Old 09-27-21, 12:49 PM
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ThermionicScott 
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Bikes: 1991 Bianchi Eros, 1964 Armstrong, 1988 Diamondback Ascent, 1988 Bianchi Premio, 1987 Bianchi Sport SX, 1980s Raleigh mixte (hers), All-City Space Horse (hers)

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Originally Posted by kahn
You dismount by hand? No tire irons? Care to share this party trick? Video, perhaps?
I've considered making a video from time to time, but can't guarantee it would be entertaining! Maybe I'll take pictures at some point.

If the tire isn't completely flat to start with, I will give the wheel a "bear hug" while holding the valve open, to squeeze out as much air as possible -- I don't want to fight any residual air when trying to move the beads around. Then I pick a place on the wheel and grab onto the tire with my fingertips, and pull the sidewall that's facing away from me backward toward the center well of the rim. Since I'm not trying to pry anything up, just slide the bead laterally, I should be able to move it at least a little bit. Maybe if it's really tight you might have to work your way around the wheel more than once, scootching it a little bit at a time before you can get it all into the center. Once both beads are loose, I will stand up the wheel on my foot, pinch the tire between two fingers of each hand at the top and slide my hands down to the other end of the wheel. This forces the beads into the center well all the way around the wheel, and since I'm continuing to hold tension on the tire, they can't pop back out. Once my hands are at the bottom of the wheel, I can use one hand to maintain that tension while I flip the bottom of the wheel up. With the free hand holding the wheel near the rim for support, I'll take the slack bit of tire in my hand and push sideways to shove it over the sidewall of the rim. I'm pushing on the tire, so that it will pull the bead over the rim. (Those "bead jack" tools do a similar thing, pushing the bead laterally rather than prying it into or out of the rim.) It might be hard to get that first bit of the bead over the rim, but once it is, I use my helping hand to hold it there while I push the bit of tire right next to it over the rim, and so on.

I don't think any of this is original, and in retrospect it's easier to just do than to describe. It's certainly important with folding tires on my tubeless-compatible Pacenti SL23 wheelset, but I also have a pair of really tight Nokian snow tires that require good technique even with single-walled rims. Ditto for the cheap Sunlite tires on the Sun CR18 rims on my English 3-speed, the tall sidewalls on those rims require all the tire slack I can find!

Caveat: I haven't played with hookless rims yet. That hump in the rim bead might make it harder to break the bead (as it should!), but if no laws of physics were broken to mount the tires, we shouldn't have to break any to unmount the tires.
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