Pieman wrote:
Brand new Continental Grand Prix 5000, on stock wheels that came with my Tarmac. I literally tried for an hour and gave up before I threw my bike in the river lol.
I guy who is a mobile bike mechanic is coming to my house tomorrow to help me. That is embarrassing but unfortunately necessary.
Ouch - that really 'should' be readily changeable. Most folks here use GP5000s and they're not particularly difficult even when new and unstretched.
You likely have tried every 'normal' trick, but just in case, take advantage of using several tire levers to unseat the tire. Pull off the bead in one area, leave the lever in there, and use another to keep on moving around the rim.
Also, be sure you're not unseating part of one side and then working on unseating the opposite side. That will create too much stretching to work with. Make sure the tire side opposite the one you are removing is FULLY seated (you may have worked part of it out accidentally and then switched sides, not realizing it. This has happened to me on the road.)
The unfortunate part is that the tire REMOVAL is usually the (far) easier part of it. MOUNTING the tire is when the real trouble begins! =(
But good on you to have the bike guy coming over. He'll give you all you need to know - whether you just had an unfortunately hard tire combo, or if you were overlooking something. After that you can practice the heck out of it. Don't worry - you'll get it for sure.