Fit ANY Difficult Bike Tyre With This Easy Trick!

Some bicycle tyres never seem to want to fit on the wheel rim, no matter how hard you try. It can be so frustrating, but Alex is here to help with a simple solution which will enable you to fit any tricky bike tyre with minimum hassle. With tyre levers, some lubrication and correct technique, all that tyre stress will be gone in no time!

0:00 Intro
0:52 Main causes of difficulty
2:08 Positioning tyre bead
3:03 Tyre levers
3:59 Lubricate difficult section
6:40 Use lever to sit tyre
7:55 Check & inflate tyre
8:43 Summary

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Do you have any other tips and techniques of your own for fitting new tyres? 😎 Let us know in the comments below! 💬

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[gcntech]

Do you have any other tips and techniques of your own for fitting new tyres? 😎

[ILYWAMBFH]

Tire Glider tool. One of my best ever bike related purchases. Worth every penny.

[markanderson]

Solid advice. But there's one more he missed that saved me from chucking the wheel through a closed window. As I was cursing and sputtering trying to get a tire on that fit alright before (three years ago, haha), I looked online for solutions, and the one that worked was using the palm of your hand to push the tire up on the rim. Fingers weren't working, the palm of my hand did.

[MikkelZanio]

Alex.. thank you! Spend hours going back and forth trying to seat a new Pirelli P zero with sore thumbs and hands. Used your tip and it worked like a charm!

[joejoejoejoejoejoe]

I like to give the wheel a spin during inflation to make sure that the bead is perfectly seated. I've pinched and innertube a few times with a tyre leaver trying to get it on. I like to put the writing on the tyre near the valve, this makes it easier to find the valve, and helps finding punctures.

[melainekerfaou]

The explanation at 2'48 about making sure the tire bead sits at the bottom of the rim well (instead of already seated) while trying to force the last piece of tire up around the rim in the other side is exactly what I needed on Friday :)
I ended up discovering this by myself but it took a definite amount of frustration.

[rosshole]

Excellent vid!
If using a tube; before inflating, push the valve thru the rim hole, to free-up/separate tube from the tire bead.
(Tube can often get stuck/wedged under the rim bead, especially near the valve)

*PARTIALLY inflate tire, then check that tire bead is properly seated in the rim. ...a COUPLE times during inflation, even better. 👍

[ewu]

Great tips. I just managed to easily install a 650 road tire on my 29 mtb wheel, over my existing 2.25" tire. amazing!

[TiagoMorbusSa]

Great video.
Funny that you use the Pzeros, because they are about the easiest tires I've had the pleasure of putting on myself :P Don't ever carry a tire lever with me because they're so easy.

[alan.mroczek]

I have a tip to buy something called a tire clamp tool/removal clamp/tire pliers (it looks scissors-like). It’s cheap, and I was able to install a tubeless tire that’s known for being tough to fit (at one point I thought that there is something wrong with tire/wheel combination and it’s impossible to fit) which previously has left me with three broken tire levers.

[daviddavidson]

Thanks bro. Always had trouble fitting new road/summer tires that are thinner and tighter than mtb tires. Soapy water definitely seemed to help.

[petejones]

Excellent! another good tip is to use a broad tie wrap, preferably a re-usable one instead of your thumb, it works great.

[grahammartin]

Great Tips, I find Schwab’s One Plus difficult to fit but I must say are really durable.

[dawnlupton]

Thank you, wetting it with a soapy solution did the trickle

[benjeays]

Some good tips in here for the amateur - thank you

[NoticePerception]

Worked! With the soapy water and starting at valve. Maxxis on bontrager 29.

[ArdGeal-hc]

Find the right rim/tyre combo and stick with it...I had Vittoria Rubino Pro TLR on my DT Swiss P1800 rims, total pig to fit, get seated and remove. This year went for Hutchinson Storm Fusion 5 Performance 11 TLR and put them on with ease by hand...blew up and seated far easier with a track pump, and with Orange sealant hold the air far far better than the

[mikefisher]

I normally put the name of the tyre at the valve too to help find punctures when required

[NRajah]

Using the channel to compensate for the difference in wheel and tyre circumference definitely works. But don't be surprised when you inflate the tyre and it pops in to place.

[frozerekmeyata]

That was an easy tire to put on, so easy you didn't really need the lube.

Tire levers do need to be strong, I had steel core plastic levers but after a while they crack and chip off the steel leaving the steel exposed, Pedros levers are too thick for road tires, so I now use Lezyne Power XL levers, they work great. But when you run into extremely tough tires I resort to the Kool Stop Tire Bead Jack to tackle the hard part..

I ran into a tire where it was so tough it broke my Soma Steel Core levers and a Pedros lever even after lubing, then as I was trying to put on one section the bead would come off on the opposite side that was on the rim that I was trying to hold on with my hand to no avail. So to keep that bead from slipping off the rim. I used two 1/4 inch wide reuseable zip ties, a small screw driver, and a pair of pliers. I put one zip tie on right were the bead starts to come off the rim, cinch that down tight which will smash the tire flat to the rim by using the pliers to pull the tie, then about a half inch from that first tie and were the tire is actually on in the rim, I put the second zip tie and pull it as tight as I can. Now I can work on the other bead with the Kool Jack without that bead coming off. Once the bead is on, simply use a small screwdriver to release the tab so the zip ties will loosen, save them for another tire.