Lever-free tire change (and gear issue)

[Kalidurga]

How on earth did you get the tire off without a lever?!?!

Check this out
http://www.teamestrogen.com/articles/asa_levers.asp

Yup, that's how I did it. I had read that article and a few others, and seen two demonstrations at LBS's. The other two times I've had to do a change, I used levers. After the conversation in Knotted's "Tire and Tube Trouble" thread the other day, though, I just had to try it lever-less. Though if I did massage for a living, I would probably stick with the levers. I had the beginnings of blisters on my thumbs last night (fine this morning, though). I'm betting that it'll be much easier when I do the front tire tonight.

If the wheel is centered between the brakes/seatstays and also between the chainstays near the bottom bracket and is pulled back as far as it goes into the dropout and the QR is tight enough, it should be good.

As near as I can tell, it is. I wasn't able to ride on it last night, so this was all on the stand. Let's see if I can describe it: As I move through the range of gears, the chain moves smoothly around the cogs and pulleys in every gear until I get to the largest cog. In that gear, the derailleur is almost right up against the cog (where it should be?), but there's one tooth of the cog that seems to push against the top pulley as it comes around its revolution. This causes a "skip" when I rotate the pedals that makes it sound as if it's between gears and wants to shift. Everything looks like it's lined up properly, aside from the fact that the derailleur's so close to the cog, so I can't tell what's out of whack. I'm going to take a spin around the parking lot this evening to see how it feels, then fiddle with it some more.