
If your bikes live in a shed or unheated garage, bring the new tyres inside to warm up for a few hours before you try to fit them.
A little lube never hurt anybody
Unpackaged the tyre for a few hours minimum.
Dont line the logos up just to annoy your mate who thinks he has OCD.
Put more than less sealant.
Avoid anything muc off. It'll suck.
Two full wrap around of tape.
Remember remember maxxis tyre name always on drive side.
This was going to be my first comment! Especially as we're approaching the time of year where it's getting colder and wetter and it's time to pull off the speedy summer treads and put something spikier on. Plus cold hands and tyre wrestling don't go well together. However I can recommend not pumping up with sealant in the kitchen... We all know about putting the bead into the centre of the rim by now don't, we? I still need my Giant pressure reservoir for maybe half my tyres, especially road tubeless.
Also, for new tyres, get them out of the wrapping and lay them flat in a tyre shape in the warm to remove the folds and get a better chance of fitting and sealing. And check that little direction arrow twice to avoid crying/swearing after half an hour of wrestling
If you're using tire levers to mount, never go all the way up, just go to 90° relative to the rim or so and then rock the lever out to the side. You won't damage your tape this way. Some rim and tire combos will work best with two layers of tape, especially if it's a looser fit, but a tight fit is better with one layer.
Don't use anything from muc off, valves, tape or sealant.
If you don’t have a compressor use a tube to seat both sides of the tire, deflate and carefully pop only one side of the tire bead and remove the tube, put in the tubeless valve stem add a insert if needed and put on the other side of the tire. 9/10 times it works every time with a standard floor pump.
-I’ll add the sealant thought the valve stem last, that way if your pump sucks or screw something up you don’t have to deal with sealant leaking out on the way to the gas station/mate with a compressor
https://cushcore.com/products/rotarytiretool
Worth every fucking penny.
I don't know how world cup mechanics mount DH casing tires with just their hands. Black magic fuckery. Especially for those conti teams. Getting them off is just about as bad.
My only tip, if you will, Is to use the butt plug. I've never used an insert but I freaking love their tire tools.
Washing up liquid with hot water in a spray bottle is what I use for bicycle and motorcycle tyres. Also using a car rim as a base is a good idea as long as you don't have coloured spokes.
Been trying to get one of these. I am not sure what is harder to acquire. tire tool or Intend Brakes...
Couple more:
Most track pumps that have presta and schrader attachments - if you take out the valve core, and use the schrader fitting on the coreless cylinder that's left, you will get more airflow that might help in seating the bead without resorting to compressors or air cannisters. Once the bead is seated, you'll have to put the valve core back in which will lose most of the air but hopefully wont pop off the bead, then pump it up normally.
If you do need to resort to tyre levers and levering off the rim, make sure the tyre lever is not in line with a spoke. Pushing on the rim tape over a spoke hole is where you are most likely to put a hole in the tape.
Adding to this. Put your tire lever in the space between the spokes when levering on a tire. In the event you nick the rim tape it won’t damage the tape over a hole.
This. Living in an apartment and not having an air comp, tubeless is a cruel and unpredictable mistress for me. Especially with rim and tire combos. Going tube in first helps massively. And then adding sealant via open valve instead of trying to finish seating a tire after slipping sealant in the final gap is... Basically necessary. Injector worth it every time.
For those seating a DH tire, if you don't have an air comp don't feel bad about just taking them to the bike shop. Numerous times I have seated DH/gravity tires but they don't hold air and properly seat with low air pressure/volume because the walls stubbornly fold inwards to the middle of the rim. Even after trying to shape them with a tube beforehand. The solution is almost always more air. Air comp. It is what it is. I've tried things like co2 shot and it's not the same. I would like one of those pumps that stores a shot of air, but even that is a compromise. I'd love a small, cheap, portable air comp. Like something electric that stores a mini shot... idk
avoiding muc-off products will forever be a positive when talking tires and chain lube.
