What can be easier and simpler than swapping out tubes on a bicycle. I had this touring bicycle. The last trip on it was 550 miles around south Florida in 2024. The C 2 C bike trail was one route. I let the bike set for a year. I thought about another ride and thought to install new tubes. The wheels are 26 by 1.5, double wall, approved for tubeless. The tires are 26 by 1.5 Schwalbe Marathon also approved for tubeless.
Taking the tires off the wheels required extraordinary imagination, ingenuity and elbow grease.
The tires molded to the wheels. They glued themselves tight and strong to the metal. It was impossible to press the sidewall away from the rim. It was locked in place. I laid the wheel down and stood and pressed my heels against the sidewalks of the tires with all my weight. The contact-rubber did not move away from the rim. No tire lever could pry it loose, this 26 by 1.5 Schwalbe Marathon. I had patched punctures at roadside in ten minutes. Now here it was, 30 minutes later, and I could not even get a tire to budge. I hit on an idea.
I mixed Tide liquid laundry detergent with water. Using a small sponge brush I pushed the mixture in between the tire and the rim. I gave it time to penetrate. Using a narrow thin screwdriver I kept digging between the rim and the tire and dripping the mixture there. After twenty-five digs the tire moved and the screwdriver caught on the bead and I levered to the top edge of the rim. The mixture did the job and lubricated other lengths of the bead. Finally, the levers could be fitted under the bead. Using three levers and a screwdriver one after the other, it did the job. That is only one side of the tire. Getting the other side to leave the wheel is much easier, but still much more difficult than removing other tires.
Getting the tires back on the wheels was an anomalously unusual pain in the neck. One side remounted was no problem at all. The other side of the tire would press into the rim by hand, but for only about 60% of the perimeter. Levers were necessary after that. The problem was levering one length of bead onto the rim on the right of the wheel pulled bead out of the rim on the left side. There was no preventing that by hand and levers. It was impossible. I hit on another idea. I tied a two-foot length of small rope extremely tight around the tire and rim until the tire was smashed down hard flat. Using metal tire levers and starting on the right side of the wheel, I levered the bead into the rim of the wheel. The tire part tied down tight to the wheel stopped the bead to the left from being pulled loose from the rim. The tire was now mounted.
This troublesome tire was on the wheel. Was it mounted so there would be no thump on each revolution? I knew from experience that even more would have to be done to make these wheels ride ready. Before inflating I brushed in another bunch of mixture between the tire and rim. That was in the rim the full circumference both sides. Then began the inflating. As the air was pressed into the tires there came crackling and snapping sounds of the tires releasing from where they had stuck to the metal. If they had not released it would have caused a slight uneven thump in the tire.
Mounting the wheels on the bicycle took 30 seconds. I rode the bike a short distance outside. It rides smooth and easy. I never had so much difficulty with tires before in my life, and I have been doing long distance bicycle-camping-touring since 1984--37,000 miles through 20 countries.
