Posted by David Sherman on Thursday, December 11, 2003 at 11:43PM :
In Reply to: Re: Any tricks for getting tires off rims posted by Galen on Thursday, December 11, 2003 at 3:02PM :
Watch them close. Skill is everything when it comes to swinging that tire hammer. I just had a rusty old 9.00-20 patched and it was the kid's first big split-rim. He hit the tire or the wheel about 10 times for every time he hit the right spot. Fortunately he wasn't putting enough muscle into it to hurt anything so I figured I'd let him practice a while. Once he got tired and he told the owner he was stuck, the owner went at it like a pro (well, of course he was a pro) -- went around the rim twice with each blow right next to the previous one and never missed. The boss showed him how to pull out the flap and tube (the kid wasn't putting much muscle into that either), clean up all the pieces, put it back together, seat the lock-ring, and air it up. I was at the shop for an hour, but at least I saw it was done right. Everybody has to learn by doing and we need to have some young guys that know how to fix those tires when the old guys are gone, so he might as well practice on mine. But yeah, I've learned to watch them break the bead, because too many fresh divots have appeared in my lock-rings