Some of you may have seen my ask about these wheels in the Road forum when I first got the bike… but now that we’re almost done with the rebuild I’m running into some issues.
I believe they are Dura Ace WH-7700 wheels. They’re on a 2001 model bike so I don’t know what year they’re from exactly. Here’s them after getting the bike home
First, it was so hard to get the original tires off we had to cut them off. Putting new ones on wasn’t any easier - I had to use a combination of big ol’ Pedro’s tire levers and the Koolstop tire prybar tool thing to get them on this evening. Not exactly the kind of thing that’s going to be doable when fixing a flat in the wild…
First question: what’s the deal with the fight to get tires on? Why is it so hard? Months ago I had a similar problem with a classic set of Mavics and turned out thin rim tape helped solve that. Didn’t help here.
2nd question: are these wheels ok to fit a 700x28 tire & tube? When putting the tube in there was basically no extra room around the valve stem - so much so that it appears as though the bead for the new tire isn’t seating completely. There is a noticeable wobble. It only appeared to fit more into the groove when we started putting air in it.
See the red circled area in the pic below:
In addition, the bulging part around the valve stem was sticking out enough to allow the tire to rub on the underside of the brake caliper. I was able to make it work a little better by adjusting the entire brake position by loosening it from the frame bolt. It doesn’t rub anymore but the bulge is obviously still there.
I can’t upload a video here so here’s a link to it so you can see:
https://flic.kr/p/2mGurT7
Lastly, is it ok to ride on the tire like this? I assume it’d blow out.
A similar issue occurred with the front tire but it was less pronounced.
Also, I didn’t notice when I bought them but the bike shop gave me smooth valve stem tubes. What is the point of these? I think without the threads the chuck for the floor pump keeps popping off when the pressure is high enough.
I’m pretty close to just selling these wheels and buying a modern 9 speed wheel set for him that should be way less hassle…..?