Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Are most Continental tires a bear to install/remove?

I bought a new rear tire for my bike, a continental ultra sport, size 700x23. It was about impossible to install using tire levers. In fact, this was the first time I had to use levers since the 80's.
Im skidding with it as much as possible to give me an excuse to buy a new tire. I dont want to even try to remove/install it away from home with a flat.

they've been difficult for me also. not vittoria difficult, and not prohibitive to me using gatorskins, but not a walk in the park.

they've been difficult for me also. not vittoria difficult, and not prohibitive to me using gatorskins, but not a walk in the park.

vittoria difficult?
i have rubino pros on now and had a randonneur on the back for a while. i've never had any difficulty with em.

Get better levers.

Ultrasports are about the hardest tires to mount or dismount I've every dealt with, and the only on which that I've broken park levers getting them off.

It's those tires in particular, not contis - gatorskins practically fall off the rim for me, and kevlar beaded vittorias I found really easy to mount.

Get better levers.

If you know what you are doing you don't need levers at all. But they help.

I have some problems with conti's on mavic open pros or open sports.

If you know what you are doing you don't need levers at all. But they help.


Obviously you have not seen a really tight tire/rim combo.

i hate ultrasports. hardest tire to mount, ever.

one of these tires cost me 4 tubes, and 2 tire levers. before i took them back to my LBS to have them mounted. LBS used a koolstop beadjack and VAR tool to get it mounted and still managed to pinch the tube.
So i took it back to the store i got them from (MEC) where the sales guy there insisted that he could mount them. 20 minutes and a torn sidewall later he let me return them.

i have voiced my opinion on this matter on several occasions.

Yeah the Conti Ultra Sports are ridiculous. It took 3 people to mount mine, but after the first time it was somewhat easier.

Yeah the Conti Ultra Sports are ridiculous. It took 3 people to mount mine, but after the first time it was somewhat easier.

Agreed...Ultrasports are a huge PITA to get off. Other Continental tires I have no problems with.

its your rims folks.

my Vittorias were a breeze on my old rims. and everything is a pain on my new rims.

yeah, they can be tough to get on, but i'll give you a dollar if they roll of nearly as easy as any other tire.
edit: also, for the money im pretty positive they are the best. i've used continentals a couple time and each time the tires hold up great and with a fair amount of skidding last usually about 2 months

thats good in my book.

+a million. I also buy 700cx23 ultrasports at MEC because they're good/cheap tires, but I guess the "2 of 3" rule here is good/cheap/easy to mount and unmount. With or without levers, my hands are always on fire by the time I'm done getting conti ultrasports off my rims.

An old crusty wrench told me that all French tires are a little tighter than normal, which has been my experience. Panaracer extreme duros are the worst I've ever seen, though, I broke a couple of good levers on them, though the giant pedro's ones finally worked.

Also, velox is unfortunately kind of the enemy with tight tires, thinner nylon tape or veloplugs help a lot.

its your rims folks.


Yeah all our rims, from different manufacturers all seem to have the same problem with one specific tire.

gatorskins very hard to mount.....

Indeed, Ultra Sports have some serious sidewall/bead going on, hardly any give at all! I can remember one time having to remove and install one without levers and yeah... between the cussing and tearing part of the thumbnail away from the skin it wasnt a pleasant experience at all. but overall a good tire for the money... cheap as hell locally.

In my experience, gatorskins aren't that hard to mount. Not the easiest tire, but not that bad. Conti contacts are pretty easy to mount, but they didn't last very long.

I was working on a bike yesterday with CST compressor tires (never heard of them before). They were the most rediculous tires I had ever had the misfortune of experiencing. It took two people and a lot of grunting, cursing and wasted time to get them off the rim. At one point we almost gave up and cut the bead off with some cable cutters.

when you're trying to get that last little bit of tire on, stop for a sec. squeeze the tire into the rim all the way around, on both sides, till you reach the last part that's hanging. pushes the tire into the rim, helps it sit better, and loosens it up. makes it much easier, even with bears like gatorskins. this method keeps me from using levers when i install a tire, which is teh good practice.

