hands vs schwalbe

dugliss

I`ve got marathon plus and one of my tubes exploded last week as I was going down a hill. Absolutely s**t me up, thought I was gonna come off at 30mph with a bus behind me itching to get past!! I thought that maybe I`d overpumped it but not so sure now

gabriel959

never tried marathons but I really think some here need to check their technique. I used to have problems at the beginning and complained about how hard it was, I read a guide and started doing it more often and now I never need to use my levers to get them in and never takes me more than a couple of mins per tyre (even with new ones). That is with Mavic and Fulcrum wheels.

dugliss

I think the marathons are notorious for being hard to get on although I managed to get mine on without levers and no blood on hands so I guess that was a result.

RufusA

Wallace1492 wrote:

When i put my Marathon Plus on it was horrific. Took and age to squeeze them on.

+1

Then I discovered in all the sweating and swearing I had miscalculated the direction of the rear wheel (bike upside-down - doh!) so had to remove tyre and reverse it before refitting.

Second time round it seemed a little easier, unless the blood and numbness helped!

Rufus.

iPad

I picked up my marathons last night, and having read this thread I had prepared myself with cable ties, electrical tape, heavy duty tyre levers, rim lube, crow bars, plasters and a swear box.

All a waste of time, they went on really easy (where's the smug emoticon), I'm not bike mechanic, so it must have been a combination of rims and blind luck.

The hardest thing was to get the inner tube on the rim, until I noticed that it was a 26" one, D'oh..!

So don't let difficult fitting put you off, you could be lucky like me.

dbmnk

daviesee wrote:

Eau Rouge wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

risi wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Hmm. Sciroccos, khamsins, ventos. There's probably a connection I'm just not seeing...

Interesting!

Fulcrums too, aren't they somehow made by campy?

Fulcrum is wholly owned by Campagnolo.

*strokes imaginary beard in a thoughtful manner

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Do campy also make tyres?

I had no trouble getting some Vittoria tyres on my Fulcrums. Maybe it's an Italian conspiracy?

Putting Vittoria Open Paves on my Scirroccos for the first time was a complete nightmare.
About half an hour for each wheel :shock:
So no Italian conspiricy there.

It eased the more times I took them off and put them on.
I recommend fitting tyres a couple of times without inner tubes just to "break" them in.

in fact vittorias are also notorious for tight fit, as are italian shoes. apperently they like it tight.

dbmnk

btw, it really is all about centering the tyre beads in the rim groove before swappin over that last troublesome bit. most, if not all, tyres really can be fitted by hand

Jay dubbleU

I have a theory about this - the French get on with anyone - Italians don't get on with the Germans etc etc Not sure where the Koreans fit into all this

lost_in_thought

gabriel959 wrote:

never tried marathons but I really think some here need to check their technique. I used to have problems at the beginning and complained about how hard it was, I read a guide and started doing it more often and now I never need to use my levers to get them in and never takes me more than a couple of mins per tyre (even with new ones). That is with Mavic and Fulcrum wheels.

Alright, alright Mr 'check your technique'. What are you doing right that we're doing wrong, then?

gabriel959

lost_in_thought wrote:

gabriel959 wrote:

never tried marathons but I really think some here need to check their technique. I used to have problems at the beginning and complained about how hard it was, I read a guide and started doing it more often and now I never need to use my levers to get them in and never takes me more than a couple of mins per tyre (even with new ones). That is with Mavic and Fulcrum wheels.

Alright, alright Mr 'check your technique'. What are you doing right that we're doing wrong, then?

I was ashamed too...

Read this...

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12618403&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

and this

http://www.teamestrogen.com/content/asa_levers

second one is good...

wyadvd

i just changed my gatorskins to mps. Need ed new tubes cos they were held together by patches. Put new rim tape on too. Got downland cycles to do the job for a total of 26 quid which by my reckonning means it cost me about a fiver for labour. If i get a puncture on the sportive ill wait for their sweeper van to pick me up and they can fix it!