Tips for changing a 36er tire?

I need to put a nightrider tire on my 36er. I heard Talcum powder helps, with a good amount of tire levers. I don’t have any talcum around, but I assume baby powder works just as well.

Any other tips for changing a 36" tire?

Is it that harder than the smaller sized tires? Other than the obvious tire weight difference that is.

I didn’t know that. Just got a 36 and I’m curious too if it is harder.

I use the Park Tool Hooked tire levers, and it does the job great.
It’s a 3 pack, but I never use the third, I just hook the first and keep working around with the second - no powder assist at all…

I have the TA 36".

Have fun,
Yuval

I must admit Im not especially quick at changing bike tyres
But I find 36er tyres particularly challenging

I havn’t tried talc / baby powder,

But I find lots of struggling, sweating slicing your fingers open with tyre levers and large numbers of shouted profanities to be very effective

I haven’t changed a 36" tire, but I would think it’s like any other tire: before you use the levers, squeeze it to make sure it gets into the dip in the middle of the rim. Squeeze and pull it, starting from the valve all the way to the opposite side, before inserting the levers.

I have found nightrider tires particularly challenging to change and have broken a plastic tire lever in the attempt. I now have metal tire levers that work fine, but it takes more force than with other unicycle tires.

The baby powder is supposed to be helpful for seating the inner tube without too much friction. I use it, but I do not know if it is necessary.

Scott

I’ve never had any problems with changing nightrider tyres with plastic levers. I have a KH and a Nimbus, both with nimbus rims.

Could different rims be the problem here? Some rims have higher sidewalls than others?

(I am not very handy, so it’s not that for sure)

That was my experience as well, the first time I tried. So I took it to my local bike shop, and watched two guys struggle and sweat over it for about 15 minutes. Then they charged me exactly the same price they charge for a “normal” tire change, which was just a few bucks. A stellar deal!

Since then I’ve done a few tire changes with this giant, metal tire lever I have. None of the non-metal levers I have can do it with my combination of rims/tires.

Absolutely. My first Coker had the Airfoil rim, and I think I had one of the ones that was slightly larger, making it a bitch to get tires on or off. Now I have the Nimbus rim with the holes, and a Nightrider tire; still need the metal lever but I haven’t tried any powder.

Old Nimbus Stealth rims lead such troubles with tire changing. Stealth2 is ok.

I’m fairly inept at changing tires. I recently punctured a tube swapping tires on my 26" muni. For changing the 36" I found Pedro tire levers to be invaluable. They sell them at UDC (as well as my local bike shop). I’ve never used powder.

Steel Core Levers

I have a Nightrider with the original Nimbus Stealth rim. I bought the uni used and it had a flat tube. Getting that rim off was not fun.

After breaking some plastic park levers I purchased a set of Park Steel core levers and a set of steel levers.

http://www.parktool.com/product/steel-core-tire-levers-tl-6

http://www.parktool.com/product/heavy-duty-steel-tire-lever-set-tl-5

Fortunately, I never had to resort to the steel levers; the steel core did the job. But it was slow and agonizing; at times I didn’t think I was going to make it.

The effort it took to change that tube is always recalled whenever I have thoughts about changing the Nightrider for a Todd.

Maybe this is a good excuse to change the Stealth with a Stealth2? Naaa… I’ll wait till I have a flat.

Did I just say that? #nowiamjinxed

I have some spring clamps that I use on to squeeze the tire beads together on the opposite side from where I’m trying to get the tire over the rim. It helps to put the beads into the dip in the center of the rim, and that gives you a bit more space to work the bead over the edge.

It’s a bit of work for sure, but I’ve never had too much trouble changing 36er tires. I do have 10" metal shop tire levers though, so that probably makes a difference.

Put the nightrider tire onto my coker 07/08 rim without any issues, and no pinched fingers! The baby powder really slipped that sucker on. I only needed 2 steel core tire levers. Thanks Amy at unicycle.com for the talcum tip! I actually put some in a tiny ziplock and I will now carry it with me in my riding kit for those times when you gotta patch a flat!