- Sun Jul 20, 2014 5:00 pm
#3922
"Easy" tyre removal tip? (The old hands hear will already know this)...but for us amateurs...
The first time I tried to remove the rear tyre on my Bullet, in 2012, was a real chore. Refitting was much simpler.
The second time, on the front wheel earlier this year, was just as fraught, with the refitting entrusted to the local tyre shop so as to be balanced too.
But I've just read something in the Pitman's Book of the Royal Enfield by W C Haycraft, first printed in the early thirties.
The advice on page 103 of my copy: How To Remove a Tyre Without Struggling With It, is absolutely rock solid and worked a treat. No struggle at all yesterday, and the "cover" was off the rim in less than five minutes.
The advice in these old manuals from people of the older generation is so priceless, and works as good today as it did 80 years ago.
Alas, it is sad to say, with many of these older engineers and craftsmen being very hard to find these days, the internet and still, a good book, will glean that much needed advice and handy tip. And of course, there is the other phenomenon that is Youtube...(Is there no subject on earth NOT covered on Youtube!).
The useful tip was: Working opposite the valve, push both sides of the beading into the centre (well) of the rim, and try and keep them there, with your knees is best, and then start levering from the valve area outwards, right to left, left to right, a little at a time. And hey presto...nearly as easy as my pushbike! This one tip has changed my opinion of doing a roadside repair in one hit. Try it in your shed next time!
The first time I tried to remove the rear tyre on my Bullet, in 2012, was a real chore. Refitting was much simpler.
The second time, on the front wheel earlier this year, was just as fraught, with the refitting entrusted to the local tyre shop so as to be balanced too.
But I've just read something in the Pitman's Book of the Royal Enfield by W C Haycraft, first printed in the early thirties.
The advice on page 103 of my copy: How To Remove a Tyre Without Struggling With It, is absolutely rock solid and worked a treat. No struggle at all yesterday, and the "cover" was off the rim in less than five minutes.
The advice in these old manuals from people of the older generation is so priceless, and works as good today as it did 80 years ago.
Alas, it is sad to say, with many of these older engineers and craftsmen being very hard to find these days, the internet and still, a good book, will glean that much needed advice and handy tip. And of course, there is the other phenomenon that is Youtube...(Is there no subject on earth NOT covered on Youtube!).
The useful tip was: Working opposite the valve, push both sides of the beading into the centre (well) of the rim, and try and keep them there, with your knees is best, and then start levering from the valve area outwards, right to left, left to right, a little at a time. And hey presto...nearly as easy as my pushbike! This one tip has changed my opinion of doing a roadside repair in one hit. Try it in your shed next time!
