Been at it for an hour now, trying to get tyres off to set up timeless  the seal simply refuses to give up. My thumbs are wrecked! Tried forcing thin tyre levers in, soapy water. Done loads of tyre changes before. These ain’t coming off!

Stand on them.

Nope that didn’t work. Brand new bike fresh from Sonder.

It’s a wtb thing. Their entire range of tubeless compatible tires are a bollocks to get on and off.

It’s why ust never took off.

Park tl-5 will remove them

Like Brant says, I had exactly the same thing last week.

take the QR/axle out, lay the wheel flat on the floor, stand on the tyre with your feet at about 10 to 2 position,  ( like a duck as it was explained to me by the very helpful Neil at Sonder! ) grab hold of the far side of the rim and pull the wheel up towards you.

It does work but is still harder than any other tyre/rim combo I’ve ever done!

Good luck 👍🏻

As Trail_rat says – if you think getting them off is bad, wait til you try and seat the evil bastards tubeless.

They are a bugger to get on n off, but seat easily IME. On flows and WTB i29, popped up first time.

The only WTB tyres I’ve used recently are the Byways and they were lovely to fit, easy to set up tubeless and to remove. That was on some Superstar EX25 rims.

I tried to put some nanos on some cotic branded wheels once and ended up buying some love mud wheels which were tight but ok. I wouldn’t like to tr6 to get them off and back on in the wet, cold and dark somewhere deep in the woods though….

It’s a wtb thing. Their entire range of tubeless compatible tires are a bollocks to get on and off.

Yup. WTB Cross Boss on i23 rims – total **** to deal with

Clamp a pair of mole grips on the nobbly bits, then lever to one side.

I had same issue with that tyre and wheel combo. I wore tough gardening gloves to get it started.

It then took careful use of decent (Park) tyre levers to get it off the rim. The Sonder levers that came with the bike snapped pretty quickly.

Tubeless set up was easy, popped on straight away with track pump.

Yep, had more issues getting trail boss and vigilante on a set of mavics than just about any tyre ever in the history of ill fitting tyres. bastard things

Yeh, converted partners plus sized lovemud/wtb tyres a while back, took many many hours and a lot of swearing. Laying wheel on floor, standing on tyre and pulling spokes did work eventually but it was brutal. Tyres sat ok, only problem is I now have the fear of more committing routes as if she punctures and it doesn’t seal there’s no way it’s coming back off to get a tube back in. Especially as I was being frugal and used gorilla tape so bead isn’t sliding over that any time soon. Will probably end up getting a second 29er wheelset and keep the plus sized for trail centre stuff.

Still not off. Will try a pair of hard edged vibrant boots tomorrow.

Is it the combo or the tyre or the rim thats the issue, if you see what I mean?!!

The thought of putting a tube in in the middle of nowhere…. 😫

The thought of putting a tube in in the middle of nowhere….

My tactic is to ride for a bit with the tyre flat, that loosens the bugger off!

Used that combination and it was hard to manipulate at first, but not to the point of desperate measures. With such a big tyre it’s more like gripping a fistful and pushing the tyre off with your palms, rather than thumbs. Once that is done you then must get the tyre sitting in the centre of the channel of the rim to take it off – it will never shift if the opposite bead is at all stretched on the shoulder of the rim, but is easy if you use the channel.

Once you have it sorted it’s definitely a setup that merits taking a tubeless repair kit – be quicker to plug a hole from the outside than to get a tube in there.

They’re off!! Thumbnail separated from skin, much blood.

A pair of square edge vibram bike shoes and a flat piece off wood. Stand on the b@stard, praying you don’t damage the rim.

WTB, no thanks. Ordering some Bonties off Triton this morning….

WTB, no thanks. Ordering some Bonties off Triton this morning….

Ironically, years ago mind, the only tyres ever to have beaten me, Bonty mud tyres!

Bonty mud tyres

That’s odd….always found the Mud X the most willing tyre to play ball! on Easton, Shimano and Stans Rims.

My WTB Trailblazer 2.8 was as baggy as a wizards sleeve on a WTB i35 rim though. Had to put a tube in to seal one side. That created enough interface to get the rest up with a track pump. After a lot of swearing and sweating.

Their entire range of tubeless compatible tires are a bollocks to get on and off

The (admittedly few) I’ve had have been fine on their own rims- seat just nicely and come off with some effort but not too much. On the other hand I thought I was going to have to cut a nano off an american classic rim- Stans bsd plus a retaining ridge made it a very tight fit.

I’m now fully up to speed with what a pain in the @rse tyres can be, thanks to the power of Google.

Love the developments going on with MTB technology, smart shocks, droppers that work, frames that don’t snap (often), BUT, we have to stand on our tyres to get the buggers off!!!!

I’ve a set of Riddlers (37c) on my single speed. They are on some cheap wheels from On-One, Italian name, can’t remember, Guiseppe or similar. Anyway, a bit of a pain to get on. Using Gorilla tape. The front one seated and inflated with the track pump first time, the rear took about two hours to get to seal and wouldn’t hold air for ages.

The other week I wanted to use the bike but the rear tyre was flat and wouldn’t inflate whatever. Removed tyre (with fingers!) and saw I needed to retape. Tyre went back on easy, again with finger, inflated and has stayed up ever since.