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Spent 2 hours yesterday wrestling some bonty jones xr tyres onto race lite wheels, eventually got them on after two snapped tyre levers and recruiting my biggest mate to help me griz them into place.
Rear tyre seated nicely straight away, front one will not sit nicely in the rim, even after repeatedly letting tyre down, re-inflating to 1,000 psi, lubing, swearing etc etc.
Any tips?
very soapy water on the bead.
2 hours to get tyres on!!!
My tip: Once you've got them mounted, don't ride anywhere stoney. You'll be swearing even more when they explode.
I think it's the rims, rather than the tyres.
A mate of mine recently bought some Bontrager 'tubeless ready' wheels (I think they are the Race Lite XXX) & he got a puncture at Cwm Carn. It took us 25 mins to change the tube.
get a real man to fit your tyres in future 😉 joke!!
fit 'em with tubes the night before - it helps stretch the bead and generally makes inflating a tubeless ready/ust tyre a bit easier
then remove the inner and inflate with soapy beads and wheel milk
Read the Bontrager instructions! I had same experience because I just went ahead and tried fitting. I find my Mud X go on easily while my Jones ACX can be a bit of a pain. My Mud X only need to be over pressured to about 50psi for the beads to snap into place, ACX can need 70-80psi. If you run them tubeless the performance advantage makes the pain of fitting worth it. 😀
PS Soma metal tyre levers help a lot.
FWIW i can get my Jones ACX tyres onto the rim by hand.
FWIW i can get my Jones ACX tyres onto the rim by hand.
What rims? Are your fingernails still attached??!!
Puncture with Jones XR tyres on Bonty Rhythm wheels other night. Off, replaced tube, back on and seated without any bother, reseated at just under 30 psi according to my pumps gauge. No soapy water but plenty of plain water to help lubricate.
Guess some rims/tyres don't get on, after my experience if I had your problems I would be posting "****in' race lite wheels"
Not that that helps you much 🙂
Trying to coax them onto the bead by hand at a lower pressure used to work with Conti Gravities, eventually.
my ACXs and MudXs go on by hand - onto Stans Flow rims. They need more encouragement to remove though - due to the bead 'snapping' into place and being stuck on with sealant.
I got hora to fit mine, he's so manly he trims steerer tubes by biting the excess off with his teeth.
how wierd i fitted some bonty xr tlr tyres on open pro rims the other day and didnt even use tyre levers
a mate of mine has some bontrager rims & tyres on a hybrid - they are bastards to get on or off
ACX + DT5.1 = hernia
ACX + FLOW = easy peasy
I found the trick with these tyres on "bad" rims was to make sure bead is pushed into the well of the rim which gives a bit more slack on the opposite side. I agree with the inner tube trick. You may have misshaped the bead forcing it on with the lever. Try letting it sit all night with a tube in. This helps push the bead into the shape of the rim.
FWIW I tried fitting a Jones ACX onto an ordinary Mavic 719 rim last week with tube, and could not get the ****er over the rim. Gave up after snapping two levers and making an utter mess of the tube.
Got some Stan's Flows rims coming (arrived today!), will try with that.
all 3 sets of my bontys go onto my crossmax no bother...You boys with your 'cheap' wheels....tsk
It's all about technique not brute force - grasshopper 😉
Anyway, top tip
Soak the tyres in hot soapy water for 10 mins or so before fitting
awh - 717's
Using plenty of washing-up liquid around the bead helps it to slip over the rim and also seat the bead into the rim. They can be a bugger to get on sometimes, especially if they're a bit dry. I have Bontys on three bikes, two with old Mavic X3.1 UST's, and one with Racelite's. 'cos both are rather narrow rims that makes fitting them more of a phaff. Wider Rythms or Dusters are on the cards when I've got the cash.
Those 'tubeless ready' tyres are rubbish! If you use them with tubes you've got all the disadvantages of a very very difficult to mount/unmount tyre.
If you use them without, the sidewalls are so flimsy they just squirm about all over the place and feel horrible.
They're light though, which i guess is why they come on new bikes.
Thanks all, the usual mix of useful info and useless but amusing stuff!
orange and awh - I am a real man, hence did not see requirement to read instructions - no real men do that. I'd much rather lose my rag and throw expensive parts at the garage wall!
tracker1972 - my mate had similar scenario with rhythm/jones xr, very easy to change, "bonty" have obviously sorted their stupid rim profile.
Horatio - you may well be correct, damn you!
Bontragers do exactly what they say on the tin! (tyre wall)
My Jones DryX... touch a drop of water and are s***e... slip all over the place.
Easy to fit on over my 717s though