Originally posted by The Fixer
That's why it is a good practice to always mount your tire with its lable placed at the valve stem. You can easily reference the tear on the tube to the area of the tire. Also wire beaded tires are a heck of a lot harder to pull off and remount. Go with folders if you can.... Depending on my tire/rim combo, most of my tires are removed without the use of tire irons, simply with my macho fingers in most cases.
George!
Oh, I do mount the label that way. I even put the tube in so that I can tell which way it went. Still, most of my flats have been tiny holes from glass so I have to pump the tube up to find the hole - even then it is sometimes hard. I also usually run my hand around the inside of the tire in case I picked up more than one object.
These tires are stiff, but my Conti Grand Prix Four-Seasons gave me just as much trouble, though in different ways.
I can normally change the tire using just a Quik-Stik now. Used to be I needed at least that an another iron. I have never been able to do any tire with just my hands.
Oh, I'm using 700x23 now. The prior tires were 700x25 (Contis). My first bike was a comfort bike and used 26x1.95 and then 26x1.5.
Bob