I just bought my first pair of folding tires and attempted to install them earlier tonight and had a tough time wrestling with them. Does letting them sit out over night help them stretch out and make them easier to get on the rim?


Also, the tires are 700x32 and the tubes I have on the wheel set are 700x35-43. Is that too big of a tube to use? Should I go down to a smaller tube?

The tires had better not stretch overnight if in mounted and without pressure in them. If so then think about what would happen when you do inflate them. While some folding tires are molded a tad smaller in bead diameter then steel beaded ones it's more the rim that determines tire mounting ease. A rim with little inside well won't allow a tire to gather slack when trying to get the last few inches of the bead over the sidewall. Some rims can be a real bear to mount all but the loosest fitting tires.


As to the tube question- Again the rim comes into play. a wider rim will have a larger internal volume (including tire) and be able to fit a slightly larger tube better then a narrow rim. Also most tubes are undersized to a degree. So if the 35/43 tube was only inflated enough to take a shape and not expand it would likely be smaller in cross section (width/height) then the 35 tire is. The tube will just expand inside the tire until the tire contains it and the ballooning up stops. So it is possible to install a 'wider" tube in a narrower labeled (and all these dimensions are only labels, not actual measurements) many times. Andy.

To add to what Andy said, you have to apply some basic principles when mounting tires. The first and most important is that the rim diameter is least at the center, so you need to move the tire to the middle of the rim and push the slack ahead of you as you mount the tire.

Here are some hints.

1- inflate the tube so it's a sausage and stays up in the tire when you stuff it in. Later as you start mounting the second side, you'll need to deflate it so it doesn't push the tire outward on the rim.
2-startmounting the second side opposite the valve and ending there. This is possibly the real key to mounting tight tires because the valve keeps that section of the tire from moving to the center of the rim, thereby costing you a critical amount of slack.
3-when you finish, the tube near the valve may be trapped under the tire. Push the valve into the tire to pull the tube up with it, then PUSH (do not pull) the valve back down from the tire side.
4- inflate to 15psi or so to check that it's seated evenly. Spin the wheel and use the reference line molded into the tire as a guide. Once you've seated it evenly, inflate to full pressure.

No experience with folding bead tires until maybe 12 years ago and have since put three sets of tires, each pair a different make/model, on three bikes. No real problems with any of those tire/rim combinations. (Just felt 'weird' the first time.) Some tires - wired or beaded - and rims play together well, and some don't.
Small complication with the last install - Panaracer T-Serv 559/32 on Velocity Aeroheat rims - first tried with tubes used with previous slightly larger tires but weren't cooperating with seating. After replacing with next size smaller tubes went on easy peasy. The T-Servs measured 28mm in width while other tires were an honest 32.

I suspect you will have more luck with a narrower tube it makes tyre mounting a lot easier, pushing the bead into the middle is the best method as pointed out by other posters

Replacing the thick cloth Velox-type rim tape with a thinner, slicker type such as Continental Easy Tape will make tire installation easier by leaving more room for slack at the bottom of the rim.

Would a tube for a 700x25-32 work better or would that be pushing it since the 32 is the top of the range of sizes that it works for?

Smaller tube would be better IMO.

To tangent this thread a bit- tube/tire size matching- The old BMX trick was to run a small a "size" (and remember that "size" in tire/tube labeling is not the same as a measurement) tube that wouldn't go flat during the race. This got the lightest rubber for the quickest acceleration. I totally agree that narrower tubes are easier to mount. But since I do this stuff daily I don't have anywhere the same problems mounting tires that some seem to have. What I have found though is that the narrower the tube (WRT the tire/rim) the greater the chance for a non penetrating flat cause. The valve has a base of "rubber" molded to it. When this is then bonded to the tube there's a double thick section (shaped like a doughnut) surrounding the valve stem. This thicker portion of the tube doesn't stretch the same (with air pressure ballooning out the tube to fit the tire/rim) as the rest of the tube so some stress is at this spot. For riders who get a lot of flats I try to fit the widest tube that won't flap over on it's self when installed. This gets the least tube stretch and the least stress on the tube. Sometimes I will deflate the old tube completely and fold it flat, like a ribbon, and then compare to the new tube's "ribbon" width. This gives me a data point as to how wide a tube was previously in use and by how things felt during the old tube's removal I now have some judgement about how a new tube of a different width might mount up. Andy.

If this is your (OP) first folding tire, you may be used to stuffing the tube inside the tire and mounting both sides, or at least most of both sides, at once. The folds on this tire make that difficult. Instead, as Frank suggests, get one side of the tire on the rim all the way around. Then put the tube in the tire and start wrestling (or is that rasslin'?) the second side of the tire on. With lots of luck you won't push the first side out while mounting the second side.

For tight new tires, it might also help to mount them with NO tube inside - that'll let you use a tire lever without danger of pinching your tube. Remove and repeat a couple times until you can do it with just your hands, and then do it again with the tube.

I ended up getting two new 700x25-32 tubes and swapping those in and the tires went on with no issues.