mountaindave 

I have a few sets of vintage Araya 26x1.75 MTB wheels on decent hubs. I love the Rene Herse Rat Trap Pass tires. Super easy to get the tire on the rim, but I find them very difficult to seat the bead on rims without a hop. I have tried all the tricks: over-inflating and letting them stretch, soapy water, baby powder, built up rim strip. A guy shouldn’t have to pump up tires to 80 psi while changing a flat in the woods or carry soapy water.

I’m wondering if I’m the only guy who has this problem or if others do too?

I love the fact that 35 year old rims are so wide and are still dead true - plus they just look good. I just wish they weren’t so hard to mount modern supple tires to.

katsup

The Crankbrothers Speedier Lever has saved me from many hard mounting tires.



Edit: Reading again, I think you are asking about getting the bead to sit vs getting the bead on the rim, like I originally thought. I have no fancy tricks for that, I just pump up the tire till it's seated and deflate to desired PSI if needed.

blart

I don't have any tips but I have successfully mounted that tire on that same rim so I know it is possible.

Road Fan

Does the designation 26 x 1.75 refer to the tire or the rim? What is the BSD of the rim? Many different values of BSD are called 26 inch. Is the current model tire REALLY a match to the vintage rim? Is the rim designed for wire beads, and if so, is the tire a match for that design? I was skeptical of the importance of matching such details, but after buying a modern 27x1 ¼ tire to suit my pair of 1952 Dunlop 27x1 ¼ Special Lightweight rims, see how well it mounted and how well it holds its full 90 psi pressure, I'm a believer.

wrk101

Very popular rim back in the day. When I have issues seating the bead, I find I am inflating too quickly (I use an air compressor). So then, I deflate and start over, easing the air in.

I bought a Problem Solvers Air Bob several years ago that really cured my problem. I notice they are no longer available (and who came up with possibly the WORST name ever for a product??). The Park Tool inflator (INF-2) is very similar, but wow, the price is HIGH. Being able to trickle in the air is the key.


There is a Grimm branded inflator over on Ebay for $24.99. Not the quality of the Park Tool inflator for sure, but probably good enough for the home gamer.

mountaindave 

Sorry for being sloppy with my description, katsup, I edited my OP to be more clear. You intuited correctly, however: no problem mounting the tire, frustrating to seat the bead without a hop.

I haven’t actually measured the ERD, I just assumed that because it’s labeled 26”, that it would be 559 mm, so I should actually measure. As has been noted by Jan Heine in his research, some manufacturers make rims slightly undersized to make mounting stiff tires easier. But conversely it makes seating the bead harder.

I have run across this with a cheap 700c rim as well (Matrix something or other). I thought it was the cheap Pasela, but then it mounted up like nobody’s business on a red label Mavic MA40 rim.