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After much incredibly fruitless painstaking efforts to mount the tyre, I am ready to try anything.

My rims are LightBicycle Falcon Wheelset AR56 Road/CX RR56C03. (rim brakes)
External Rim Width: 28mm
Internal Rim Width: 21.6mm
ETRTO 622mm. Tubeless-ready. Hooked.
This rims listed on the website is a 30mm external width, 28mm external width is a "special order".
(https://www.lightbicycle.com/700C-V-shape-56mm-depth-hand-built-carbon-road-wheels---30mm-wide-and-tubeless-compatible.html)

LightBicycle Falcon Wheelset AR56 Road/CX RR56C03

My tyres are Vittoria Corsa Graphene 2.0.
Width: 25mm
700c. Clinchers with tan sidewalls. I'm using inner tubes.

I can never push the remaining ~20cm worth of tyre up over the rim. This is all I have tried so far.

  1. The classic pushing the mounted side to provide some give to the unmounted side.
  2. Removing rim tape so allow more give.
  3. Removing inner tube, just mounting the tyre itself.
  4. 3 broken plastic tyre levers.
  5. Cable tie on the edges on the unmounted side, to prevent more of the tyre being unseated when pushing one side up. All 5 cable ties broke.
  6. Bead wax on rim brake track to aid the tyre slip up and over. (horrendously messy job)

I don't think I'm a noob in mounting tyres too. I've worked with GP5000 clinchers and tubeless, Gatorskins, old school Mavic Yksions and Panaracers in 20mm widths, on aluminium rims and carbon rims.
As per LightBicycle, Vittoria seems to top their "difficulty to mount" chart.
https://www.lightbicycle.com/newsletter/Road-Bike-Tire-Width-Charts.html

When I asked LightBicycle directly, the help I received was some links to their guide. (which is obviously not quite as useful)
Tips and Tricks for Seating Tubeless Tires


How To Install A Tight Tire Easily (Gatorskin 23c on R45)

The worst part is I'm planning to add some lead weights on the bed of the rim, which will definitely increase the tension in the tyre when mounting.

But, all hope's not lost yet. The silver lining is the tyre is definitely mountable as I am able to mount both sidewalls individually over the rim. Just that both sidewalls over the rim is currently impossible.

David Arthur's previous article reported that "Mounting up these clinchers is super-simple, and such a supple tyre can easily be done without the aid of levers."
(https://road.cc/content/review/263308-vittoria-corsa-fold-g20-tyre)

The more I drop into the rabbit hole, the more comments on how difficult it is to mount this tyre I see. Many claim that the tyres need to be stretched overnight first, but how do I stretch the tyre when it's impossible to get over the rim?

Please give me some advice, I'm near desperation at this point, typing this with raw palms from pushing the tyres. enter image description here

enter image description here

My only qualms is METAL tyre levers. It's something I truly want to avoid using on carbon rims.

Thanks you guys!

Edit: Looking at tyre jacks now...Will a tyre jack help? I've only known it to unseat tubeless MTB tyres.

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  • We don't do product recommendation, so leaving as a comment rather than an answer. But try pedros tyre levers - super chunky plastic lever that wont break - and if it does they will replace it. pedros.com/products/tools/wheel-and-tire/tire-levers
    – Andy P
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 12:31
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    Thanks for the quick reply! Yes I actually used this exact pair of Pedros levers in pink. I didn't break, but it's so chunky such that it's trying to shift the tyre bead further away from the bead seat. And the hook of the tyre lever is also quite thick, when pushing the bead over it gets stuck in the rim bed.
    – Yuxuan
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 12:41
  • The important thing is to push the already mounted part of the tyre into the middle of the rim bed where it has less diameter. Start at the valve hole, push the tyre to the middle of the bed, keep it under tension as you move away from the hole. For the final few centimeters you can use multiple tyre levers. With super strong tyre levers I’d be more concerned about the rim breaking ...
    – Michael
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 13:54
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    Why do you want to add lead weights? o.O
    – Michael
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 13:55
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    My opinion is that the tyre you are using is too narrow for the rim width (but that's your choice). However, the narrowness of the tyre explains why you can get the beads over individually but not together. I suggest using Campagnolo tyre levers which are not only very strong, wide but also quite thin and therefore easier to slip into gaps between the tyre and rim. The shape also doesn't often pinch the tube.
    – Noise
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 13:59

1 Answer 1

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A 25mm tire is too narrow for that rim, although that's not necessarily a major part of the mounting difficulties. You will only have less slack to work with though as a result.

Difficult mounting with tubeless rims is almost always the same story over and over: not enough effort made to keep the two installed beads nestled down into the middle of the rim well all the way around but especially on the opposite side (180 degrees away) from where you're getting the last bit on. That is the definition of where the slack comes from on a clincher tire installation, and all problems with mounting boil down to needing to do it better. Again, the most important part is 180 degrees away from the ending spot, but maximum slack is had by doing it all the way around.

Always finish at the valve section in a tight mounting situation. The tire beads can't sink as deep into the rim well there, so doing it last gives you the maximum slack for the last push of the bead over the rim. Advice to the contrary is frequently parroted but serves only as an indicator of who not to take advice from. People think the wrong things about this because it mattered less in the past, but it has always been true.

Never use a metal tire lever on a carbon road rim. The Kool Stop Bead Jack is my favorite tool for aiding the process, but it's important to understand it is not a substitue for carefully maximizing slack with the above process. No tool is. The Kool Stop product is nice because it adds a lot of leverage and is good at not hurting things.

Don't mount the tire on to a bare rim. Do use appropriate size tubeless tape only. Use the minimum amount recommended (usually 2 layers) for road pressure. Avoiding using conventional strips/tape on a tubeless rim is good because it's a little thicker and can increase mounting difficulty.

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  • I've had surprisingly good results using ~4 lengths of reusable velcro cable straps to force the tyre to stay in the valley and then hold it there while I work around the tyre
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 22:10
  • @Nathan Knutson Hi! Yes the tyre / rim combination is way less than ideal. One might also suggest that the tyre is dangerously too narrow. I'm not sure if you have worked with the tanwall Corsas before, but the properties are way different from other full rubber tyres. The way the tread folds in, the stretch of the cotton sidewalls, the rigidity of the tyre bead. I don't think I'm quite a noob in working with tyres, sad to say the tips you mentioned here are not new to me.
    – Yuxuan
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 3:08
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    @Criggie Alright I'll try with velcro + cable ties + whatever I can use to strap on the tyre. Fingers crossed! -Sam Yes it's possible. Plus my rim is quite deep so it'll be near impossible for the valve to bend!
    – Yuxuan
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 3:13
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    Since it's cotton you could try seeing if you can mount it successfully on another wheel or rim, like an older non-tubeless one, then let it sit at max pressure for a few days on that. It won't hurt and might help.
    – Nathan Knutson
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 16:54
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    If Nathan's final suggestion doesn't work you might have to give up on either these tyres or these rims. I'm thinking about how much fun a puncture will be when you're 30 miles from home. There's alot to be said for a tyre/rim combination that plays well together.
    – Noise
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 16:56

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