Schwalbe Furious Fred UST fitting

Wheelspinner

I've just built some new wheels using Stans ZTR Olympic rims, and wanted to use them with some FF tyres I had in UST spec. It went something like this.

Wheel build went fine.
Fitted rim tape fine.
Could not even get the tyre on the rim. Swearing.
Removed rim tape, fitted tyre to check if it would go on at all. OK, *just*.
Used different rim tape, narrower by a couple mm but still good coverage, maybe a 1mm gap either side to the rim wall.

Fitted tyre, again a monumental PITA just to get it on the rim at all. Loads of soapy water round bead, track pump, no luck. Compressor, no luck, tyre simply will not stretch far enough to seat the bead, nor will it seal well enough to get started either.

Removed tyre, put in a tube and even at almost 75 psi it still doesn't seat fully. Almost, but not quite.

Is this "normal" for these tyres?? The issue appears to be that the actual bead is very thick, presumably the UST specification, and there's barely any clearance for the valve internally.

I've generally found Schwalbe (non-UST) tyres among the easiest to fit to rims, so am really disappointed these are so hard. Any experience or tips appreciated!

The Rookie

Stans (very thin) rim tape, or something else, you need a rim tape that has very little impact on the depth of the well, even using electrical tape one of my Schwalbe (RON) is very hard to get on my ZTR Alpine (the replacement for the Olympic) rim and needs levers and then nearly 90psi to seat the bead, going to swap to tubeless with Stans tape very soon though so can comment on the difference that makes.

njee20

The older Stan's rims (including the Olympic) should be fine, they made the bead seats tighter on the newer (Alpine/Crest etc) rims. Fitted various tyres to mine, generally used with Stan's rimstrips and never had a problem.

I'd suggest technique. I also much prefer to put 20psi or so in the tyre and physically pull it about to get the bead to seat - if you merrily pump to 75psi and it explodes you're going to know about it.

Odd tyre choice though - a heavy variant of a tyre with very very limited grip. They're fantastic in their normal (non-UST) guise because they're so light, by making them UST you end up with something heavier than a Racing Ralph and none of the grip!

Wheelspinner

njee20 wrote:

The older Stan's rims (including the Olympic) should be fine, they made the bead seats tighter on the newer (Alpine/Crest etc) rims. Fitted various tyres to mine, generally used with Stan's rimstrips and never had a problem.

I'd suggest technique. I also much prefer to put 20psi or so in the tyre and physically pull it about to get the bead to seat - if you merrily pump to 75psi and it explodes you're going to know about it.

Odd tyre choice though - a heavy variant of a tyre with very very limited grip. They're fantastic in their normal (non-UST) guise because they're so light, by making them UST you end up with something heavier than a Racing Ralph and none of the grip!

Thing is, no amount of pulling about would budge the tyre. I used Stans rim tape too (not the rubber strips with pre-installed valve, an part of the problem was that even using Stans valves it was really really hard to get the valve to seal in the tyre bed because the UST beads are so thick.

I have a set of Alpines on another bike and find them easy to fit (regular) tyres to.

Main reasons I have these is I picked up a pair pretty cheaply brand new, and the bike they are for is going to see *very* light duty riding - grip is not an issue. I simply wanted a tubeless one for puncture protection and comfort, but I reckon these will go on sale pretty soon and will use something else.

warpcow

Would UST FFs not be of the era that Stan's recommended against using Schwalbe tyres due to wildly varying tolerances at the bead?

(not sure about that, just thought they'd been discontinued a while since the release of the TLR version)

Wheelspinner

^^ I did not know that. Might explain some of it though, as based on my experience I would certainly not recommend this combination of rim and tyre to anyone!!