I went out today and bought two new road tires for my MTB. Excited, I brought them home and changed the rear tire first. I deflated the tube and the tire removed easily with my hands.

The front tire is a different story. Three hours now, and I cannot get the damn tire off! Do I need to get tire levers? I put 2 butterknives and a flathead in there and I think I ended up doing more harm than good. Now I have 2 ruined butterknives and a punctured tube. Oh Well....

You might think I'm incredibly stupid, and I probably am, but is there any way to get this damn tire off?

Definitely get some tire levers, you get a lot more leverage with them hooked around a spoke.

Yeah, tire levers are the best way to get 'em off. I used a screwdriver the first time I changed my tires and ended up puncturing the tube, just like you. Once I got tire levers, I was able to trim the time for a tire change to about 5 minutes.

Don't get frustrated (and don't pinch your fingers; it hurts!); just go out to the LBS tomorrow and tell 'em you need a set of tire levers. Should be about $3. Good luck.

OK. Thanks guys. Man, I wanted to go out cruisin tonight on my new tires. Oh well, guess it can wait. Besides, my fingers are killin me.

use spoons, the handle side to pry the tire off.

+1
I've yet to see a clincher tire that this didn't work.

Tomorrow, buy the tire levers. The plastic ones will eventually break when you need them the most, especially if they're used when it's very cold out, but they're small and light enough to carry a couple of spares. Better to get steel ones if you can find them.

Edit-Stainless steel, not the wife's silver.

Hmmm. Butter knives and tire levers look an awfull lot alike. If I couldn't get the tire off with butter knives, I would just cut the wire bead with my tin snips.

Buy a Crank Bros Speed Lever. I bought one yesterday and it is much easier to use than traditional tire levers. I only paid $7 for it.

If you are replaceing the tire you are trying to remove, and it sounds like that is the case, just cut it off.

Well, now I have 2 bend butterknives, 2 bent spoons, a punctured innertube and some very sore fingers - oh and a pissed off girlfriend when she comes back tomorrow.

I'm gonna try the tire levers me thinks.

this is the first thing I thought of. It might be worth keeping them around as backups though, assuming the tire is still structurally sound.

No way I'm cutting it! It's in great shape. I just wanted something more suitable for the road so I bought 1.5 slicks.

When mounting or removing car tires, we would use some soapy water to help get the bead over the rim of the wheel. I've never had to do this on a bike tire before, but It has helped be get tires on my moped before. Maybe you might try this?

Unless the front and rear wheels have different rims or the tires are different or something, the front should come off as easily as the rear did.

Every 26" rim that I have seen has a drop center, meaning that the cross sectional shape of the rim has a deeper groove along the middle and shallower areas on either side where the tire's beads sit.

My tried and true method for getting big mountain bike tires off of rims with no tools whatsoever is as follows:

1) Fully deflate the tube. Actually, press the tire against the floor, between your knees, and with your hands and chest while holding the valve stem open to squeeze out as much air as possible before proceeding.

2) work your way around the tire twice, once on each side, pressing the sidewall and bead away from the edge of the rim. It will usually crack and pop loose section by section if the tire has been mounted for any length of time. Make sure you get it loose all the way around and don't miss any areas. It's okay if it comes to rest out against the sidewall again as long as you have cracked it loose so it isn't sticking or wedged in place tightly. Remember to do the other side as well.

3) Stand the wheel up on the floor/ground and put your big toes over opposite sides of the rim where it touches the floor to hold it down. Now grab the tire with both hands (pinching the whole thing from sidewall to sidewall) at the top and pull upwards hard while wiggling your hands side to side and back and forth a bit. You should feel the tire shift upwards a bit with your pull.

4) Maintaining the upwards pressure with one hand, reach down with the other and squeeze both sidewalls at once in towards the deeper center area of the rim. Focus mainly on the lower half of the circle, since that is the area that will matter. You will almost certainly find a few areas where the tire's beads were still sitting partially on the raised side areas of the rim, and when they drop into the groove, you will feel the tire shift even further upwards as you are still pulling on it up top.

5) Once you've snapped the beads into the groove everywhere you can easily reach while still standing (gently) on the rim, fold the handful of tire you are holding sharply over the side of the rim and hold it there. The goal is to almost roll it over the lip of the rim to keep it from slipping back at all and losing ground. With the folded over loosest part held with one hand, lift the wheel off of the ground and check that the bead along the very bottom has snapped into the deep groove of the rim. Do one more quick check with your free hand to see that all of the bead is in the groove.

