I haven't seen a posting about this before. Refer if there is already one.
I don't do road but my mate is discovering the "joys" of puncturing and levering tight road tyres on and off rims. He's found that it's very easy to nip the tubes with the levers. To easy his pain:
1) Is there a foolproof technique of doing this.
2) Could I help him go "ghetto" tubeless? Does it work for roadies or are there insurmountable difficulties (i.e. more than with the mountain bike ghetto set ups I'm used to)?
Ta in advance to the hive mind.
Bump.
Well if no one knows... 😉
Take a trip over to the forum on www.road.cc
It's full of people with useful info on the darkside or have a look at Sheldon Brown, his site covers just about everything you wanted to know about cycling.
It doesn't work as the pressures in roadie tires are 3x what they are in MTB tires.
You can either go for a propper roadie tubeless setup (very espensive)
Stick some UST gunk in some light weight tubes, will weigh about the same as a normal tube (50g tube + 30g sealent) and be more resistant to thorns. Cheep and has been done for years, roadies used to put milk in their tubs, as it congealed it formed a seal arround the outside, so small punctures sealed. Unfortubnately big ones resulted in a face full of 3 month old warm milk.
Oh yes, JRA have a bit: http://www.justridingalong.com/content.php?pid=562
JRA say that normal road tyres will not stay on the rim at the higher pressures you expect to use. All I can think is that with a tube applying the pressure, the loading/friction on the bead is different and helping to keep it on.
Hutchinson make some carbon rimmed tyres that can do it. Bet they are expensive!
Tell your mate to run normal tubes as opposed to silly light weight ones, avoid riding right in the gutter where all the sharp nasty stuff collects and to actually watch where he rides. Works well for me.
OK, foolproof tips for "your mate" 😉 on making sure he doesn't nip the tubes when putting the tyres back on:
1. Follow twohats' advice. Oh, and make sure he's running the tyres at a high enough pressure.
2. Use decent tyre levers - my favourites are some old Kona ones I've had for years (though discovered yesterday that I've lost them... boo). Leave one bead of the tyre on the rim.
3. Pump up the tube so that it maintains its shape before putting on the rim. Err on the side of a little bit too much air, than too little. This step is essential..!
3. Put the vale through the hole, but don't put the lockring on.
4. Starting at the valve, gently push the tube up onto the rim. Work all the way round the tyre doing this.
5. Once the tube is seated on the rim, start gently pushing the remaining bead onto the rim. I start at the valve and work both sides evenly. Plenty of tyres won't need levers to finish off the last but (but a bit of a push), though some might need one lever to do the last bit.
6. Result - installed tyre without pinching the tube..!
🙂 🙂
Someone in our club has converted a set of ksyrium to tubeless, seems to work well.
Almost always with road tyres you won't need levers to take them off. If they're stubborn ones you might just, but you really shouldn't need levers to put em back on again.
There is a knack to it - make sure the bead of the tyre is deep in the middle of the rim where the circumference is slightly less, this gives you a bit of looseness so that you can get the last bit on easier.
There is a good video / set of instructions on how to take tyres on and off - I think on bikemagic or somewhere - called 'tool free tyre change' I think.
Oh yeah and always have a decent pump with a pressure gauge, and get em up to 100 at least.
Joe
Thanks