Originally Posted by
Henry11972
That’s very possible. I’m a complete novice when it comes to installing tubes. My current method is prying one bead of the tire onto the rim, then sort of haphazardly cramming the tube in while prying over the other bead. That being said, when I removed the rim tape, there were little pin holes where some of the nipples hit the tape. Also, the holes in the tube were on the inside, and similar in size and location to those on the tape. Would it be a waste of time/stupid to try and file down the sharp edges of the nipples?
For mounting and dismounting the tire bead, are you using bicycle tire levers, or just a flat-blade screwdriver? Genuine tire levers are essential. I like high-strength plastic ones as they don't scratch the rims, and they are strong enough. As someone else on here pointed out, it may seem counterintuitive, but for a tire with a really tight bead, hard to get on and off the rim, you want to dismount/mount the tire opposite the valve stem first, and at the valve stem last; This is so the part opposite the stem, you can set the bead down into the "drop center" on the rim, to allow more slack when mounting at the valve stem. After mounting tire with tube, inflate tube about halfway, let air out, then inflate tube fully; This helps straighten out any twists and wrinkles in the tube. I personally think it's better to just barely inflate the tube so it stays straight, place it inside the tire, mount one side of the tire onto the rim, then do the other, and if not easy, let air out of the tube and then put on the rim fully, and reinflate.