Cycling UK Forum

apols for sort of raising bit of old hat..is there any specific tips/advice re fitting these *******. Just spent 1.5 hours trying to get one on...did reasonably well first time, but on inflating...pfffffhhhhhhhh....nipped tube presumably....more difficult to get off, but did so.....even more diffucult to get on again.....and another nip or faulty valve....now impossible to get off..even snapped tyre lever. Well brassed off. Stupid tyres. Seriously considering selling them in this heated moment-would sooner not ride than go through this again. Anyway...any advice welcome (have done the ususal of pushing bead into well of rim, even tried without levers as some say they can do....typing with nose currently as all digits dislocated)

Arrgghhh


Dave

Mine when on easily enough just with fingers. However both tyres and rims do vary from their official sizes so you must have drawn the short straw.

How about trying this foot powered method, considering that your fingers aren't working any more?

Cheers Andrew. Cant believe you do it with fingers......but at least the variation in rim/tyre size is some sort of get out clause for my cack handedness!! Thanks for link as well......might get back to this tonight

Dave

Mine went on OK with just fingers and moderate Anglo-Saxon, but I did fit narrower tubes than the tyre size would suggest. The rims are fairly wide though, I don't think they would go on a narrow rim at all easily.

Try fitting tyres without tubes and leaving them for a couple of days - has worked in the past for me

Some soap or soapy water perhaps.

READ tips for fixing punctures on bikes and bits forum

Sounds like there may be a little confusion here,

I have fitted Marathon tyres to my Thorn bike no problem, easy enough with fingers, Marathon Plus different ball game, old dodge works well is the toe clip strap to hold the tyre onto the rim at the start .stopping the tyre popping off the rim as you work your way around the rim(gently with tyre levers).

A little talcum powder helps on the tyre wall.

Regards Tom.

PS It improves after being on the rim for a while (if you have a puncture should have stretched a little but will still need levers)

Hi,

These tyres can be awkward to fit on certain rims - it isn't anything you're doing wrong. What will make them easier is, as already suggested, a bit of talcum powder, also warm the tyres up with a hair drier, they become much more flexible when warm - avoid using hot-air guns though as they provide too much heat and can damage the tyre. Good luck.

Cheers everyone....and thanks to Chris, the forum member who sold me the tyres and pm'd me in sympathy. Had read and tried most things, but had wondered if there was some particular thing I needed to think of (seemed unlikely, but having been reading this forum for over a year its astounding how little I do know!)anyway, there was no way they were going to go on without levers; have always used levers, and a little wary of them, but even more so after reading stuff here. Anyway to cut a long story short, decided to take the winter tyre off and put schwalbe m plus back with view to buying secondhand set of wheels and fitting winters to them...then quick swap of wheels PRN..surely worth it. Put m plus back, fitted no probs, inflated it...only for it to go down albeit slowly...off it comes, find small hole....by now am presuming I've either nipped tyre with lever or damaged rim and made a sharp edge somewhere; fix p****ure, refit tyre....this time it rapidly deflated...the valve/tube junction had split!! New inner tube on....inflated.....deflated again....back off,patched hole again, and then when replacing tube on wheel and as I ran fingers round tyre felt a big scratch...massive thorn!! You might say 'Ha..should have checked that at first p*****ure'....but when I removed the wheel initially, the bike hadnt been used for at least a month (it's not my commuting one)....and the tyre was still very well inflated..not far off the usual 90 psi...think I'm cursed with this stuff at the moment..was changing tyres on another bike pre-xmas, and had two new inner tubes both of which had faulty valves which hadn't been glued or whatever to the tube.

C'est la vie I guess

Dave

Try a VAR tyre lever. No great problem with one of those.

the wiggle website has a series of comments in the review section of the Marathon Plus tyre about fitting it - you need some cable ties, the black plastic thingies. i read those comments and when the tyres arrived I used cable ties as per the instructions in the reviews and they went on with few problems. I also have the non-Plus Marathons on another bike and they come off and on with no problems. (Obviously using tyre levers.....)

I had no problems fitting mine to Sun Rhynos, but I would recommend wearing work gloves during the procedure. The studs are quite sharp to bare hands and fingers!

Does everyone else just have tough hands?

I guess I was just lucky my Marathon Winters went on without any great drama (using tyre levers). I think I only swore at them a couple of times!