I have been battling trying to get a New Continental Bike Tire Super Sport on a Wolber Rim. 700X25C. ****ing awful. I have never had this much trouble in my life. I will never buy Continental again!
I have watched about half a dozen you tube vids, and none of them worked. I guess off to the bike shop in the morning. Really mad at the moment.
Old 700x25 Ultra's were on the rims.

This works well.

Bike Tools Etc. - 1000's of bicycle tools and parts for the home mechanic!

If you need a tool to mount your tire you had better have it with you on the road or you are going to be stuck when you have a flat. I will not ride a tire-rim combo I cannot easily mount by hand.


If you are using Velox or similar fabric tape and you are determined to use those tires you might consider putting on a thinner rim tape, or a couple of layers of Kapton tape instead. I like Continental Easy Tape, it is thin and slick and makes tire mounting much easier.

I got it. I used the tire levers at the last several inches. One on each farthest part where the bead was already in place. Then worked them inward. It worked.
See what I was doing for the last 90 minutes is called the definition of madness; trying to do the same thing over, and over again when it didn't work the first time.
Those You Tube Vids gave a little incite, but none of the ones I looked at showed this. I think I did something similiar to this, but It was so long ago I forgot.
I removed a tire from the front rim of my Trek in April, and put a Continental Gatorskin, and tube on, all in less then 15 minutes and I was out the door.

...do you ever get tired of posting the same thing every time someone mentions that the Kool Stop Bead Jack works well for tight tyre and rim combinations ? I think you posted the exact same thing when I mentioned the thing five years ago.

VAR makes a portable bead jack/tire lever combination tool:



https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tools/var-tyre-levers/

Make sure you mount the portion of the 2nd bead adjacent to the valve last. Quite a few videos show mounting the opposite way.

Thanks for the posts about the bead jack tool.

The second tire was also a *****. I had to fight the first bead into place. And repeat the same process as I did on the first.
Although this time was much faster. 20 minutes.

I mean I never had to fight tires on like this. A bit of a struggle occasionally, but not this much.
I guess having to change tires only on scores is a good thing.

I did not know the Continentals were going to be that tough to get on the Wolber Rims.

Apparently Continentals are tough to get on. But how often do you think I will get a flat? Like never.

I have never got a flat with a quality tire. Never! Of course I am riding less than 10 miles a day.

You will definitely get one now!

The wheel makes as much difference as the tire. I have found that sometimes mounting a tire the first time is rather difficult but becomes easier as the tire wears and stretches. I have a pair of Nokian studded tires for my mountain bike. The front took me 45 minutes to get on, and that was not without bloody palms from the studs. Decided that the rear would just stay off for the winter. The tire just didn't want to go on the Stan's wheel. My buddy had very little issue getting them on his stock Specialized wheelset. Tiny variances in the tire and wheel is a huge frustration factor. And my well used Gatorskins will come off without a tire lever once the tube is deflated.

Reviews for the tire, the first reviews affirms the difficulty I had.

https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...HZ4cBmQQ4jUIMg

Never had much success with that one.

Schwalbe.

Put the tire in the sun for a bit. Then try.

I was under the assumption that you don't use any type of tool to get the tire back on for fear of ruining the tube? I have tried using a lever to get one on, and of course I damaged the tube therefore undoing all the work I had already done to get the tire back on.

A properly utilized tire iron will not harm the tube.

Agreed that some rim/tire combinations -particularly deeper rims- are more difficult than others, but in all cases they get easier to remove and remount with time and use.

Warming the tires in the sun definitely helps. I also had an aquaintance who swore that placing the, in the clothes dryer worked wonders. No surprise that he was a single guy...

Whenever I run into a problem getting a tire on a rim, I take a spray bottle filled with clean water & spray the tube, tire, & rim down with water. Once it's all wet things seem to slide together much easier. I don't worry about any water residue inside rim. I figure it will dry out eventually.

...and a properly used hammer will never damage a bicycle. Honestly, the bead jack is a good tool. I find that most of the people who talk them down have not used one. I don't know whether you have or not, but the principle of reaching over the tyre and levering it into place goes a long way toward avoiding the "improper" use of tyre irons.

It's like having the thumb of god on your side.

Damn, I can't remember the name of the tubes. I keep thinking Sunfire, but the closest thing I can find is Sunlite.
The LBS Mechanic recommended them if weight was not an issue. He said they were tough.

Yeah, I don't recommend using tire levers to get the last part of the bead on, but if you can't, and you watched all the You Tube Vids from some Australian Bloke talking about Faraday Liquid, some guy with Tie Wire that kept spitting on his fingers moistening the inside of the tire, and others making it look simple, and some swearing on here that you don't need tire levers at all for removal, or installation, to divine intervention, and lastly your LBS than WTF!

And like I said, I put a Gatorskin on a Rim a few months ago and it was a breeze. The rim was narrower though. Whatever the rim is on the late 80's aluminum Trek's.

Nothing wrong with attempting to make your bike lighter, but I think for most folks needs it becomes a bit much.

.
...Matrix put out some rims in the 80's that were genuinely demonic. There was no space at all on the interior to drop the bead into, and they were pretty narrow, IIRC. I still have some on a bike. When the tyre goes flat, I'll probably just give it away.

I was mounting a Schwalbe Marathon onto a Matrix rim when I first researched and discovered the bead jack. I've never looked back.

Those are the Rims that are on my old Trek 1200 and I never had a problem getting a tire on them. Never.

I have some Gatorskins & Gator hardshells.

I think they're ok on my Velocity Aerohead rims, but are a major hassle to install on the Shimano RS-10 rims.

Another option for thinner "tape" is to use Veloplugs instead.

Velocity Wheels - Hand Made in USA
https://www.amazon.com/Velocity-Velo.../dp/B01CWDVPKG

They're good for may style of rims, except single wall (obviously), also potentially problematic with rims with a deep center channel or off-center drilling.

Little bit of dish soap works well. Tight fits always work better with lubricant. ;-)

I am yet to use tools to mount a tyre on. This video might help: