Dismounting Stubborn Tires from Rims

[Prairie Dog]

I recently swapped my tubed 45nrth studded tires on my fat bike over to a set of 3.8” Maxxis Minions and found the seal on the Wrathchilds to be too firmly seated to the wheel rims to be removed by hand strength alone. I also found it far more difficult with the much beefier 4.5” tires as they can be hard to obtain a grip on to. Something had to give and it wasn’t going to be me. I found a quicker and far easier method by supporting the sides of each wheel using pieces of 2 x 4s for max leverage and raised them far enough above to protect the rotors/cassette.

Standing on one side of the tire and with a firm hold on the other side of the wheel, it was simply a matter of applying enough downward pressure with my foot to release the tire from the inner rim’s grip.

The tight grip of the bead succumbs to the force applied by my foot


With the wheel placed back on the wood, stretching the remaining few inches of bead onto the rim with both hands was fairly straightforward.

This method for me worked like a charm and the other tires came off and were installed on the second rim even faster.

 

[PedalUma]

@Prairie Dog, Good stuff. Would you please post this useful information on the thread, 'Show Us A Tool'?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

With the wheel placed back on the wood, stretching the remaining few inches of bead onto the rim with both hands was fairly straightforward.

Unbelievable. The Maxxis tyre rubber had to be really soft!

 

[Prairie Dog]

@Prairie Dog, Good stuff. Would you please post this useful information on the thread, 'Show Us A Tool'?

Can do.

Unbelievable. The Maxxis tyre rubber had to be really soft!

Stefan, I found the Maxxis Minions were not so difficult to install and typically find mtb tires to be much easier to mount on to rims than road tires. Case in point, the Vitorio Rubino Pros on my road rims were a b*tch to mount and I needed a second hand and help from the Cush Core to seat the final few inches of bead onto the rim.

 

[Jason Knight]

A bit brute force. I usually just soften the rubber with the hot air gun from my soldering station. I would think a hair dryer might work too. You only need a little gap to then get a plastic pry tool in.

But then letting bike parts heat up to room temp -- or higher -- is pretty common practice for me when for two months of the year -9F overnight temps are the norm. It's amazing what just letting something warm up to around 80F can do.

Also, am I alone in noticing this seems a problem common to both painted and anodized rims, but not bare metal ones? Which is weird as you wouldn't expect anodized to be different from bare metal?

 

[PedalUma]

Laying the tires in the sun for a couple of hours can really help. Tubeless often come with kinks from being folded. A little heat give a couple of mm of expansion and more compliance.