I don't know about the early years, but today's Treks are mainly made in the Orient. They don't make rims in the USA, and ship them to Taiwan or China to be built into wheels and put on bikes.

Read my earlier post, I gave you website that sells those steel levers except those are encased in plastic to protect soft aluminum rims.

You must have Puncture resistants like armadillo they are usually tough but do it a few times and they become pliable

It's short for "Government Point of Contact". He is basically THE government man ("civilian") in charge of directly managing the project I support. I know he'd been a cyclist and used to ride in, but he's perpetually busy so all I've heard were a few stories (including one where he and his peleton had to trudge home on road bikes during a surprise snow storm back in the 70's or 80's - snow up to the pedals).

To all: Yeah, these are US made Matrix rims, probably stock to the bike - which is a 91 Trek 1200. The alu framed, bright yellow one with the grey looking "static" effect...or however one can describe it.

I did all the usual tricks - inflating the tube, using a small tube, etc. but this was unusually hard. These Conti tyres are the brown walls but they're pretty worn so it's time to replace them. Hoping money evens out soon - it's been a pretty brutal winter - so I've got a few in mind. Yellow walls to match the frame sounds like a nice idea. Just need to get a yellow and black saddle to replace the brick-red and black scrounging special I've got on it now.

I hadn't thought about lubing the tyre or expanding it in the dryer. I suppose I can give that a shot at least next time.

M.

When I was at Trek in the early-mid 80's, "Matrix" rims were made in Waterloo, not in the main factory, but in the original old red barn downtown where Trek first started. The extrusions were made to spec by another company (don't remember which, exactly) and shipped to Waterloo as straight stock, where they were rolled, pinned and drilled. Some models were sent off-site again for anodizing and/or heat treatment, then returned to Waterloo to be built into wheels. The Waterloo production should have a "Made in USA" label:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/matrix-isoc2.jpg

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/matrix-usa.jpg

Unless their the wire beaded ones and then they don't go on so well their entire life. That's the only reason I have a VAR is because I use to buy those tires when I lived in goathead city and no combination of tire or liner or tube worked real well except the Armadillos All Condition tires

John, thanks for the clarification. I had those Matrix ISO C-II rims on my 1992 Trek 1420 and they were labeled "Made in USA". I don't remember installing or removing tires to be particularly difficult with them.

I have two sets of Matrix ISO11's here. My son rides one set . They are the toughest rim to mount tires on, tougher than any other rim in my experience. I would rather glue a tubular. This is a rim where you take three tire irons with you to go ride as there is a good chance you might bust one, that's if you can get it between the rim tape and bead to lift it over the edge of the rim. They are on my upgrade list for sure!.

I know what you say is true, but what is there to do? You have the wheels. You have the tires. Are you going to chuck it all and go in search of an easy mounting combination? I share the frustration and have since the early '80s when the Specialized Turbo tires first came out (THAT was a tough tire to mount). It doesn't seem to be getting better. If anything it is just getting worse. So shouldn't all of us in this fix know how to deal with it and avail ourselves of the solution? I know I sound like a broken record, but having the VAR tool (I'm on my third one; the first one wore out and half of the second one got left on the road side - my bad.) since way back when has allowed me to get every tire on and every tire off, every time without fail and without damaging the rims, tires or tubes. I don't know about dark, rain and cold. I'm sure those conditions HAVE been included, I just can't remember when. All I can say is that as long as hard to mount and dismount tires/rims are going to be the rule, I'm carrying the VAR. :)

Yes, I understand the problem, and I've never been a believer in scrapping rideable parts. In my circle we always considered it bad karma to fix what wasn't broken or waste good usable parts in favor of "better".

However the answer depends on where and how one rides. If riding far (beyond bus/taxi.friend pickup range) from home you have to weight the risk of getting stranded by a flat. As I said, I've seen people so stranded because the tire was so tight they couldn't slide a tire lever under it out on the road.

The real answer lies in not accepting this nonsense in the first place. Dealers know which rims and tires are always tight, and should complain to their suppliers, especially to bike companies using them OEM. They need to score them negatively when purchasing, and let the vendors know that it's an issue that could cost sales. Tipping the financial scales from stuff that doesn't work to stuff that does eventually will get better, more serviceable product out there.

Consumers can start the ball rolling by simply refusing to buy tight tires, and or returning some of the grief of tight rims to dealers by complaining clearly and consistently until the message is heard.

I ride tubulars on the road, so the only wired-on ties I buy are mtn tires, but when a dealer friend suggests a tire I know to be tight, I pass and tell him why.

When Specialized introduced the first folding clincher, the Turbo, I ran, not walked, to the bike shop and got new clincher rims and those tires because I was tired of the tubular hassle and I never looked back. I got a set of Mavic (can't remember the model, they had a red label if that matters), and I did not have a big deal getting the tires on, the biggest issue I had initially was dealing with the flopping sidewalls! In fact I bought a set of aluminum tire irons that bent pretty easily but never had that happen with those, so I don't recall them being a pain to put on. Other than using Specialized Armadillo folding tire and Pasela TG wire beaded tires I never had to use the VAR, most of the time I can put them on by hand like the video shows, however I found out it's faster using the QuikStik for both removing and installing a tire then it is to use hands only.