For off-road riding, tubeless tyres and tyre inserts are wonderful things. The former reduces weight, increases grip and welcomes faster rolling speeds. The latter then enables lower tyre pressures and better tyre support without the fear of ending your wheels after hard impacts. Though both can be incredibly difficult to install, CushCore may have made tyre and insert installation an absolute breeze.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent countless hours trying to wrench a tight-fitting tyre’s bead over a rim, only to snap a tyre lever and throw the wheel out into the ether. It gets worse with tyre inserts too. Although they bring many benefits, the (what should be) simple act of installing them can be so tricky and demanding that I don’t even bother.
Recognising this, tyre insert pioneer, CushCore, has continually been developing products to make life with tyre inserts easier. First, there was the Bead Dropper, a mega sturdy tyre lever that looks a little questionable… to say the least. Then, there was the Bead Bro, a neat little tool that stops your tyre’s bead from pinging off the rim as you hook the rest of it over.

Now, the brand has unveiled the Rotary Tyre Tool, and it’s basically what it says on the tin. It’s a clever device that installs onto your wheel via a thru axle, and it uses a wheel to persuade the tyre’s bead into place, with or without an insert. But not only can this install tyres, as it can remove them simply by flipping its head over. Better still, CushCore says that it can work with wheels from 24″ up to 29″ in size, thanks to a quick-adjust system.
The Rotary Tyre Tool itself is built of some proper stuff, too. The tool head is constructed of aluminium, and the hard anodised quick-adjust system is fitted with a lock-on grip at the end, for comfort and grip. As to not damage the tyre or rim, the Bead Dropping Wheel is made of polyurethane.
While this tool looks primed to find a place in every rider’s tool kit, it is intended for professional mechanics, and it is priced as such at a lofty at $299. Oh, and it’s not available in the UK… at least for now.
5 thoughts on “CushCore’s $299 Rotary Tyre Tool may one day spell the end of our tyre installation woes… but you can’t buy it in the UK (yet)”
Tyre gliders are pretty good. Cheap, small, light and widely available.
Is this an admission that inserts are difficult to fit?
We will soon be in a situation like car tyres where nobody can install a tire by themselves, and they need to go to a shop with an expensive and massive power tool to do a job that used to take 10 seconds. I don’t believe this is an improvement. Please make your next article “Company X launches new tyre range that is as easy to install as the models from 10+ years ago”. KISS.
Not sure the manufacturers have read the market correctly here, in my experience professional mechanics are absolutely brilliant at mounting tyres with a compendium of tricks and techniques they’ve picked up over the years (when I had a brilliant local bike shop, sadly now closed, a couple of times I took wheels and tyres in saying I thought it was absolutely impossible to get them on only to see the mechanic pop them on in seconds using no more tools and the ones I had at home). This tool would be far more suited to home amateur mechanics and if it works as well as it claims it could be extremely popular if sold for something like a quarter of the current asking price.
Alternatively spend £5 on a set of Schwalbe levers and learn how to use them. I’ve yet to find a tyre/wheel combo that they’ve failed on.