WTB TCS Horizon tire on WTB TCS rim. I cannot remove the tires for repairs except in my shop with inappropriate tools – it’s the inner lip on the rim causing difficulty breaking bead out. Once out, no biggie. My trust in being able to handle tire issues is low. Tubeless, so minor flats OK. It’s major cuts I could boot and tube that concern me. Keeping me from going too remote.
I wrote TWB, no response yet.
I don’t have flat issues. It’s likely not a big deal. But I ride alone, and sometimes in places without much bike traffic at all. I have no friends or family that could get me (non-driving city people, and a 90 year old man!). So I have concern.
Tools or reliable tricks for getting these impossibly tight tires to break free?
Or do I tear them off and replace with something? The Horizons are 47 mm, look huge, are rather smooth, and are among the best all purpose tires I’ve used, for no apparent reason. Have taken them over real crap, roots, single track, places they shouldn’t work, and they do. People like the Rene Herse etc fancy supple tires, but $$$. But my Continental Ultra Sport on road bike were $25 each, and really are rather fast, grippy, nice tires, easily equal to the $$ ones they replaced. Easily. And are wearing very well. So there’s likely some kind of bargain out there. Suggestions on what to look at?
The other issue is size. I’ve only ridden 47 mm tires on this gravel bike. I have nice, excellent knobbies for rougher stuff. I’m mostly on paths, roads, and good packed gravel, with some easy dirt trail thrown in. Nothing demanding. I’m wondering whether a move to 42 or even 38 might offer some kind of advantage.
As a random example: [Panaracer GravelKing 650B Tire \[RF650B38-GK-D\] (biketiresdirect.com)](https://www.biketiresdirect.com/product/panaracer-gravelking-650b-tire)
38 mm is 320 g, 42 is 360, and the 48 is a whopping 520 g. [Silca.cc](https://Silca.cc) give 48 psi for 32, 40.5 for 42, and 32.5 for 48 mm.
I have another bike running with 42 that measure 39 by calipers, run at 40 to 44 psi. Seems smooth enough. Could 42 mm be the sweet spot for mostly good surfaces, with intermittent city shit?
Talk me down from the edge. Maybe WTB has a trick to get their tires off their rims without brutality!
by toaster404
4 Comments
There’s no guarantee that another tire will be any different; sometimes it’s the rims, sometimes it’s a particular rim/tire combination. I’d recommend riding with a Bead Jack.
Wtb tyres + tubeless = dogshit
i have this exact tire (horizon 650bx47)and rim on my Kona Rove I use a block of wood and step on the bead. probably not legal but it works. i support the wheel with a 2×4 and towel so it doesn’t scratch. this is in my garage .
When doing the opposite brake side i suspend the rotor off the ground so it doesn’t get bent
I’ve done a field flat repair a couple of times. but it was warmer so the bead broke easily.
>WTB TCS Horizon tire on WTB TCS rim. I cannot remove the tires for repairs except in my shop with inappropriate tools
My conclusion is that one must avoid running WTB tires on WTB rims.
Other brands that are looser on them (specialized for examples) are still plenty tight enough to setup tubeless with a hand pump
Some dish soap in water will help, but not solve the fundamentally incompatibility of WTB’s tubeless tires with WTB’s tubeless rims.