Seems whenever I install road tires I get about 95% of the tire on the rim and i feel like my thumbs are gonna rip off so I gotta put it down for 15 minutes or so before giving it one final push.

Is there a better way? ...can't I like, use a tire lever in reverse or something?

Yep, tire lever reversed. Always works for me.

Maybe and/or some white lube or a bit of brush-on stuff filched from a tire shop TMRO.

You risk puncturing the tube with a tire lever sometimes, one way I found with the super hard ones is too get it on the best you can with your hands, then afterwords back the bead off the lip in one direction and pop the part your were previously struggling with on, the new section that isnt on the tube should be out of the way and you can use a tire lever to muscle the rest on.. not fool proof but Ive had success with it.

I think modern tires dont work so good with our vintage rims cause they are usually 4-5mm wider than the new stuff modern tires are probably built around.

Of course.

Just use the tire iron under the bead and lever it over. Be careful not to pinch the tube.

A "trick" that works for me is when I get to that hard point that you describe, I place my palms over the beads to keep them from popping back off, then reach over to the top of the tire with my thumbs and push it over towards the other side of the rim. The beads will follow and pop right on. I also moisten the outside rim at the finishing point with liquid dish detegent to make it slippery. Also, make sure you start at the valve and finish at the other side, and make sure the tube is not caught under the tire bead, especially at the valve as you work around the rim. I find it helps to very slightly inflate the tube so that it does not get pinched between the tire bead and rim. I never use tire irons to mount a tire.

I use a Kool Stop tire jack for the last bit. It can be a pain to use (slips), but it's got tremendous leverage. I've got tendinitis and have to baby my hands.

https://www.jensonusa.com/store/produ...e.aspx?sc=FRGL

spray a little Windex or 409 on the rim and the inside of the tire bead on the last foot or so of the tire...it will allow you finish installing the tire without tire levers

When it get to the last bit, I sit on a chair, couch, cooler, whathaveyou with the wheel on the ground vertically in front of me, the last bit of unseated bead facing away from me, at the top of the wheel and just wring the tire on with both hands. I just keep wringing even if it doesn't pop on right away. On tough tires, I might have to wring 20 times or so 'til the tire warms up and gets pliable enough to get convinced of where it needs to go.

Works for me every time. It would probably be difficult on deep aero rims, however.

Speed Lever



I bought one. Works great. Just need to apply force in the appropriate places, or else you could destroy the tool.

I use an "indian burn" type motion, kind of rolling the hard place forward over the rim with both hands. I also might remove a bit more of the air out of the semi-inflated tube, then starting on the side of the wheel opposite of the hard spot, stretch/pull/massage the tire up both sides until I get up to the spot. It seems to provide a little more tire to work with when trying to pop it onto the rim.

One of the best tips I ever got for bicycle maintenance was one I read in these forums:

Ever notice how the first bead goes on easily? That's because you put the first section of the tire on the rim, and it doesn't seat... it falls into the bottom of the trench in the center of the rim. That gives you all of that slack to work with when you work your way around to the other side of the rim. Tire's first bead pops on easily.

Then you stuff the tube in and start popping the second bead on. Your tire will usually start to seat properly along the rim, and all of that slack that made the first bead go on easily disappears. The second bead is MUCH harder to force on.

Try this:

After you get the second bead on as far as you can... grab the tire/tube at the opposite side as that last difficult part. Squeeze the beads together and pull them down into that trench in the center of the rim as far as you can. Continue to squeeze and pull the beads as you work your way around the rim to that last tricky part of the tire. If you work your hands around and keep that pulling tension on the tire... it should give you some of that slack that you used to get that first bead into the rim. With this technique, I've always been able to pop the tire on without resorting to a tire tool or dish soap.

That's ^ what I meant by stretch/pull/massage, much better explanation than mine - I forgot about the squeezing and dropping into the well part. Also, a light push up on the valve stem before you inflate will help prevent the tube getting pinched under the tire right there.

i just take a plastic tire lever, turn it backwards so the point is to the rim, stick it in opposite the part i'm having problems with and slide it around and push the tire in. Never had any problems with this method. It's a whole lot easier on my hands and i've never hurt a tube doing it. or at least with a tire lever. didn't have a lever once and used a screwdriver. = hole in tube.

I do the same thing and it works for me.

Lot of good advice. There is debate about where to start. I always start opposite the valve stem to allow the bead to drop into the center of the rim. When I get to the stem, I push it in to allow the bead to fit between the stem base and the rim. Works great.

New tires often are harder the first time and may require tire lever to get them on. After the initial stretch, it should go one without a problem as long as the bead is down in the center of the rim when you finish up. I agree with the pushing the tread over the rim and allowing the bead to pop on.

Same here. Pedros levers forever.

-Kurt

Yes, I've had success by getting my 290 lb, 6'3" son to use his huge mits to mount difficult tires. They see him coming and they comply.

Some good tips in the link below.
https://www.teamestrogen.com/content/asa_levers#
I use levers, but this helps. I also will fold the tires into a figure 8, secured with some twine or a zip tie and put them on the drying rack in the clothes dryer. The warm tires seem to go on easier.

my daughter lost my pair of pedros, those worked awesome!
i have some walmart ones that really are not good i miss my pedros.

i barely learned too put powder on the tube so it instals better too...

The last word, as far as I'm concerned, is the VAR tire-lever. And it does lift that final couple of inches up and over and into the rim. No muss, no fuss.

https://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...item_id=VR-425

Sometimes that works - sometimes it doesn't. Continentals are infamous for being bears to seat. Some other rim/tire combinations simply won't go on without a tool unless you possess superhuman strength.

I have some magic words that seem to help. At least when I get to the point of saying them, the "sufficient leverage or force" seems to be at hand.

Getting the tire bead deep into the rim's "trench" is a good tip, as it frees up a few mm of slack. I do use my tire levers once in a while, but I run my finger inside and have the tube partially inflated so it isn't folding around in there.

I then inflate the tube to about 70 psi or so, listening for sounds of a pinch being forced out, etc. A lot of "snaps and pops" indicate you could have a lot of twisting or pinched areas on the tube. As soon as the 70 psi is reached, I deflate the tube, let it fall away from the sides of the rim/bead, etc. Then I reinflate. This takes about 20 seconds longer than simply inflating, and seems to work. If I'm not on the road, I repeat until I don't hear noises as I reinflate. I'll never know if it actually works, but I'm not getting pinch flats, basically.

My LBS changes tires quickly, as it's a customer service thing for him and no labor revenue. Once he started with the inflate/deflate thing, he's not had any pinch flats, either, and he's using a compressor, which makes pinch flats more likely, as the tube inflates before it can ease it's way out of the bead pinch.