Right, recently got me a set of mavic crossmax sl wheels and they truly are great wheels, bombproof, light and look good to boot but i'm having real problems fitting tyres to the rims.

I only use kevlar or similar folding beaded tyres but this makes little or no difference. To make matters worse i had a puncture the other day that took me 35 mins to fix, 33 of that to get the tyre on and off.

My question is……….

The rims are ust compatable would i be better changing to ust tyres and are these of a looser fit than standard tyres? not too keen to run tubeless but i recall you can still use these with tubes if need be, is this correct?

Anyway any advice greatfully received?

Currently i have used the following tyres…….
* schwalbe racing ralph
* panaraver fire xc pro
* bonty jones

cheers

UST tyres will be a much tighter fit. I fitted some yesterday to my new Crossmax SX wheels – it took bloody ages and I broke a number of fingers.

You have to make sure that the side of the tyre you have put on is right in the middle of the rim all the way around. I have had Sl's in the past and SLR's now and never had any bother with them.

Whilst some tyres can be tight (as above UST will be more so), it's generally just about technique, go around the tyre passing it hand over hand and gathering the slack, that'll usually give you enough to pop it on easily.

Thanks for the input but i'm really not new to this, far from an idiot (well i think so anyway! 😆 )and have never experienced so much difficulty with such a normally simple task………its driving me mad. If i get a puncture in a race its game over! 😥

Being UST rims they are likely to be slight tighter, so proper technique is required, if you've always had looser rims you've probably just got away with it.

You're not going to have ended up with 2 rims which are freakishly oversized, and your variety of tyres suggests that it's not those either, so that leaves you, sorry!

You should run tubeless though, it's much better, even more so if you're not a serial tyre swapper!

AS they said above, you need to put the bead in the centre of the rim, i.e. the part with the smallest diameter. The rim tape is also a factor, if it's thick it will make it harder to put tyres on, so if you really struggle swap it for something thinner.

Using tubes can complicate that process slightly, as by putting the tyre in the middle of the rim you have less room to fit the tube. There shouldn't be any rim tape at all as it's a UST rim.

It's not you mate, I never had so much trouble fitting tyres as when I had a set of Crossmax SL.

I think it's the way they're quite deep but also very narrow, so you don't have much room to move the bead around in the rim bed. Had to give up on some tyres completely!

No useful advice though I'm afraid, sorry.

chakaping – thanks for the vote of confidence m8, i'm gonna see if i can get hold of some ust tyres, hopefully it'll make a difference! 🙄

i'm gonna see if i can get hold of some ust tyres

I suggest you get some UST valves and a bit of sealant as well.

be careful, I just tried to fit some tubeless Schwalbe Fat Alberts to my Crossmaxs and had to give up… tubeless tyres really seem to be tighter than "normal" ones!!