Help getting plus tyres off rims

Feeling a bit incompetent here. Taking the tyres off my new plus bike to try out some wider ones for clearance. At least I thought I was. I can’t get the stock tyres off for love nor money 😳

I’ve deflated them and unseated the bead where I can. I can get a tyre lever into the gap twixt rim and bead axially and push it inwards most of the way round (but not all the way round, it feels like it’s glued to the bloody rim in bits). There’s no chance I’m going to get a lever under the bead to lift it up and over the rim, it’s tight as a [insert your favourite risque simile here].

Is this a thing with plus tyres? Or wide rims? Tyres are WTB Trailblazer 27.5×2.8″ and the rims are 35mm WTB Scrapers. I’ve heard they go up tubeless well (never done tubeless before) and I can see why 😯

I can’t believe I’m having to ask this. I thought this would be a half hour job at most. I am a little hungover mind.

Edit: with the help of google, I found this thread: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cant-get-my-tyres-off Maybe should have done that before 😳

Emboldened by the collective experience of STW and with fingers limbered from typing the above, I managed to push it off. What the hell do you do when you get a puncture with at tube, or that tubeless sealant doesn’t seal? Say, in winter with numb fingers?

I don’t deflate the tyres completely so I can step onto the sidewall to get them unseated.
That always* does the job.

*Numb fingers crossed!

Emboldened by the collective experience of STW and with fingers limbered from typing the above, I managed to push it off. What the hell do you do when you get a puncture with at tube, or that tubeless sealant doesn’t seal? Say, in winter with numb fingers?

In that situation with tubeless you could use a anchovy kit. Though in 10 years of using tubeless, I can only think of 2, possibly 3 occasions where I had to take a tyre off and put a tube in (and that was only because I wasn’t carrying an anchovy).

Will try that on the front. Trying to get a tyre ON now. This seems equally, if not more difficult.

out of interest did you try standing on the tyre? Application of heel to casing usually breaks bead seals effectively in my experience…

Let’s be honest, it’s your technique that’s at fault. Scrapers are certainly a tightly fitting rim but I’ve changed a tube “in the field” and have more recently set them up tubeless using nothing more than a standard tyre lever and the toes of my shoes.

What rim tape are you using? Nice shiny WTB tubeless tape applied bead-to-bead will make life slightly easier.

I was going to but I found with a bit more force I could push the bead over enough on one side to get things loosened.

I think we’ve got the same bike and I had a hell of a time trying get the tyre off too! I found that with “normal” rims I just unseat the bead and run a tyre lever round the rim. With the WTB combo, the bed of the rim is a lot flatter profile, so it’s necessary to push the bead all the way to the middle to give the most slack. Definitely not fun on the trail, happily my buddy was there to help! I’ll be switching to tubeless soon mainly so I won’t have to do it again (as much).

Let’s be honest, it’s your technique that’s at fault.

Certainly. I’ve never seated a tyre this tight before so I don’t know the technique for it, hence asking for advice.

Just the stock rim tape. I’m not going to set them up tubeless til I’ve checked the tyres for clearance. Then I have some Gorilla tape. But I could put that on now if it would help get the tyre on.

The tubeless tape works well as a normal rim tape too and it definitely makes things easier. How shiny/smooth/thick is the Gorilla tape in comparison?

Definitely a bit smoother – worth a try since I’m planning to put it on anyway.

Well that didn’t seem to make much difference. Tried with two tyres now, 3.25″ Vee Trax and 3″ WTB Trail Boss and can’t get either of them on 😕