Although airless tires were mercilessly panned by Sheldon Brown[1] many bicyclists have found them to be a welcome relief from leaky and flat tires, and modern foam tires can in fact be lighter than the tubes and tires they replace. Here is how one can install them with no special tools and a minimum of cursing.
Steps
- After letting the air out of the pneumatic tire, insert a tire iron, or any tool with a slender handle and no sharp edges, under the lip of the tire.
- Work the tire iron, or more than one if you have them, around the lip, prying it out of the side nearest you. Then remove the tire from the rim.
- Start seating the foam tire into the rim with your hands.
- Working around the diameter, you will find that somewhere past the halfway point, it gets difficult to push the tire onto the rim any farther. At this point, open a vise to just fit the foam tire, and loosely insert the tire and rim up to where you have pressed in the tire. There is no need to tighten the vise.
- Continuing to hold your start position with one hand, and letting the vise maintain the end position, insert your tire iron a few inches into the unseated portion, prying it in.
- Moving your hand up to the new start position, repeat this until the tire is fully on the rim.
- Moving your hand up to the new start position, repeat this until the tire is fully on the rim.
- Seat it completely by removing from the vise, and hitting it against the ground while rotating it 20 or 30 degrees between hits.
- After both tires have been replaced, reinstall the wheels and your bicycle will never have a flat tire again.
Tips
- The website http://ift.tt/1pmLi3t, has many complaints against them lodged with the Better Business Bureau: http://ift.tt/1pmLi3x. You might want to try searching for other vendors, such as http://ift.tt/Vt956k, or the manufacturers' sites such as http://ift.tt/Vt93eF.
- Double-check the size of the tires you're ordering, particularly the rim width and depth. Getting it wrong will cost time and money, shipping the wrong order back.
Things You'll Need
- Vise
- Tire irons or similarly-shaped tools.
- Foam tires the right size for your tire diameter and rim width and depth.
Sources and Citations
- This research was made possible, in part, by a land grant from the City of the Sun Foundation, though the specifics of the research were not coordinated nor endorsed by COSF.
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from How to of the Day http://ift.tt/1pmLijP
via Peter
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