Specialized Como Tire Struggle
#1
Grupetto Bob
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Specialized Como Tire Struggle
My wife rides a 2020 Como - the middle one - and today was heading out for a ride when she saw the rear tire was flat. I told her, no problem, I could fix it in 10 minutes. She has Nimbus Sport tires BTW. A half hour later, I could not get the bead to unseat. I have repaired probably 100 tubes on road and MTB and never was unable to break the bead. I tried my best tire levers - I have 5 different sets. Rounded off screw drivers, vice grips, brute strength and nothing budged it. Looked at the interwebs and it appears to be a common complaint with no - this is a sure fire way to do it recommendations. So $20 and a trip to the bike shop a mechanic grips the tire and pulls it away as if it was nothing. Unbelievable.
So if you think you can do a roadside tube repair be prepared for a struggle unless you have gorilla like strength. My wife carries a mobile phone to call me for pickup service and AAA.
Just beware
So if you think you can do a roadside tube repair be prepared for a struggle unless you have gorilla like strength. My wife carries a mobile phone to call me for pickup service and AAA.
Just beware
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Road 🚴🏾♂️ & Mountain 🚵🏾♂️
Road 🚴🏾♂️ & Mountain 🚵🏾♂️
Last edited by rsbob; 09-22-21 at 07:44 PM.
#2
Senior Member
Some tire/rim combinations are like that, and AFAIK the trick is to get one bead of the tire in the "groove" in the rim before trying to get the other off or (as you said) have brute strength. My wife's bike had that problem (got stolen on Sunday), so new problem(s) (repairing her old bike and procuring a new one). BTW, my brute strength seems to be waning.
#3
Devil's Advocate
You actually need to get both beads into the channel on one side of the rim so that they can lift over the edge on the other side. When unseating heavy duty tires at home I use spring clamps to press the beads together but on the road, XL binder clips from the stationery department work pretty well and of course are much lighter weight to carry around.
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#4
Clark W. Griswold
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Have not had that struggle with Como's yet and I don't think any of our techs have had that issue. andychrist had the right idea in getting the bead into the center channel that will help in removing.