So after the debacle of a simple puncture repair last Friday (caused by my FSA Vision TEAM30 rims and what I assumed were tight continental tyres) I have tonight tried fitting some Planet X own brand tyres only to find them even worse!

Before anyone mentions it, my technique is fine thanks! Friday was the first time in years that I’ve even had to lay hands on a lever – the last time was on DT Swiss 520s of a friends…
There are plenty of other people that agree with me about the team30s.

Anyway, back to the story…
So, after fitting the tyres to a flow 29er to prove I’m not going daft (they slipped on without trying), I’ve spent the evening browsing various wheelsets to replace the FSA one.
Then I had a thought, assuming no-one in their right mind would pay good money for the wheelset once I’d replaced it – why not try and improve them anyway.

So, my thinking is either the well is not deep enough or the outer diameter of the rim is too large.
Looking at the rim, there is not a lot of alloy spare to increase the well depth but there is quite a large amount above the bead hook. If I spin the rim and machine down this edge, it will give a smaller diameter to stretch the tyre on to.

Is the wheel likely to spontaneously combust leaving me with a grim firey death, or is it likely to work? The wheels are actually pretty reasonable apart from needing a team car to follow you with a spare!

You do know that not all rims and tyres are compatible don’t you?

Yes, but when no tyres are compatible with the rims there is an issue!
I’m also looking at it from the point of view of removing a matt black rough surface finish from the edge, that certainly doesn’t help things slide.

Assuming they are your wheels

Assuming you have FREE access to machinery to grind/machine them down

Assuming you have the money to buy a new set IF it goes wrong

If the answer is yes to all of the above then why not go for it

P.s post your efforts especially if it all goes up in a ball of flames 😀

You do know that not all rims and tyres are compatible don’t you?

Only because of lax manufacturing tolerances, they bloody well should be!

BIN the FSA wheels. Mine are sat in a cupboard with conti sport tyres still on. Evil shitty things.

Plus they are bladed to HURT your hands.

When you say machine the rim down, what exactly are you proposing using?

njee20 – Member

You do know that not all rims and tyres are compatible don’t you?
Only because of lax manufacturing tolerances, they bloody well should be!

Fiven there is consistency among tyres and rims then it’s got to be about design/spec not consistency (or lack).

How much braking surface would you lose?

Yes, I meant inconsistent in an inter-tyre/rim sense, not intra-tyre/rim.

You obviously seem to know what you’re doing but just in case – the last set of tyres I went tubeless with were so tight that the use of a tyre lever was out of the question as there wasn’t the flex for the lever to pull the bead up and over. I had to MTFU and break my thumbs rolling them over.

Only because of lax manufacturing tolerances, they bloody well should be!

No. This is the best article explaining the differences.
(I wish I’d read it before I nearly killed myself putting a WTB tyre on a Flow rim)
http://www.bikerumor.com/2015/01/14/why-isnt-road-tubeless-popular-part-1-how-did-we-get-here/

Well half an hour slowly grinding away the outer edge of one side of the rim resulted in a slight improvement, but I’m still not particularly convinced…
Shimano RS61’s ordered instead!

In fairness I sort of expected that it wouldn’t make that much difference – the rims really need a deeper well, then the tyre would fly on.

Should anyone be interested, my technique ended up being flap disc on 4.5″ grinder and wheel with axle clamped in vice – grinding at approx 30-45 degrees from the line of the rim and steadying/braking the rims movement with my second hand. I removed about 0.4mm from the edge (this was an unmachined area), then redressed the edge created on the bead hook to prevent tyre damage.
Once shaped, I polished the edge with finer grades – it looks factory in fairness!

I might finish the job later (I reckon I could take another 0.2mm if I’m cheeky) and then fit a tyre and inflate to max. If they survive then I’ll resign them to the spares collection/fit a trainer tyre for the winter.

Success!
(Well sort of!)

Got “abitangrywithit” and lo and behold I can fit a conti ultrasport by hand, no tyre lever required.
Ok so it still needs a good lever technique to get off, but at least even a cheap crap lever will do it now!
So I now have a set of winter wheels!

Planet X tyres are still very tight though!

Some pictures of the results for you
Pre-polish, so plenty of grit marks…

Before (I’ve removed the black machined area right at the edge of the rim):

Ditch that rim tape.

I think I can get mine on by hand now.

Shwalbe tyre levers are great.

Vittoria radiales so not a loose tyre.

Really? I didn’t think it looked that thick with how it’s deformed into the spoke holes… What have you replaced yours with?

Well funnily enough i’m looking at it just now thinking it doesn’t look that thick!

I used yellow stans its still a bastard to get the tyre on and while i can do it without the levers the schwalbe levers will be what I use.

Latex tube with no damage yet and I’ve been practicing. Can have the tube changed in well under ten minutes which I’m pretty hapoy with as my only concern is being stuck in the arse end of nowhere.