Yesterday i got the spare Whyte / WTB wheel out for my lads new setup. Noticed his Trail Boss was getting pretty worn, so thought i’d grab a tyre out of the pile. Happened to be a Schwalbe Hans Dampf, non tubeless version. Kinda bought by mistake, but thought, i’ll see if it seals and we’ll go from there.

So i got it up and sealed first go, but about a gazillion holes in the sidewall, i don’t think there’s enough Stans in the world to seal it… So i think “ok, off it comes, i’ll grab another Trail Boss instead”

30 mins later I think i’ve broken my fingers and thumbs getting it off with no joy, still firmly embedded in the rim.

So i pull out the stanley knife, that’ll sort it. “Lets cut it off, sure i lose the tyre, but it’s sod all use to me anyway”

Little did i know how hard it is to get the wires out of the bead, to get soemthing in there to enable me to cut them…

I was pouring with sweat nearly 2 hours later when i finally completed it.. I almost threw the wheel in the garden and bought a new one !

Long narrow necked side cutters that would do it…

Mmmmm maybe, they get quite embedded in there and are remarkably tough them wires 1

Broke my thumb a few weeks ago fitting a Baron, not looking forward to taking it off.

I had an alloy car wheel that was leaking at the bead due to corrosion. The tyre was dead, so I thought ‘I’ll just cut the tyre off, clean up and repaint the wheel, then get a new tyre fitted. If you think a bike tyre was bad…! A Dremel with cutting disk tuned out to the best option, but it took a few disks.

Yeap I’ve cut one off I’m the past when I couldn’t break the bead. Have since learn a different technique. Wheel flat on floor and stand on tyre very close to the rim (barefoot). Not failed with this method yet. Also done it with stiff shoes on but Flexi skate shoes didn’t work.

I’ve had tyres that were SOOOO hard to fit and remove, I took a stanley knife to them to prevent me even ever considering putting them on again!
Had i used them, and gotten a puncture out on the trails, there’s no way i’d have been able to sort it!

Some tyres are just a nightmare!

DrP

Major issues trying to remove a rear Michelin enduro off a flow mk2 couple of weeks back. Bead was glued onto the rim then took ages to actually get the tyre off. Glad i never had issues out on the trail. Piece of piss putting it on and off the ex471 though.

In the early days of motorcycle tubeless tyres I was reduced to hack sawing a tyre off a wheel! Had to be very careful not to hack saw the rim

I used some very sharp snips to cut some Geax tubeless tyres off a few years ago. The b*stard things had tried to murder me on mildly moist rocks earlier so it was quite cathartic to make sure they’d never be used again!

Had the same thing on my Kona Explosif. And Schwalbe tyres. I’ve never had a good experience with Schwalbe, and having to hacksaw the tyre off was the absolute last straw. Also put me off the idea of tubeless for life, as there’s no way I’d’ve been able to fix a puncture out on the trail. I Will Never buy them again! Never had a problem with Maxxis or Michelin, though, with the latter occasionally on offer in Decathlon being a sweetener!

I had to cut a set of tioga somethingorothers off my carrera, but at least I could get them off the bead so it was fairly straightforward. If you’ve ever got one that you can’t shift off the beads, usually squishing it in a vice will do the job

Had this at work once. In a moment of rare genius I popped it in the vice, give it a squash and it popped the bead off. The came off as normal afterwards

Only tyre I’ve ever failed to get on was a Schwalbe Hans Dampf TR. A friend asked me to set them up tubeless for her and I had to admit defeat after fully an hour. I even broke out the “Holy tyre lever of Antioc” (big yellow Pedros DH tyre lever).

Used a High Roller instead and got it on and inflated in less than 5 minutes without levers. The Hans Dampf is still in my garage somewhere

I’ve used my feet in fivetens and a hairdryer after sweating my arse off for an hour just using my hands and levers on what seemed like mission impossible. Such a huge relief when that bead finally pops on or off.

Or rim flat on a block of wood, then place the cutting edge of a garden spade on the bead and jump onto it as if you wanted to stick it in the ground. Has broken most bicycle and motorbike tyre beads for me!

Stairs.
Put tyre on the edge of the stair and stand on it with one foot (wheel in the empty space beyond the stair).
Use the other foot to gently push the rim past the edge of the stair.
Grippy shoes and 100kg weight are an advantage.

Hans Dampf! Dear gods, I still have flashbacks to the tubeless fitting I did with one of them last year on my Stumpy. Got lulled into a false sense of security by the Spesh Butcher I did on the rear, then got hammered by the HD on the front. I think I had to borrow some different tyre levers to get it over the rim and, even then, getting it to seal to magic and a sacrifice.

I use the tool for pushing brake pads back, get it under the bead and them I use the grinder to cut the tyre off.

First thing I’d do if I won the lottery is find a bod to change my tyres for me!

Wheel flat on floor and stand on tyre very close to the rim (barefoot)
and push down the other side of the wheel. I’ve got very stubborn tyres off like this but also bent a rim, which means the tyre bead / rim interface was stronger than the rim. FFS.

How many layers of tape are you using to get the tyres so tight ??

Definitely not the only one – I’ve started a couple of thread before! Not for MTB tyres though – road/CX tubeless
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-know-how-to-get-roadcx-tubeless-tyres-off/

I’ve been meaning to experiment with C-clamps like this:

I think you’d need a different technique due to the sidewalls of an MTB tire being thinner. Maybe one clamp to pinch the sidewalls together, and then another one right next to the rim with something in-between the clamp and the tire to protect it and spread the load (plastic tire levers if they’d stay in place. Might need 5 hands 😉 ). There’s got to be a way to push the bead in using mechanical advantage rather than breaking thumbs or standing on the rim (which only seems to work on wide rims).

How many layers of tape are you using to get the tyres so tight ??

1 layer of gorilla tape, trimmed to the edges of sidewall with no overlap

Gorilla tape is 0.43mm stans is 0.15mm. Could be the difference if you get a tight tyre “big” rim combination.

Not bike tyres, but done it with old knackered car tyres.
Tip refused to take them. Fine I thought, cut the tyre off, steel wheel in the recycling, tyres in the bin.
Angle grinder out, safety specs on. What I hadn’t accounted for was the molten rubber spraying up my arm. Possibly obvious with hindsight…

I had to cut a tough WTB breakout off a wtb st rim.

I reckon a big part of the problem was gorilla tape being thicker but also more rubbery than standard tape. I also had an issue with a maxxis tyre, again with gorilla tape. They were the only two times.

I won’t use gorilla tape again.

WTB Reckon on an i40, tubed not tubeless. What a ba#%ard that was.
Put the tyre in a 3″ bench vise with the wheel vertically above. Tightened the vise as close to the rim as poss.
Levered the wheel slowly down till the bead broke. Tyre stayed in one piece as well.

I’ve got close ..nearly broke all my knuckles getting a stubborn schwabe marathon plus off…8 levers in and still hanging on..not tackled tubeless but these sodds had been on for 6 months..jesus it was clear why I don’t regularly take my tyres off..