The rest is... "be a man" - joking aside, I dont really have any issues getting them on etc the worst part is Inflating like conti's onto offset rims, especially if its not new tape. - Ratchet strap around it is sometimes required
Yeah I’ve heard the same. Just the demo vids show this thing to be worth the money though!
My tire changing tip is to do it the night before, not the morning of. (As with 75% of bike maintenance needs)
Making sure the first bead is all the way in the trough of the wheel before getting the other side on has always been an issue for me. I’m too impatient…having that extra bit of slack is very helpful and usually enough to get any tire on without tools. As for seating tubeless beads, I don’t have a compressor but I have one of those canisters you can charge up with your pump and it’s fun to use…it works. But a floor pump will get it done 90% of the time for me.
A lot of good advice mention so far. Only thing I haven't seen that helps a ton is to constantly make sure the bead is dropped into the center of the rim when installing the tire. Makes it so much easier no matter the brand or casing type.
You can use a c-clamp to pop the bead to help remove a tire. You can even use the clamp, while it’s clamping the tire, as a lever if needed. Clamp the tire sidewalls together just above the bead. This is especially helpful with super tight beads, with inserts.
Whilst this is more for taking them off - a black round trash can or large flower pot where you can rest the spokes on the edge and then really reef on the tire is the best way to break the bead....
My family has a lot of bikes and this method (used by almost every bike shops I'd guess) has sped things up considerably.
A really good floor pump is the Topeak Joeblow Mountain II which inflates 722 cm3 of air per stroke. Floor pumps usually inflates about 150-250 cm3 of air per stroke, and other brands mtb specific pumps rarely exceeds 400 cm3 per stroke. I have zero problems getting tires to pop into place with the previous model (683 cm3).
These are all good tips, but one of those most simple ones that has not been mentioned is to make sure that the beads are pushed into the center rim well as you go to seat the second side of the tire. Failure to do this makes it damn near impossible to stretch the final bit of bead over.
As for inflation once you've gotten the tire on the rim I do several things. If the tire is loose, I'll take a tie-down strap, run it around the tire circumference and snug it down to put pressure on the beads. I don't put a ton of sealant in at first just enough to coat the inside and add more after the tire is seated via a syringe. I don't have a compressor so I use an old Specialized Air Blaster can which I inflate up to 120 psi+ and running Huck Norris inserts typically will pop the tire into place. Naturally Specialized doesn't sell these any longer, but I suspect there are some similar options/hacks still out there. ☠️🤘
If you have sealant gunk built up in your valve stems making it hard for air to enter fast enough to seal tire bead, just unscrew and remove the valve stem core. That lets air in unrestricted and fills the tire great. Then just screw the core back in quickly to keep too much air from escaping. I had never heard or thought of this before and have used the technique a few times recently with great results. Of course the obvious solution is to get new valve stems.
Cheap portable air compressor that runs off your car battery, best $60 ever spent. Seats tires in seconds.
Go change a whole bunch of sportbike, MX, and ATV tires. It will cause you to appreciate just how damn easy bike tires are to deal with.
Snark aside,
Make sure the rim is super clean. Lube one side and install it. Tire lube works best. Pour in sealant. Lube other side. Work bead from the bottom and when you are getting close check to make sure both beads are well and truly down in the bead well. Pop the bead over. Inflate with air compressor regulated to 50psi. Ensure both beads are seated.
Enjoy.
Speedier Tire Lever
I used to use a compressor at the gas station, but I purchased the specialized MTB pump and it seats tubeless great. Done trail to dh casing without much fuss.
I guess my only advice is to use soapy water to find any leaks, usually those show up on the spokes and show you should re tape.
Use proper rim tape in the correct width. Leave the duct tape to MacGyver.
Once on the rim I prefer to use a floor pump like Lezyne’s Pressure over drive instead of a compressor.
Plus one on the night before advice.
Since nobody’s said it, I’d like to add that making sure one side of the tire is completely in the center trough of the rim will make it easier to get that second side on there…
No but the wrong one can make a new body 😁
Forgot ice tires for the moto whirled. Lordy, lordy, lordy.
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