Tire and Tube Trouble

[DebW]

I'll pass on a few tricks to bare-handed tire installation. Mind you, it can still be painful. Follow Spokewench's advise about letting out any air in the tube and squeezing towards the middle. For that last bit, body position and proper leverage are important. What I do is squat and lay the wheel flat on my legs with the recalcitrant tire bit up and away from me. Then work the tire on with the middle of your thumbs, using both thumbs close together (thumb tips 1 inch apart) to work over a piece of tire and moving around the rim until the last bit is on.

This technique has never failed me except in the early 80s when narrow high pressure 700c clinchers first came out and were an extremely tight fit to the rim. Then I occasionally resorted to the VAR tire lever/installer (see http://www.sheldonbrown.com/var/pages/var0051.html item 425). This little gadget lifts rather than pries the tire on. Too bad it's no longer available (but I have 2 of them). You
can buy this:
http://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cg...&item_id=KS-TJ
but it's 9 inches long and you wouldn't want to carry it on the bike. But really, bare hands are always best and with good technique most any tire can be installed without tools.

[Kalidurga]

One of my (many) LBS's had a tire-changing demo earlier this summer. Like Deb, the tech recommended letting out most of the air so that the tube and tire are more pliable. Then, he put the side of the tire already mounted either on the ground or against his stomach right at the bend of the hips and pushed that side flat. Doing so created some slack around the tire. It wasn't much, but it was apparently enough to make it easier to work the unmounted side into place with his thumbs.

As women I think we are often discoureaged from doing mechanical things, and I don't think anyone should leave home without being able to change a flat and make at least minor emergency repairs.

I agree fully with that. I haven't tried the bare-handed tire changing trick yet, but now I'm gonna have to when I put my new tires on.

[Dogmama]

Another thought -

Tires that have a few miles on them are MUCH easier to mount than brand new tires. So, if you're out in the middle of nowhere & you need to replace a tube, you'll probably be OK. In the meantime, I really recommend that anybody who has tire-mount-phobia practice in their living room. With the back tire. You need to know how to move the gearing out of the way to get the tire off. You KNOW that when you need to change out a tire, it will be the back tire and it will be pouring rain...