6) Set the wheel back on the ground and put your toes/feet over the sides of the rim again. Once more, grab the tire at the top with both fists and pull hard upwards agains the counter force provided by your toes. At this point, you should be able to pry the whole tire (both beads at once) over one lip of the rim as you pull upwards on it. Once you get the slightest bit of both beads over the wall, begin prying the rest over with a rolling motion as if you are trying to roll the ture around the rim towards the spokes.

It sounds complicated, but it's really all about getting the beads into the groove in the rim. Once you get them there, almost all fatter tires can be removed from the rim without any levers or tools or anything. If you get a tire to the last step or two and it still won't go over the edge of the rim, only then is it time to break out the tire levers. Tire levers (or spoons, etc.) also rely on having the beads down in the groove, but the difference is that they are able to exert so much force that they can often make the beads find their own way down there. These larger tires will usually come off on their own without tire levers if you go the extra mile and force the bead tightly into the dropped groove on your own.

Good luck with the tires!

i'd cut her off.

if its that hard to remove, think how nearly impossible it will be to remount. and imagine having to do this chore out on the side of the road. in rain or cold.

how much is your time worth?

sometimes manufacturers inadvertently make the tire diameter too small, or the rim diameter too large. i guess these two conditions combined could produce the problem you're having.

This may be a stupid question but are you trying to slip half the tire off the rim at a time or are you trying to pull the whole tire over the rim at the same once? I'm just asking because I've never had a problem with any MBT tires, road tires are another story, those suckers can be a tight fit.

Definitely use tire levers (otherwise you'll scratch and score your wheel), you may also want to try heating the tire somewhat to make it more plyable (hold it over a burner on your stove and be careful not to scorch it). If you plan on throwing it out, simply cut it off with tin snips or shears. I had to sacrifice 2 studded winter tires recently, cuting them with shears, as I simply could not get them off the wheel. Oh well.

Oh - and try to get metal levers. The plastic ones can snap!

OK, first I'd like to say that all this talk of using spoons and screwdrivers to get a tire off is making me *cry*.

GO BUY TIRE LEVERS NOWNOWNOWNOW!

Buy a nice set of Park Tools levers. They're blue, they say Park Tools on the side, and often sold in 3-packs. Less than $4 for the set. For tough tires, you will often need three tire levers.

I find that for tough tires, I need to use all three levers, all at once, to get the bead over the endge of the rim. Follow MacG's instructions up to step 4, then do this:

5. Position a tire lever under the bead of the tire so that it is aligned with a spoke when pulled down. Place another lever about 1.5 to 2 inches on either side. With palms flat, and holding the wheel securely between your knees, push evenly on all three levers until the bead is pulled over the edge of the rim.

6. Lock the middle tire lever againast a spoke, and hold the other two in place. The locked lever prevents the tire from snapping back completely, if you lose your grip.

7. Alternate this pattern between the two other levers: Loosen, push, pry. Loosen the tension on the lever slightly, but not so much that the bead snaps back. Push it a few millimeters to unseat a bit more bead. Push down on the lever to pry off a bit more bead, and to make sure it doesn't snap back.

This can be a strenuous process, so be patient. It takes a bit of finesse and practice as well.

8. Once you have unseated about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bead, you will start to notice that it's getting easier. Eventually, you will be able to take one of the levers and run it all around the rest of the rim in one swift motion to unseat the rest of the bead.

9. Now that leaves the other half of the bead. It comes off in a similar way to the first half, only you only need two levers. First pull out the tube so it's out of the way. Then, place two tire levers inside the rim, under the bead, about half an inch apart. Lift up, catch the edge of the rim, and pull back. You should now be able to slowly move the levers apart, increasing the gap between them. This will unseat the other half of the bead. Again, after covering 1/4 to 1/3 of the circumference you will notice it gets much easier, and you can run a single lever around the whole way to get the rest off.

I hope that helps. If anyone has any questions, ask them here (not guaranteed to answer) or PM (guaranteed to answer).

Oh, and one last thing... BUY TIRE LEVERS!!!

HA! got those tire levers today and the tire slipped right off like buttah! which is more than i can say for the (now bent) butterknives I was trying to use.

thanks all for your help!

How well do those tire levers spread butter?

with metal tire levers, make sure that you don't hook the opposite side of the rim! One thing learnt from experience. usually doesn't happen w/ mtb, but it's a possibility with skinny road rims. bleh

Probably about as good as the knives do now