Thanks, guys
The rims are fairly narrow at 22mm. I wish they were wider!
Although I've been changing bike and motorcycle tires since the '70's, I'll admit that there could be improvements to my technique. This last time I put a couple of vise-grips on the far side to keep the beads in the rim channel, but your suggestion of trying to keep the opposite bead out of the way so the bead I'm working on has a bit more room is something I'll have to try.
I also noticed that there was less prying involved with the OEM rim strip than with the thick Bontrager t/l rim strip, which hogs a lot of space in the channel. With the last attempt a coupla days ago I removed the Bontrager strips and tried some 25mm DT Swiss rim tape. My first time using DT Swiss. The DT tape isn't as stretchy as I woulda like and did not settle down into the channel well. That caused more fighting and levering and swearing because the tire couldn't get to the bottom of the channel.
Last edited by Telkwa; 01-28-23 at 04:26 PM.