northboundtrain

I now have a touring bike with 700c wheels, but my first tour a couple of years ago was on an old mountain bike, which is now a town trailer-towing rig. I put 26" Specialized Armadillos on the bike for that tour two years ago and have never flatted thankfully because I don't think I would have got the tires off the rims with my field repair kit.

Yesterday, I wanted to switch out the tires for some knobbies because we got several inches of snow the other night, and I decided to put "snow" tires on the bike. I don't think there's a plastic tire lever made that would pry those tires off the rims. I snapped one immediately, and had to resort to a long steel prybar. Even with that the tires were very troublesome to remove. It seems that the bead diameter is just a tad small. The rims are Sun Rhynolites. Both tires were equally difficult.

Just a heads up for anyone who uses or is considering using the Armadillos, and I'm curious if anyone has had similar issues, because I've thought of running them on my 700c touring wheels.

semperfi1970

This is a common thing with any brand tire or rim. I have a set of 1.5" Nimbus Armadillo tires on 26" Bontrager rims and I take them off with my bare hands. I have a set of Vittoria Randonneur cross tires on cr-18 sun rims that I use heavy steel levers to put on and take off. I have had Schwalbe and Continental tires with the same issue. Its not the tire its that tire and that rim combination. Good luck.

homebody146

i think that this involves practice...I had a new pair of armadilloes and couldn't for the life of me mount them on 700cc rims, even with tire levers--brought them back to the bike shop where I bought them and the mechanic mounted them both for me in less than 30 minutes using only his hands.....I thought I was doing exactly what he was doing but evidently, it just takes practice......

d_D

Sun Rhyno Lite rims are known to make tyre mounting/removal difficult. The section of the rim where the rim tape sits is a lot shallower than most rims. This prevents the bead sinking into the rim as far. So when you try to remove a tyre you have less slack bead to work with than normal.

DukeArcher 

Wowowow, you should try the Schwalbe marathon plus 700x28's. Christ almighty, wanted to choke ol Hans Schwalbe or myself after two hours at that!

zzzwillzzz

i had no problem with a 700 x 28 armadillo on my tandem rims, velocity deep Vs. iirc, i didn't even need tire levers. had no problem mounting the schwalbe marathon racers (700 x 30 front, 700 x 35 rear) either.

Paul Barnard

I guess the lesson here would be to practice dismounting and mounting the tires you plan on touring, on the rims you plan on touring, with the tools you'll have on tour! That's a great tip.

Yan 

People have had good results from using the KoolStop tire bead jack:

Dellphinus

Used Nimbus Armadillos on 26 inch rims- I could bare hand them on and off, most of the time.

northboundtrain

Yes, don't take anything for granted.