Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I don't for the simple reason that tires that need to be jacked on a bear to remove. I'm very selective about tire/rim combinations since I consider the ability to fix a flat in the dark and cold (and probably rain) with cold half numb fingers a prerequisite.
OTOH, I've come upon people stranded and struggling, and ended up bending or breaking tire levers trying to get tires off.
There's zero technical benefit to tires and rims that make mounting that hard, but as long as people accept it, we'll only see more.
I know what you say is true, but what is there to do? You have the wheels. You have the tires. Are you going to chuck it all and go in search of an easy mounting combination? I share the frustration and have since the early '80s when the Specialized Turbo tires first came out (THAT was a tough tire to mount). It doesn't seem to be getting better. If anything it is just getting worse. So shouldn't all of us in this fix know how to deal with it and avail ourselves of the solution? I know I sound like a broken record, but having the VAR tool (I'm on my third one; the first one wore out and half of the second one got left on the road side - my bad.) since way back when has allowed me to get every tire on and every tire off, every time without fail and without damaging the rims, tires or tubes. I don't know about dark, rain and cold. I'm sure those conditions HAVE been included, I just can't remember when. All I can say is that as long as hard to mount and dismount tires/rims are going to be the rule, I'm carrying the VAR.
