Cycling UK Forum

Researching folding tyres for a LEJOG trip I came across a CJ article (circa 2003) indicating a 3-way fold of a normal tyre. However the accompanying description and diagram were missing!
Can anyone (CJ?) enlighten me.

Further if this is convenient is it worth bothering with folders anyway?

To fold a tyre in three, see this:-
www.ctc-cambridge.org.uk/Tyres-HTML/index.htm

Hold the tyre at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock.
Bring your hands together.
Grasp both bits of tyre with one hand.
With the other hand, take hold of the tyre at 12 o'clock and bring your hand down to meet the other, swinging the tyre either forwards or backwards as seems easiest, and adjust your grip so you are holding all 3 bits of tyre with the same hand.
You should then be able to move the 2 upper loops sideways across each other and swing the lower loop up to meet them.

It all seems much easier when you try it with a real tyre than describing it .

PS. what you end up with is about 9 inches across. It can be tied on the outside without getting in the way too much, or stuffed down the back of a pannier, but a folding tyre is much easier to pack (and is a little lighter and a fair bit more expensive).

Thanks for both pictorial and textual help.

Bicyclerubber.com is a handy site for folding tyres and Wiggle.co.uk do a good selection. If you are not too sure on how to fold one go to your bike shop and see how they come folded new or if you order one take a mental note of how it comes folded. Careful use of two thumbs reshapes the bead and the VAR tyre tool is the best for folding tyres and can can be got from SJS Cycles website-hope this helps. Bonthrone Bikes website is pretty good too.

To fold a normal tyre can destroy a bead so practise with a bin job before attemping one, a figure of eight is a good way to start, I think.

A figure of eight is the best way to damage a tyre, don't do it.

The tyre needs to be coiled into 3 loops as shown in the photo's.

I hesitate to say this .... but do you need to take a spare tyre on LEJOG ? (unless it's some very strange size) Contrary to general belief, Northern England, and even Scotland, have bike shops

We did LEJOG last year (Galaxies fitted with Marathons) and took spare tubes and a "boot" (i.e. a section of an old tyre about 9 or 10 inches long, with the wire cut off) that would, hopefully, have fitted inside a serious rip and got us to the nearest LBS. As it happened not one flat - and didn't even have to touch the pump.

If you do insist ... I have seen in a travel book a photo where the guy managed to somehow roll a spare tyre inside the spokes on the front wheel and thus save space in the bags.

Rob

I'd take a folding tyre. Between 2 of us we had 2 slow punctures on our Lejog but I ruptured a tyre when I hit a pothole. I was 20 miles from Wick when I discovered this and I limped into Wick praying there would be no catastrophic failure of the tyre.

Had our folder since 1991 and have had to use it 3 times and that on a tandem. I think it cost £17.00 at the time, so it doesn't exactly owe us a lot. It is a specialized touring X without the beads in, takes 100psi plus and rides like a tubular!

andrew_s wrote: ↑10 Apr 2006, 10:26pm Hold the tyre at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock.
Bring your hands together.
Grasp both bits of tyre with one hand.
With the other hand, take hold of the tyre at 12 o'clock and bring your hand down to meet the other, swinging the tyre either forwards or backwards as seems easiest, and adjust your grip so you are holding all 3 bits of tyre with the same hand.
You should then be able to move the 2 upper loops sideways across each other and swing the lower loop up to meet them.

It all seems much easier when you try it with a real tyre than describing it .

The link further up is broke, so here's one video showing the technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkg06HnGOjw

Reason for thread resurrection: has anyone done this with a 20" tyre?
(asking for a friend ... )

Sheldon Brown: How to Fold a Wire-Bead Bicycle Tire.

Rolling up a 700c wire bead tyre there was always a chance of giving the bead a permanent bend.
A 20 inch is very much smaller, so the rolled loops will be very much smaller.
I guess the total tension on the bead will be less, because much less circumference and surface area of tyre, so the bead could be made lighter/ more flexible? …. But I doubt they are.
So I suspect you will be trying to roll a similar wire bead into much smaller loops; almost guaranteed to kink the bead I should think.

plancashire wrote: ↑21 Oct 2024, 5:17pm Sheldon Brown: How to Fold a Wire-Bead Bicycle Tire.

That's definitely much bigger than a 20" !

(but it's possibly a better video).