I thought I was the only one having trouble with the Ultra Sport. Although, they seem to come off easier on some of my wheels than others. I still keep them around as emergency back-up tires. But I really don't want to have to repair a flat if my bicycle is my only way home.




I bought a new rear tire for my bike, a continental ultra sport, size 700x23. It was about impossible to install using tire levers. In fact, this was the first time I had to use levers since the 80's.
Im skidding with it as much as possible to give me an excuse to buy a new tire. I dont want to even try to remove/install it away from home with a flat.

get good tire levers and man up

i have the same troubles with my ultrasports. many broken levers and pinched tubes. it's not your rims.

running continental ultra in the back, michelin in front

i've broken 3 levers on the conti, never any problems with the michelin

nice tires though for the price

someone once mentioned using a lil soapy water on the rim to ease installation.

Agreed...Ultrasports are a huge PITA to get off. Other Continental tires I have no problems with.

+1...sort of. never used ultrasports, but GP 3000/4000/Force/Attack i can all mount/dismount with no levers. of course, i have forearms like popeye.

Continentals forced to get the steel-core Soma levers after I broke all three of my impact nylon levers on one tire.

I just replaced a tube in my front rim (conti gatorskin) and didn't have any problems. I haven't mounted a new one yet though, so maybe that would be harder.

Im so glad to see this, I thought thaere was somthing wrong with me the last few months, ultra sports are *****. Im also happy to see that so many other people are using them.

On a side note: Does anyone else think that the conti ultra sports are excessively sticky?, not really in a bad way, but the longest time I found it way harder to skid stop

yeah agreed on ultra sports being a ***** but conti in general being fine.

in my opinion, michelins overall are one of the hardest tires to get on and off.
when i blew out my pro2 race, my arms were as limp as my dick after getting it off and same with some cheapy eriliums i had temporarily.

maybe i'm just a weak, inexcusable excuse for a human being but it seemed like those michelins gave me a harder time overall.

In my experience, gatorskins aren't that hard to mount. Not the easiest tire, but not that bad.
That's been my experience, too. The first time mounting a brand new tire takes a bit of work, but nothing crazy. Then, after that, no problem.

I had such difficulty with my conti rear (700c x 25) that I took it to the LBS and sheepishly confessed to having gone through one tube and not being able to figure out why I was having such a hard time. I asked for their help and they were real nice, and said we'll show you how to do it so it will be easy. Took the guy almost twenty minutes, and he readily admitted that it was a struggle and he was not used to struggling. I felt a little less incompetent at that point. Not looking forward to changing a flat.....

Im so glad to see this, I thought thaere was somthing wrong with me the last few months, ultra sports are *****. Im also happy to see that so many other people are using them.

On a side note: Does anyone else think that the conti ultra sports are excessively sticky?, not really in a bad way, but the longest time I found it way harder to skid stop
They are sticky indeed compared to the kenda k191 that was on before. The ultra sport also seems to have a thicker tread then some tires.

in general it's usually a tire-rim/combination of some sort. never tried ultra-sports but gatorskins I don't remember being particularly hard to take on and off.

vittoria's on the other hand are kinda hard anyway, but with sun cr18s they are near impossible. I gave up because even though I had done it a couple of times, taking them on and off was such a ***** it wasn't worth using them. I broke like 5 tire levers one night, even steel-core ones. I used them for a rain bike and put 700x32 slicks on those same rims, and the tires just fall on.

it might be cheapo continental tires in general...the ones made in taiwan as opposed to germany....i have some wire bead ultra races and they were a ***** to get on....i needed two levers and popped both tubes by the time i got them on for the first time...the second time i used thorn proof tubes, and that helped a lot.