I appreciate most of the market has moved towards tubeless now, but I still run tubes and appreciate the ability to remove/fit a tyre trailside should the need arise (which it rarely does, hence still tubes)!

There seem to be a lot of horror stories out there right now about various tyres being difficult to fit/remove, and my own experience with some WTB TLR tyres means I won’t be buying any more WTB TLR, easy to get on rim but just wouldn’t seat no matter how long I left them sitting at 100psi.

I liked the look of the new slick gravelkings, but noticed lots of reviews talking about how hard they were to fit, which rang alarm bells.

I already own some fatter tyres (Vittorias and Kendas) which are easy to fit, but they’re all cheap heavy wire bead versions, so the choice seems to be cheap tyre – easy to fit, or posh tyre – total gamble?

OR, if you just tape the rim correctly (I have some new Pacenti rims with Pacenti rim tape) will most tyres pop on and off OK?

Ta

I’m running Gravel Kings. Absolutely no issues fitting them on Hunt rims.

What rims are you using? My WTB experience was that they were next to impossible to use with Stan’s rims (broken plastic tyre levers, cable ties, metal levers, the lot), but zero issue (no levers needed) with Hunts.

I always found my Schwable G-one speed (slicks basically) to be really easy to get on or off when out and about

Hmm, so perhaps more of a rim issue?

I’d heard good things about Pacentis and their customer service seems really good, will maybe ask them what their experiences are.

The WTBs were a nightmare on some Bontrager rims fwiw.

My buddies Schwalbes were a nightmare on some Fulcrum rims, a total battle to get on and off whilst repairing a puncture trailside.

WTB Byways on WTB KOM rims. Doddle. So I guess it’s more of a rim/tyre combo issue rather than just the tyre. Sorry, that’s not much help 😄

38c GravelKings went on my WTB i21 KOMs both tubes and tubeless with no bother at all 🙂

Sorry, that’s not much help

Well actually it did make me think, I might as well try my WTB Resolutes (currently flung in a heap in the corner of the garage) on the rims, if they go on OK then that’s a good indication other brands might go on easy!

Yeah I was gonna suggest Gravel Kings, I have the SK version which has a bit more tread but I still find them really fast rolling (tubeless). No problem fitting them or getting them to seat. (On non-tubeless specific Open Pro rims)

Gravel Kings and G-Ones no problems.

WTB Riddlers were a nightmare. I ended up getting them set up tubeless as they were a bugger to get on and off, as well as being puncture prone. Tubeless they’ve been great

No problems at all fitting Vittoria Terrano Zero 47mm tyres to my Hunt rims. Tubeless but I cant see how they would fit any different with tubes.?
They popped on a treat with minimul effort, then gave the satisfying ‘ping’ when inflating.
Esay to fit, large volume and slick, so they fit the requirement.

Medlow, part of a tyre being ‘tubeless ready’ is the bead construction. I think a lot of more modern tubeless ready tyres are exceptionally tight.

Obviously not necessary if you’re using tubes.

…oh but I liked the look of the Terrenos, good to hear not too tight!

I’ve got the 40mm Terrano’s on my CX bike. They’re as tight getting on and off the rim as any tyre, you can do it without tyre levers but need to use good technique (i.e. get it in the rim well and work back towards the valve otherwise you don’t stand a chance).

Seating tubeless was fine, although again they’re tight so it took quite a few psi to get them seated.

Seating with tubes might be harder as it always is. Just go tubeless.

Gravelkings easy for me too. Had my first puncture in 2 years at the weekend.

Seating with tubes might be harder as it always is. Just go tubeless.

Wait, what? I’d never heard about seating with tubes being more difficult than seating tubeless, since when was that a thing?

Gravel king over here too.

Wait, what? I’d never heard about seating with tubes being more difficult than seating tubeless, since when was that a thing?

If you have rims with a bit of an edge/shoulder to the central channel before the shoulder the beads supposed to seal against then the tube pins the bead against the bottom of the rim and it wont seat. Tends to be a rim problem rather than a tyre one.

Those terranos for example went up fine for me on a set of DT rims with tubes, but wouldn’t on Stans. But worked fine tubeless on both.

Ok, will hope for the best with tubes but properly taped rims, fancy some Terrano Drys I think.

I have a pair of Rene herse/compass Snoqualmie pass tyres in 700c that have 80 miles of road only use on them that I’m going to sell when I get round to posting them. Drop me a dm if interested. They’re really rapid on road sections, went up tubeless on some 30mm inner width rims easily (so I expect them to be very simple on anything narrower). Bought as I was planning to do some gravel events and I wanted something fast on the road for training as well as being fine on fireroads round us but an old leg/foot injury has called time on that plan.

I’ve found gravel kings to be very good tubeless on Kinlin rims (same rims on a hunt wheel). Found terrenos to be just as good but tighter to get on over the rim unless you’re very sure the bead is in the well.

@Gotama I could be interested in the compass tyres. Will dm

Terreno to a Mavic Open Pro UST is the tightest tyre/rim fit I’ve encountered so far, but with N=1, might not be generalizable. I’ve never had any trouble getting Gravel Kings on or off rims and I’ve had them with and without tubes in SK and slick flavours paires with WTB and Mavic rims.

Hmm… on a blue and silver frame, dare I?

Gotama, dropped you a PM.
Also interested in RH/Comp tyres if other chap isn’t.
Cheers