A Brief History of Difficult Tire Mounting

by John Neugent

Tech articles | Commentary articles

John Neugent probably knows more about bicycle wheels than anyone else alive. Maybe more about bikes as well. He's spent his life in the bike business, at every level. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price. If you are in the market for a set of wheels, please, check out John's site. He really knows his stuff. —Chairman Bill

John Neugent

Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, Vol 2: 1976 - 2018 is available in print, Kindle eBook & Audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

John Neugent writes:

We’ve all been there, at least I have. Over the last 10 years or so we went from a place where mounting tires took some skill that was easily obtainable to a place where some tires are impossible to mount. How and why did we get there?

The why is the easy part. There are no sizing standards that address rim and tire sizing. The industry is working on it but that does nothing to address the current problem.

I have written two articles for BikeRaceInfo.com here and here addressing mounting tires but I think it’s interesting to explain how we got here. In the three images, the conventional image shows the older standard for tires with tubes.

When you get a flat the tube helps prevent the tire from coming off the rim. Controlling a bike with no tire on the rim is impossible. Mavic, Michelin, and Hutchinson developed a tubeless tire and rim combination called the UST system.

Note the channel in the center and the shoulder that allow the bead to slide up into side channels. For many years other people made tubeless compatible tires and people happily used conventional rims and this can still be done but, someone found out (the hard way I assume) that without a tube the tire can come completely off the rim. So rim makers started making tubeless compatible rims so the beads would slide up into a “higher” position to prevent tires from coming off the rim in the event of a flat.

What they also prevent is putting tires on and taking tires off – sometimes. The biggest takeaway from this article is to make sure your bead is in the center of the rim when mounting or dismounting tires. That and carrying sealant instead of a spare tube.

John Neugent was was one of the first to establish quality hand building in Taiwan around the turn of the century. He now owns Neugent Cycling, a firm devoted to delivering world-class equipment at the lowest possible price.