Originally Posted by
unterhausen
If you insist on using these tires, you should make friends with someone who has a Park PTS-1 tire seating tool. It's a channel lock plier with tire-shaped jaws.
I have both the Park and the, no longer available, Bicycle Research tire seating pliers. For narrower tires I do like the Park version better. Their jaws are shaped to fit narrower tires very well and the grit tape in the jaws holds the casing very well, although do scrape the casing surfaces a bit (not to any demerit). For wide tires I find the Bicycle Research shape works better. The jaws are paddle like and flare apart giving space for the wider casings. But both work far better then any other rube Goldberg attempt that I have seen, tried or read about.
Ay work we see the need to use said tools a few times a week during the season. Not a lot as a percentage given the number of tire/tube installs/flats we deal with. But if you're the rider of a bike that does need a tire seating this capacity is worth a lot. We've seated many tires that were initially mounted by the customer and depending on who they are, where they bought their stuff and how much time it takes this service might be free or about half of a flat repair labor. Andy.