Advice a Father Passes To His Son About Tires

I was working on installing new tires, Schwalbe Marathon Plus w/ SmartGuard wire, that Rivendell Bikes got me to ride across the country: 4200 miles and 0 flats.  Eventually they do wear out.

If I had advice to give my son it would be this:

Spend a lot of money on the tires.  The $/mile is a lot less that way.

Tires that snap the bead into the rim are hard to mount, squeeze them off the edge and set them into the valley and the mm you save going around the edge are the difference between a full blown tantrum and a job well done.  In the unlikely event the tire is still hard going over the last part of the rim, use furniture polish on the inside lip of the tire (without getting it on the outside) if you are in your shop, and soap if you are by the side of the road (chamois cream, sweat/blood/tears if you have to).

That is it, everything you need to know from a Dad’s point of view.

Oh and while the wrenches at the local shop wax on about tires, read Engineering specs like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_5775#Rims whenever you can.