So far I have zero helpful responses. And zero point five tip or tricks I didn't already know decades ago. I asked a simple question: Has anybody actually tried milling the rim a little, and people say things like "oh you must be an idiot" (which maybe I am) or "just use a little soapy water, works great for me!". Like I didn't know your favorite tip or trick already in the 1970's. But OK, nobody so far has tried this idea, with good *or* bad results. I'm kind of surprised, you'd think people would have a little more imagination than fixating on the tire as the source of the problem. But maybe I'm the idiot and am about to ruin a perfectly good set of wheels. I think I should probably roll out the new wheels and a few of my old ones to see if there's an actual difference in circumference at the bead. If not I better think twice before modifying anything.
Anybody want to make a prediction?
A helpful response would be "I know a guy who tried it, got his tires on just fine using his pinkies, but had a blowout and died on a descent". Or "I saw that some cheap rims just have very rough grooves along the braking surface and those might be what's making it so hard to work the tire on. Maybe you just need to knock those down a little bit on the side".
To be fair I should have mentioned: these are 700cx25mm *used* road tires going onto brand new Chinese rims.
Cheers,
Jon.
Last edited by jesnow; 05-03-21 at 10:16 PM.