TLR tyres are so tight ....help please

[gbs]

I have two newish wheelsets with TLR Pirelli 32mm tyres; one, Zero Racing, the other Cinturato. Between them I have ridden about 7,5000k without p*******ing in the last 18 months or so, Today I thought i would refresh my repair skills but found I could not take the tyres off the wheels. I accept that, at 83 years, I have lost some strength but I suspect that design has outstripped praticality. Tips, please. To clarify both wheelsets have tubes

 

[ktmbiker58]

Tubeless ready tyres tend to be tight on the rims as they need to seal sufficiently well to be inflated so it is often very difficult to push the bead away from the rim once they have been inflated and the bead seated, also some rims seem to have a very shallow well in the centre which makes it hard work to get the bead off the rim. It is just a matter of strength and good quality tyre levers!

 

[Ian H]

Tubes will make fitting tubeless tyres a lot more difficult. The thicker beads mean they don't drop into the well of the rim so easily.

 

[HLaB]

Set them up tubeless then you can use tyre levers with no tube to pinch. Failing that keep working round, even with my week fingers Ive never had a tyre which after a few rotations failed to go over the rim.

 

[Sharky]

I've been successful with some tight fitting tyres ...

Using three slender alloys tyre levers.
Working opposite to the valve, insert the first tyre lever, but not yet attempting to lever off.

Then insert the second tyre lever, no more than 1.5 ins apart, then insert the third, again, no more than 1.5 ins apart.

Then using hand and forearm, lever all three levers at the same time and hopefully the tyre comes off.

May work for you
Good luck

 

[Punkawallah]

Always good practice to keep up your ‘on the road’ repair skills. There is a proprietary tyre lever that claims to make removal easier - Tyre Glide or similar. I have no experience of it.
From the sound of it, if you want to use that tyre/wheel combination, it looks like you’ll just have to ‘hit the gym’ :-)

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Sometimes the issue is that the bead is still locked in place. Have you pushed the bead away from the rim all the way around on both sides before attempting to remove?

@Sharky has a good suggestion above which I've also used.

 

[fossyant]

Pedros or Decathlon's own 'coloured' tyre levers are just about the best I've used.

 

[cyberknight]

Set them up tubeless then you can use tyre levers with no tube to pinch. Failing that keep working round, even with my week fingers Ive never had a tyre which after a few rotations failed to go over the rim.

thats lucky , i once tried durano plus on my rims and it took a good 10 mins to get the tyre off the rim and no chance of getting it on without levers .

 

[Dogtrousers]

@Sharky 's 3 tyre lever method also doubles up as a fun game of "how far can I catapult a tyre lever?"

@cyberknight It's a funny old world. Before I went tubeless I used Durano Plus and on my rims they were super easy to fit without levers.

 

[ianrauk]

thats lucky , i once tried durano plus on my rims and it took a good 10 mins to get the tyre off the rim and no chance of getting it on without levers .

Just goes to show.. different strokes for different folks.
Getting Durano Plus on and off my rims (Kinlin XR) no problems.

 

[Punkawallah]

Just goes to show.. different strokes for different folks.
Getting Durano Plus on and off my rims (Kinlin XR) no problems.

Show off :-)

 

[HLaB]

thats lucky , i once tried durano plus on my rims and it took a good 10 mins to get the tyre off the rim and no chance of getting it on without levers .

Yeah I've never had a Durano Plus; the toughest I think Ive had, is a Marathon Plus. Of the tyres Ive had, Ive had a few that seemed like they'd never fit. But going away and making a cup of tea, before having a second go, has saw them pop on.

A bit OT, I went tubeless in 2017 with my TT disc and given the success of that I went tubeless on my road bike. It was a disaster at first until I realised it was the sealant; changed and gave it another go. I'm glad I did; the chemotherapy I had in 2019 completely wrecked my finger nerves and I don't think I had to change a tyre until last year when I forgot to top up the sealant in my winter bike's tyre. I got one with my summer bike this year too. Lol, that's me jinxed things now 😅

 

[Kbrook]

If the problem is pushing the bead off the rim initially, tyre levers don’t help as you can’t get them under the bead. I struggle myself with this on tubeless tyres, two options stand on the tyre and pull up on the spokes which rarely works for me or get a piece of wood but it against the edge of the rim and give it a whack. That always works.

 

[teeonethousand]

I have just changed both my tyres for 700x45 gravel king tubeless...would have been impossible to fit without plenty of soapy lube on both rim and tyre. Breaking the bead on the 700x35 coming off was pretty easy but , even with lube, the new ones took a lot of heave.