Our tri club’s new triathlete program is about to start up and that usually has a few people dusting off bikes or borrowing bikes in need of tires, and there’s occasionally that tire and rim combo that just won’t work together.
My own experience was that a continental gatorskin just would not go on a matrix wheel I had so I had to return the tire.
Any rims you own give you problems with tires, any rims which tires go onto like butter?
Same for tires.
Thank You
great thread idea-- something I was wanting to research too!
My Michelin Pro 2 Racers are super, super hard to get on and off my Fulcrum 5 rims. “Four-thumbs-and-3-tire-levers” type of hard to get off!
Easton Vista + Michelin PR3 = very tight fit.
I got the idea because I recommended pro race 2s to a friend and she had to return them because neither she nor her husband could get them on, both experienced cyclists.
My own experience was that a continental gatorskin just would not go on a matrix wheel I had so I had to return the tire.
Ironic, saw the subject line and immediately thought, “well, I don’t know the answer but my 6yr old can mount my Gatorskins by hand on any wheel.” I guess we haven’t tried a Matrix wheel:) Must be a QC thing.
I seem to remember Neuvations are easy to get tires on/off, including Michelin PR2/PR3’s.
Zipp 808s = impossible.
Well please clarify then,
What rims have you tried it on?
Was it a metal bead or kevlar bead? I think the gatorskins are only metal.
I have an old set of rims from an early 90s schwinn and any tire will go right on by hand. So I definitely think it can go either way with a given tire or rim.
My neuvations are a nightmare with new tires…and I’ve never had a problem with other wheels
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Dura-Ace 7801-SLs and any tire.
Read that the tubeless Hutchinsons were a beast, and it took my LBS owner at least 10 minutes to get my tubed Hutchinson on. I’ve read in other forums that the rims are generally difficult to mount any tire on. I absolutely love the wheels, and got a great price, but am dreading the day I ever flat one.
Sun rims run small. Not that you see them often. Matrix rims run large. If you want to run Conti’s on Matrix rims you must use the folding kind. If you run folding Conti’s on Sum rims, you will die. Michelin tires are also tight.
I question whether you can make generalizations like this. I have had tremendous problems getting a specific gatorskin tire on my easton rims before, but then that tire wears out and the next gatorskin is no big deal. And I’ve seen other people talking about how PR3s are so much tighter than PR2s but I haven’t had a problem with that personally. So maybe there is some variation between batches of tires or something.
Rims/Wheels running big/hard mounting
Campy/Fulcrum
zipp
Flashpoint
Easton
Reynolds carbon clincher
Gigantex carbon clincher
Specialized/Roval carbon clincher
Easy mount rims
Hed
Mavic
Shimano (on 7800 tubeless, make sure you center the bead to middle of the rim when mounting)
Tight tires
PR3s
medium tires
PR2s
conti GP/gatorskin/triathlon
Specialized
Loose
Vittoria
Most handmade clinchers
your results may vary
tp.
wheels: '08 Real Design Supersonic 60 AKA Flashpoint 60
tires: Conti Ultra race 23, Conti Attack/Force(22/24)
There is absolutely no way you are going to get a consistent answer here. As rim tooling wears, the rims get a tiny bit bigger and a tiny bit bigger until they run out of QC spec. The the dies on the rim extrusion machine are changed, and they are smaller again.
Same thing applies to tires, not every tire, even of the same model, is exactly the same diameter…especially handmade ones.
Also, in 18 years of riding road bikes, including 8 years working in a shop, I have yet to run across a single tire/rim combo that I could not mount. Some are really, really hard, but they all go on…and I have mounted thousands of tires.
Couldn’t it be possible that manufacturers have different tolerances on rim diameter or tire inner diameter? And that after a while and collecting a “bunch” of opinions a trend might emerge?
Well, technically the spec is the same, one of those industry standard things. The real difference is simply how long manufacturers allow the tooling to be in use for without replacing. In order to get a “trend” in the statistical sense, you are going to have to know what day the rim and tire were produced on, and what day the tooling was changed. So, basically, no, a trend should not emerge.
If a trend did emerge, it would probably be more of an indicator of who has higher QC tolerances, still, the results for any given tire/rim combo, would be completely unpredictable without knowing what number that tire/rim was off the tool.
Some of the combos mentioned in this thread as tight (Flashpoint/continental) I use, and can change with my bare hands with little effort. I am sure I just have a good rim and tire, and that the poster listing theirs as tight has one or the other, possibly both at the other end of the QC range.
Fortezza tri comps s mount easier.
Wire bead contis also mount easier than foldables . much easier and there are some good options with wire.
The worst mounting wheel was a zipp clincher. This may been remedied but it was clear that
a zipp clincher (2002 model) was molded a tubular and then the aluminum clincher rings were added.
They were too big and I ruined spoons regularly and rode 2 IM knowing that late in the bike i probibly
could not sucessfully fix a flat .
velocity deep V trainers mount OK.
My wife’s Zipp 303’s and Vittoria Diamante Pro. Changing a flat results in major blood loss from the knuckles.
As pointed out in other threads, using Veloplugs on the rim’s nipple holes (especially instead of cloth tape) will give you a little extra clearance to get the tight tires on and off.
BJ
Here’s my experiences. Continental makes some great tires, but generally speaking, they are hard to mount on a lot of wheels.
My everyday wheels are a set of old custom built 32 spoke Velocity AeroHeads clinchers. Michelin Pro Race 2’s and Vittoria EVO CX’s both went on/off these wheels very easily. The first time with new tires was a bit of work, but after that with the beads stretched just a little bit - no problem, almost on and off with no tire levers
Now I have found the new Michelin Pro Race 3’s to be a bit more of a struggle - the first time for sure and then also with subsequent changes. Had an on-the-road flat this summer and was a bit surprised that the Pro 3 was that hard to get off/on. It was not bad, just a bit more work than the Pro 2’s