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Getting a road tyre on an MTB 29er wheel

My plan to fit 29er wheels to my Cotic Roadrat so I can run discs with a carbon cross fork has hit a snag… I can't get my chosen 25mm rubber on to my new XT tubeless wheels (I'm running with inner tube for the time being) not with my thumbs anyway,being tubeless rims it says no levers. I'm having my doubts now cos instructions with the wheels say the minimum tyre size is a 38mm – well they are MTB rims, although I'd say they should fit in a low pro sort of way. Any thoughts or suggestions on getting a wire beaded road tyre on an MTB rim, or should I just give up and go back to the drawing board on the wheels or maybe try with a folding tyre?

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mattsccm | 12 years ago
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Just a thought. Like many I use washing up liquid to help mount motorcycle tyres. This is not thought of as a "good thing" as the salts in it don't do rims much good. You can get the correct lube at m/c shops or scrounge a bit from a tyre fitter.
I am in the same situaton , sort of. I use Mavic CXP 33 rims ( as they were already built into wheels at the right price.) 25mm tyres fit ine for the road as you would expect. I also happily run 38mm hybrid tyres and 38mm knobblies. In theory they are too wide for the rim but if you look at the huge difference between rim width and tyre width on any mountain bike you can see that this works.
Off to the garage with a bottle of Fairy to swop a pair of m/c tyres now.

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Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
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Most excellent tips Gkam gonna give both of those a go tomorrow. One thing the road.cc office isn't short of is old inner tube. In fact I lobbed one in the bin before if left tonight… even if the cleaners have been in there's plenty more where that came from  1

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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Another trick if its still not budging with some kind of lube, then if you have an old inner tub, cut it in half, put it under the tyre and use it to pull the awkward last bit on to the wheel, then just slide the tub out again

Thats a way i've done it in the past as i wont put levers near my wheels under any situation whether they are plastic or not, i dont risk it

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Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
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Of course there is also the point that recommended inflation for the rim is 29 - 58 psi, but I'm sure 100 will be fine  39

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Tony Farrelly | 12 years ago
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ah no, I'm using 25mm tyre with inner tubes and the bead seems to grip the rim fine. Fairy Liquid sounds like an excellent idea

Well, I did think about 38mm tyres… briefly, but what I'm trying to achieve here are the benefits of having a lightish road bike with a performance edge and the stopping power of discs. The advent of carbon disc forks for cross should make that possible, but the problem I've had is finding a wheel that is both light and disc specific - hence going down the 29er XC route.

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Gkam84 | 12 years ago
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Lube Lube and more Lube, soap the rim and use fairy liquid, normally works for stubborn tyres/rims for me

But if your wheel says min 38mm and your trying to fit a tubeless 25mm i'm thinking thats just not going to work at all because there will be no seal to inflate?

Why not get yourself some 38mm cycle cross tyres?

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