Tyre inserts – any trick to getting the tyre on?

Hi
I’ve just sworn a lot, nearly thrown my wheel over the fence in anger and snapped 4 tyre levers. Any tips for getting tyres on with an insert? What do they do in bike shops? Rims are carbon so don’t want to use metal levers
I’ve trimmed the edges off the insert as it was for 2.6-3.0 tyres (mine are 2.6) but that hasn’t made a huge difference. Trim more off?
I’ve given up for now

Watch the cushcore vid on YouTube.
Follow the instructions. Don’t try to rush it or do anything different.
Depending on the tyre and rim combo, it might well still be a pain in the bum, but you’ll get there.

Pedro’s always pedro’s for tyre levers & if you snapping those, you fitting the tyre wrong. It’s all about getting the tyre positioned in the right place, to allow enough slack to install it. WTB tyres did always seem to be the worst to fit though, insert of not. Anyways heating the tyre (dip it in a bucket of hot water), so it’s more flexible helped me enormously.

Get tyre on the rim without the insert, then take one side off to insert the insert afterwards. Take your time with lots of little pushes of the tyre into the middle of the rim. I run the 2.3-26 rimpack in a 2.6 tyre which worked very well when inserting, on the 2.3 tyre beforehand it was a pain to get in and even bigger pain to remove

It’s absolutely nails but not impossible. Here’s the stuff that worked for me:

Warm the tire by keeping it in the house near a radiator for a few hours. Seemed to make it more pliable/compliant.

Get one side of the tire on and make sure the bead sits in the middle of the rim.

Start away from the valve and you can sort of nip the tire together from both sides, so both sit in the middle of the rim.

Start working your way around with both hands, a little at a time, pushing the remaining tire bead inside the rim with your thumbs.

You’ll eventually get to a point where you can’t push it any further and it looks impossible. Here I use a decent tire lever (quite narrow though, I actually find the pedros too wide) and slowly try to edge one side on, whilst holding the other side with your free thumb (otherwise that side will just pop out as you move the lever round). The key here is little at a time.

Be patient,you’ll eventually get to a point with about 2-3 inches left. This is where you need to get aggressive and use the lever right in the middle of the remaining bead. It’ll take a lot of force and you’ll feel like the lever might snap, but it’ll go.

Finally, be patient! Everytime I’ve done it,it’s been a proper ballache. Took me 40 mins last time.

Good luck. I agree with the post above, WTB are a nightmare.

If you haven’t already push the tyre under the insert into the well of the rim as much as you can then get soapy water on the last bit to help in slide onto the rim. Hopefully that helps. I sometimes zip tie one side of the remaining tyre that isn’t on the rim to stop it further coming off the rim as you get the other side on.

It very much depends on rim / tyre combos.
Just put some maxxis onto some deemax rims. Strangely the dh casing tyre went on nice and easy. The double down was a different story.

Sooo, the above is almost right, but is missing a key bit that will make your life way easier. Grab a big handful of tyre and fold it away from you, then push the bead in. See video below. I would also recommend putting your sealant in with a syringe.

The following video changed my life and now no insert/tyre combination presents any difficulty. Before, it was the stuff of nightmares.

I don’t bother with heating things, or soapy water, or mega tyre levers etc and it’s really not difficult. I can do a set in about 20-30 mins.

Good luck!

SOAP.

@militantmandy – I initially dismissed your advice because I thought you were advocating the brute force approach of trying to bend the bead back and hope it pops on. I’ve tried this and it’s totally futile.

Then i watched the vid – this makes total sense, never thought of that folding technique before. Thanks! Every day’s a school day.

OP – watch that vid and give the technique a whirl. If effective, it’ll be far easier than any of the advice already here (including mine).

100% The brute force way just isn’t really a goer. Took me several tyre levers and much swearing to realise that!

Don’t suppose you’ve got any magic tricks for removing a tire with inserts then? I’ve always found that harder. I had to cut my last tire off. Not a problem if it worn, but not ideal if you want to reuse the tire!

Yes! I have also cut off a tyre for this reason. Get a bucket/bin, something round that is closeish to the size of the wheel. Set the wheel on said bucket, then hands at 3 and 9 and use your weight / strength to force the bead off the rim. Can still be hard sometimes as they get really stuck on there, but this has nearly always worked for me. If this is not happening, try closing the tyre in a door (between hinge and frame) and then levering the wheel. This is a bit scary though and I take no responsibility for any wheels calamities! I have used this on occasion though and it seems to work.

Iron thumbs.

Cheers, I’ve tried standing on the tire and pulling it back too, with moderate success. Not ideal in the middle of the fells in winter! Suppose it’s the price you have to pay for the benefits of tire inserts, which I still think are worth it.

Get the cushcore tyre lever, expensive but makes a massive difference when fitting the tyre with an insert. It saves your hands when pushing the bead under the insert, normal tyre levers don’t lend themselves well to this method.

+1 for the Cushcore lever.
I went from 3 levers flying everywhere to just the one.

I’d second what MilitantMandy said, keeping the tyre off the bead as you go round is the only way to get them on without swearing or breaking levers!
I use an old car tyre to rest the bike wheel on so you can push down easier to roll the tyre, no need for levers, thumbs can ache a bit a simple process to do.

I use the Rimpact inserts

This thread came at a perfect time. Last week I put multiple holes in a (thankfully old) ground control trying to get it on with nukeproof inserts. Today I followed the video above and every time I started getting frustrated, just went back around the rim shoving the bead to the middle and eventually got a 2.4 ardent onto Dt ex511 without even using tyre levers. Think that my climbing crimp strength came in handy though! (what’s left after lockdown, at least)