Just ruined my second tyre within a year :-(

[Sharky]

Practice, practice.... Practice

If you're not getting enough punctures out on the road to give you experience, try multiple times at home, preferably with an old spare rim.

Loads of advice already given and all that I can add is...
I use 3 metal tyre levers. These are stronger than the plastic ones, yet slimmer so they can get under the tyre bead more easily.

Get the three levers under the bead about 3" or less apart. Use your fore arm on the first two and your other hand on the third. Apply force on all three evenly.

To get a tyre back on, always try without levers initially. Wearing gloves can make it easier on the hands. Only as a very last resort, do I use tyre levers. But must confess that I have with some of the latest rims and tyres.

Good luck for the next time.

 

[Jameshow]

Are they tubeless ready tyres and rims? If so that van be a pain just like the triban bikes.

Perhaps get a set I'd larger tyre levers banded to your pump?

 

[Ajax Bay]

Perhaps get a set I'd larger tyre levers banded to your pump?

 

[richardfm]

I have a tool like this
https://cyclepal.co.uk/products/cyc...ting-tool?variant=41724334768291&currency=GBP

It's a great help for difficult tyres

 

[ColinJ]

Also try standing on the tyre (wheel flat on floor; the bit where the bead is still a chord) and lever the wheel down.

I tried that with some tyres a few months ago - it worked!

I wore a MTB cycling shoe which has a very stiff, knobbly sole that gripped the tyre really well.

 

[amasidlover]

I notice you say it was a Boardmann - I've been changing tyres on bikes for more than 30 years now. I bought my son a second hand Boardmann with Vittoria tyres on (don't remember the model) and they were the second worst tyre/rim combination I've ever dealt with (the worst involved a Marathon Plus that had, ironically, punctured after 200 miles).

I ended up binning the tyres and putting a more forgiving tyre on it as my son wouldn't have stood a chance of fixing a roadside puncture with the original rim/tryre combination. I suspect its the rim that's probably more to blame as the Marathon Winters that we use in winter weren't exactly easy to get on and off either...

So lots of good tips above, but be aware that it can also just be worth reading tyre reviews and looking for ones that most people report are easy to fit.

 

[silva]

I learnt it with a Marathon Plus by struggling, trying this trying that and the "tricks" I learnt that way were=
- Put a little air in the inner tube, helps to move it into position, that is, nowhere stuck between rim and outer.
- When into position, push the outer tyre at the opposite side of the valve inside the rim, then push it gradually in both directions simultaneously inside the rim towards the valve, until it gets too hard.
- Open the valve again, push ALL air out.
- Check if the outer tyres' edges sit in the deepest valley of the rim, by pushing the sides towards eachother over the circumference.
- Push the outer tyre further inside the rim until it gets too hard, which normally leaves 10 cm around the valve to do.
- Put the wheel flat and firm on the ground or against a wall, with the valve upwards and try again.
- If still no success, it means some air is still in it, or the outer tyre got away from the deepest valley of the rim, so redo above, then try another time.
- If still no success, and you're sure the used parts fit eachother, take a break, eat something, watch the Simpsons or do a nap. Then try again. If even then no success means it's time to admit defeat, move on, let the job do by some1 else, and pay happily. But watch it, maybe the guy knows something you don't, or has a tool you don't have.
I once had a puncture with a Marathon Plus where the outer tyre was ruined so bad that it needed replacement too. Without hesitating or first trying something else, the dealer took something that looked like a shoe puller halve a meter long and put it off and back on in a single sequence. I was like WTF. Didn't find such a shoe puller yet, because they all have a flexible joint between stick and oval plate, so what he used must have been some dedicated tool, or maybe welded together himself.

Since I now ride with 62 mm tyres, the super-moto-x, tyre replacements became MUCH easier. In fact so easy that I struggle more with keeping the tyres within the rim than pushing it in.

 

[silva]

(the worst involved a Marathon Plus that had, ironically, punctured after 200 miles).

I have had 15 years good experience with Marathon Plus, every year or so 1 puncture which I consider reasonable, replacement due to wear about every 2 year.
But in some year (2017?), the Marathon Plus was changed, with as most notable change the green compound that acts as puncture protection, became a blue compound, and they sold it (in Belgium) as "onplatbaar", a non existing word in the dictionary but suggesting impossible to puncture. I got 3 punctures during the first 3 months, one being that one I talked about in previous post, the outer tyre got ruined, due to a quite big stone (15 mm!) with sharp edges that somehow sticked in that blue compound, I never had that with the green.
I then acquired a new and my current bike with other tyre specs so the Marathon Plus usage ceased with it.
Still, had some weeks where my current bike was out of usage and used my older with Marathon Plus, guess what, I again got a puncture, that time by a nail, also kept sticking in that blue compound, but more at the side instead of the centre, a small leak, it took 10 km to feel something was wrong. When I saw the nail I got the answer.
So that blue compound, based on this maybe little experience, for me it didn't look like an improvement.

 

[PaulSB]

Buy a Crank Brothers tyre lever. A revelation.

 

[the snail]

Buy a Crank Brothers tyre lever. A revelation.

I don't know why you'd need levers to fit a tyre, can't remember last time I needed levers to fit a tyre?

 

[ColinJ]

I don't know why you'd need levers to fit a tyre, can't remember last time I needed levers to fit a tyre?

As discussed in another thread recently - it depends on the tyre/rim combination. I have had some tyres that I could take off/put on certain rims with just my right thumb and forefinger. Others have been a complete nightmare with full strength, both thumbs, all fingers and 2 or 3 tyre levers!

 

[bikingdad90]

Sounds like a tubeless rim with a metal bead, most tubeless tyres are Kevlar and folding.

I’m going to drop tyreglider as the solution here! https://tyreglider.co.uk/

 

[youngoldbloke]

I always start at the valve, finish fitting the second bead opposite, thumbs only when refitting, stretching the tyre into the well as I go and going back and repeating the process until the bead finally pops back over the rim. Let most of the air out of the tube after the initial placing inside the tyre.

 

[DRM]

As discussed in another thread recently - it depends on the tyre/rim combination. I have had some tyres that I could take off/put on certain rims with just my right thumb and forefinger. Others have been a complete nightmare with full strength, both thumbs, all fingers and 2 or 3 tyre levers!

This ^^^^ A good example being a Continental GP5000 on to a Fulcrum Disc Wheel, enough to make a saint swear, actually caused blisters on my thumbs despite smearing washing up liquid on the rim to help ease the tyre on

 

[PaulSB]

I don't know why you'd need levers to fit a tyre, can't remember last time I needed levers to fit a tyre?

I don't generally need levers to fit a tubed tyre. I've only fitted one tubeless and found that a struggle so can't comment on those.

If you read the thread, which you don't appear to have done, the OP is struggling to fit tyres. The Crank Brothers lever makes the job very easy so I thought I'd let him know about it.