Just an update- I’m still trying to get them on. I think I’ll go into a bike shop tomorrow.
Things I’ve learned so far:
-Plastic tire levers are weak and break. Wear safety glasses when doing this!
-Continental with Fulcrum is an evil combination
-Apparently I should try some thinner plastic rim tape rather than the cloth stuff I’m using so that the bead beds in deeper- worth a shot?
Been trying the ‘twist and massage’ tyre technique. Hasn’t worked yet. They say this method should mean you don’t need tyre levers at all.
Thinner rim tape will help to get the tyre on, because the bead isn’t seated at this stage. But I’d never swap my rim tape to facilitate tyre installation. If you can’t get it on with a shop lever (and perhaps a bit of detergent as lubrication) then you have the wrong tyre size.
Just to wrap the thread up, this is what I ended up doing:
Replaced cloth rim tape with Fulcrum supplied plastic variant. This helped.
Ditched the Continental’s for Schwalbe 25’s- OMG so much better.
Could now mount the tyres without the need for any tools, yeah! Tight, but not ridiculous.
Tried using the Crank Bros Speed lever, but have decided it’s a complete gimmick for girls with no strength… :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Okay, it’s not useless, but I’m scared it’s going to snap
cool, but I still have no understanding of why using a different rim tape would make any difference to ease of tyre-fitting. It just doesn’t seem like it would make any difference at all.
Not a big difference, but enough to make mounting the original Continentals just a tad easier. I believe the plastic rim tape is slightly narrower than the Zefal cloth, hence the effect around the bead area…
