Installing New Tires

The tire on my bike popped back in August 2020. It took saving all my pennies, but I finally achieved dolphin status on a blogging platform and am now ready to start spending money on life.

Someone had stolen my bike pump and repair kit. Since I was looking at buying a new pump, new tires, a new repair kit and new tubes I decided to look for alternatives.

Tannus sells airless tires. These solid foam rubber tires are supposed to last 5,000 miles. 5,000 miles is about 8,000 kilometers. I checked their site a few days ago and the tires were half price; So, I paid $80 for two tires. If the 8,000 km figure is true; then I am paying a penny per kilometer in tires.

The install was a real bugger. As you can see in the picture, the install involved stretching a tight rubber tube around a rim that was slightly larger than the tube.

The first tire took a frustrating four hours before I was able to super human the tires onto the rims.

For the second install, I struggled for an hour. The problem was that I needed an extra set of hands so that I could hold the tire in place while I stretched the tube.

As I only have two hands I did the following. I used two heavy duty clamps to hold the tire to the rim. I then used three pry bars to force the tire over the rim.

The Tannus kit came with two tools that they suggested using as pry bars.

Forcing the tire over the rim required so much pressure that the Tannus tools bent. Fortunately I had several large flathead screw drivers and they worked.

Videos from Tannus say that the tires undergo a chemical transition after installation and that one should do short rides for the first days after the install. So, I just did a short 3.1 km ride. I did multiple turns in a parking lot. I agree that the tires feel a little bit off. So, I hope they set up better in the next few days.

The starting miles on my odometer was 94.7 km and ended at 97.8

I put pictures of each phase of the install process on my photo site and on PeakD. BTW: I became a dolphin on that other platform.