On Thu, 2013-05-16 at 18:37 -0700, Brian Campbell wrote: > One a ride this weekend (Me on my AHH w/ 35mm Vittoria Hyper Rando > tires) and a friend riding my Ritchey touring bike(Challenge Roubaix > tire), we both descended a hill and into a large patch of broken > glass. The Challenge tires immediately flatted (front & rear). I was > able to continue to a safe spot to stop about 75 yards away, with no > issues. We pulled close to the same amounts of glass from both sets of > tires. No flats or casing penetration on the Vittoria's.The Challenge > tires ride nice but they come with a price.
They ride wonderfully, but they flat very easily. They're also the very devil to mount when they are new. The set I've been using on my George Longstaff came to me used (the previous owner gave up on them because they flatted so easily and were so hard to remove and reinstall). I found them pretty easy to install and I've even been able to remove them without tools. I recently bought another pair, this time new in the package, from a member of the iBOB list. My back tire's getting a bit worn, so I figured it would soon be time for a replacement. If a pair of used tires is easy to install and word on the street is these are the hardest to install, tightest tires in the entire world, I wondered if perhaps they might benefit from a little pre-stretching, sort of like you'd do with a tubular. I figured first thing, it might help to stretch the bead a bit by mounting the tires on a rim without a tube. That way, I could use a tire lever to help mount the tire without fear of damaging the tube. So, the other day, I dug out an old wheel I have in the shed that I haven't used since the mid 90s (still has a good 13-34 7 speed cassette on it, and I thought maybe it might come in handy some day) and tried to mount the tire. I spent over 20 minutes simply mounting one side. Round and round I'd go, and soon as I got another few inches on one side, a similar amount would come off on the other side. But eventually, after 20 minutes the bead eased up a bit and I was able to get one side on. I used tire levers on the other side. And I was right: a tube would have been destroyed, ripped to shreds, long before I had the second bead mounted. It was tough, but eventually I got it on. I have never seen a tire so tight. First guess, you'd almost have thought it was a 650C tire mislabeled, it was so small. Good thing I have strong tire levers (steel, at least 40 years old). And then I let the wheel sit for 2 days. After a couple of days, I used levers to remove one side of the tire, installed a (narrow, 23-25mm) tube, and remounted the tire. Much easier this time than the first time, no tools required. Almost felt like a normal but tight tire, rather than a mislabeled 26". And then I inflated the tire. It's sitting in the basement now, stretching. Sometime in the future I'll remove it and go through the whole thing again with the other new one that's still in the package. Perhaps by the time I actually need to mount a new one, it'll be as easy to mount as the original used set was. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
