Treker

Hi,

I recently purchashed two Conti Touring Plus 700*28s and I'm having one heck of a time trying to get them on. Anyone else ever have this problem?

The problem is with the last 8" or so. I use teflon tire levers and t's a Herculean task to get it over the rim. I've managed on several occasions only to realize on inflation that I must have induced pinch flats. On removal, I can't get the lip of the lever under the wire bead so I use my vice to hold the tire and then bend the wheel 90 degrees to expose the lip. And it's still hell to work off one side.

My old Kenda's didn't have this issue on this bike and I'm familiar with some tightness with Michelin Gatorskins and Pro Race IIs on my road bike. I dread getting these to work only to experience a flat when I'm 30km from home. Continental is a fair name in tires but is it possible that these tires are from a bad production run?

TIA

dsbrantjr

Some tire/rim combinations are just tough.

I have found that using Continental Easy Tape in place of Velox cloth rim tape will leave more room at the bottom of the rim recess for the tire to be more easily mounted.

I agree with you about flatting far from home; I will not run a tire that I cannot easily change on the road, when it is dark, raining and I am tired, with the tools in my take-along tool kit. .

Yo Spiff

I've had some that were that tough. Once on the bike they seem to stretch a bit and are easier after that first effort. I've also had better success with them using Pedro's tire levers than any other make.

I had one set of Michelins, a few years old, that had the opposite problem. They were so loose when I tried to put them on my Trek 900, that they would blow out from a pinched tube 5-10 minutes after airing up the tires. After 3 or 4 recurrences, I gave up and ordered a pair of Paselas for it. I have the Michelins on my tandem now, and they are still a loose fit to put on, but they seem to do fine on this rim once up to pressure.

JohnDThompson 

Yes, and there's a tool to help with those:

FastJake

I've bought tires that didn't fit before. I either returned them or used them on a set of wheels that they did fit on.

Assuming you know how to mount a tire (and it sounds like you do) I would probably just get something else. No sense fighting with a tire that much, IMO. Especially if you flat on a ride.

fietsbob

MA 40, E2, mod 3 Mavic are the rim side of difficult fits. lacking much of center drop between the bead seats .

bobotech

I have used soapy water in a lube the bead/rim to help in mounting. Heck, I have even used WD-40. No harm in using a lube of some sort to make getting the bead over the rim.

When I used to work at a car garage years ago, lubing the bead was normal course of action for mounting tires.

rowebr

Agreed. The toughest combo I've faced was 700C Schwalbe Marathons on some vintage Araya rims. I was initially concerned about whether I would be able to fix a flat on the road, but after a few weeks of riding they were much easier to mount.

For such situations, its important to start by seating the tire at the valve stem, and then proceeding to seat a few inches at a time to the left and right of the valve stem, alternating as you go. This helps to pull everything tight so the last bit of tire to mount isn't as bad as it otherwise would be. Are you mounting the tires that way?

berner

Mount that tire on a spare rim without the tube in a warm room and try the soap trick.

hueyhoolihan

i might add that if you have the time, to leave them there for a couple of months too. a "timeout" does them good.

and if you really want to wrestle with them, i've had some success with wrapping a towel around the spot on the rim i am gripping. my hands get more leverage and less pain.

TireLever-07

Continentals are known for tough sidewalls, well some are. Try dish soap or talum powder. Maybe metal tire levers, its no fun, fighting a tire on the side of the road. Chris

10 Wheels

I bought some Continental Super Sport Plus.

Yes I was disappointed in how difficult they were to mount.

Then up set when something cut thought the Contact/Sidewall that destroyed the tire at 400 miles.

dsbrantjr

Just make sure you have it with you when you need to change a flat on the road.

zacster

I was just having that problem with my Michelin Wild Run'r slicks on a 26" MTB rim. I had mounted it about 6 months ago and forgot how hard it was to get it on, and had an even harder time getting it off. The rim tape had popped through the spoke hole and the tube popped too. Not only was the spoke hole puncture fixed, I found I also had a pin prick somewhere else that I also fixed. But then after remounting that tire, where I actually bent the tire iron, it went flat again by morning. It's a good thing this all happened at home. I'm thinking that I pricked the tube with the tire iron, even with the rounded edges. This was in the front too. I don't remember the rear being as difficult, and it has a different rim.

pierce

putting new conti gatorskin 700x25's on my son's trek with MA40's (the grey hard anodized ones) is the hardest tire mount I've ever done. but once they've been on there and pumped to pressure, they aren't that hard.

the easiest, scary easy, was the vitorria randonneur hyper 700x32 folding tires I put on my hybrid's 1" wide rims... took a fair amount of fussing to convince them to stay on the rim long enough to get a little air in them and make them tire shaped, they were literally falling off the rim at first.. once they were on the rim and the bead seated all the way around, they stayed put. I test inflated them to 90psi, rode a bit, then dropped them to 70psi front, 80psi rear (hey, I'm 210 lbs, recently dropped from 230) and they've been fine ever since. man, they roll nice, much much nicer than the Specialized Nimbus tires I'd been using on hybrids.

calstar 

+100

Looigi

Lube. I use talc. Soapy water is good to.

JohnDThompson 

For that, VAR makes a portable version: