OK fitting NNs was hard work first time (tubed in my case) but I now have my first puncture. Really struggled to get tyre off yesterday, but something clicked and it happened. But puncture repair was not a success and so I need to do it again. Is morning, I can’t shift the tyre at all. I can get one tyre level in, but that’s it. I possible to get any traction with a second.

Any tips from LT NN users, please? I am wasting too much time.

Pass the tyre hand over hand gathering the slack in the bead, then pull it off. Don’t let go of it. You shouldn’t need a lever at all.

I use metal tyre levers and put two in at the same time to start and lever them very hard – it can/does mark your rims though

TBH you need judicious use of force rather than technique IME

EDIT: What he says helps as well as you can move the tyre around to some degree but he ust have a grip of steel

Must be a v tight rim / tyre combination. Hard to explain in text, but you want to get two levers in there right next to one another and lever tyre off – then lever it back into the rim at the same time as moving one of the levers a little bit away from the other. This motion allows you to get the levers separated and eventually to get enough of the tyre off to remove it.

Thanks guys, I will try again. JY, I did or at least tried that but the tyre is so tight that I can’t get second lever in. Worried about damaging the rims.

Ok, second attempt …..

It’s about technique more than strength. Not resorted to levers in years.

Me neither as a rule but it really depends on the rim/tyre combo

I had a continental on a 355 rim and that was never coming off by hand…iirc I even failed to get it on by hand and snapped a park tyre lever trying 😳

If you just stick a lever in there’s a good chance they’ll snap. 355s aren’t nearly as tight as Crests/Podiums.

poor technique and monkey hands

It’s about technique more than strength. Not resorted to levers in years.

I don’t believe you…

Push the tyre into the middle recess of the rim first, it’ll give you more slack to play with.

What rims? If you have Stans (and probably other TL rims too) you need to squeeze the bead down into the channel in the middle of the rim – all the way round. This reduces the effective diameter of the rim so makes it easier/possible to remove the tyre. Now I’ve got the hang of it I can get mine off easily with one plastic lever – I can do it without a lever at all but the lever makes it easier.

I don’t believe you…

Good for you. Doesn’t stop it being true. Tubeless, road, tubs. All by hand. Change a lot of tyres too.

Job done eventually. Combination of njee’s tyre manipulation and others’ lever technique. But what an effort. Changed my wife’s tyre while I was at it. Whole job done in less than 4-5 mins (nice easy Bontragers). Took more than than to put NNs off and then on. Bloody stiff bits of rubber IMO. As with most MTB things it’s live an learn. Glad I wasn’t out on the trail doing all that – the language would not have passed the swear filter.

In addition to tyred ( 😉 ) fingers, I am now sponsored by monster drinks. Flipped the bike back up and ran the front cogs straight down my thigh. 6 neat gashes now bleeding down my legs just like the monster drink logo. Apart from sailing, I can’t think of another sport that involves as many niggling injuries and pain inflictd by equipment as MTB,

Thanks for the advice.

You may recall my thread on similar issue, technique to avoid my problem was to “pinch” tyre into the centre of the rim all the way round before trying to put on last section. Also my upgraded tyre levers are much better, also a guy on holiday had metal ones which worked very well.

the new tubless ready schwalbes seem to be incredibly tight, had a total nightmare with rocket rons and nobby nics on crests yesterday. the older ones were much easier going.

Final thought…Topeak patches don’t work as well as Park Tools ones in my experience.

Deflate the tyre

As others are saying, you need to drop the bead of the tyre down into the central well of the rim, if it’s on the shoulder it’ll be too tight to get off.

the new tubless ready schwalbes seem to be incredibly tight, had a total nightmare with rocket rons and nobby nics on crests yesterday.

In contrast, I just got some new tubeless ready Schwalbes (Hans Dampfs), put them onto my Crests this weekend and it was easily the most painless tubeless tyre fitting I’ve ever experienced. It took about a minute to get them on each wheel without levers, straight from the box, so I didn’t need to leave them to sit with a tube in first, and they both went up straight off using just a track pump, without any sealant or anything (I put some in later though, obviously). It was genuinely quicker and simpler than using an inner tube, even. Marvellous.

Only problem is I keep wondering what’s going to go wrong to redress the karmic balance, running tubeless isn’t meant to be that easy…

The 2013 Schwalbes have allegedly gone back to being less stubborn, only a good thing IMO, the newest ones are a PITA!

Things must be improving. Removed my NNs with fingers today in about 1 minute!!!

Couldn’t find the puncture though 😳

Oh – always remove the bead at the valve first and replace it last. It’s easier to get the tyre full into the “well” if there’s no valve in the way.

Run a piece of tissue paper round the inside of the tyre. If there’s anything sticking through it, a little bit of the paper will tear off.

Nobby nics are the easiest tyres to remove from my experience, on 21mm wide rims, take them off and fit by hand,

superstar sell metal tyre levers with a plastic coating,work very well even on Hutchinson tyres which are a rite tw*t to remove/install.or get bonty tyres next time 😉

Big lever

Get a stab the tyre repair kit and dont take the tyre off for most repairs…