Quote:
Originally Posted by Otter74
I'm guessing perhaps you're dealing with narrow tires that are particularly difficult to mount. As suggested above, don't push with your fingers or thumbs - those muscles aren't very strong, and you're going to tire your hand out quickly. Delfate the tire completely, work the bead down into the valley of the rim, particularly on the side opposite where you are beginning to work it off or the last part you're trying to seat, and when you're getting the last part of the bead on use your hands to push and roll it over rather than your fingers. If you're at home, a little dish soap on the bead helps, too. And while it's fine (often necessary) to use levers to get the bead off the rim, you should never use it to get the bead on. It's a great way to pinch-flat the new tube. If you have a particularly difficult rim-tire combination, a VAR bead jack can help.
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+1 - It helps to understand the drop-center design. By working the bead down into the center and then hold tension as you move both hands around the tire - 99% of the time you can get the tire on without a lever and in most cases not much force required to roll the last few inches on using just your palm or thumbs. I have tuebless ready rims but still using tube tires.