Changed Bike Tires While It Rained
On my last ride yesterday I got over the mileage point where I planned to change tires. The front tire has 6044 miles and the rear tire has 5044 miles. I don’t want to chance a failure away from home and i think I got my money ‘s worth out of these. Originally I was going to put a 23mm wide tire on the front wheel and a 25mm wide tire on the rear but after my recent experience of the rear tire rubbing on the left chainstay I elected to go with 23mm wide front and rear. Because I got over 5000 miles on the Continental Gatorskin on the rear with only 1 or 2 flats I am going with Continental Gatorskin Hardshell tires.
With a day of rain I figured today was the best time to remove the old tires and install the news since I wouldn’t be riding.
The front tire was difficult to get off the rim. My tire tool kept slipping and I skinned my knuckle. Using two tire tools helped and I got the tire off. The tube was in good shape so I reused it. The rims have a wide cross section requiring a stem of 60mm or longer. I couldn’t change the tube even if I wanted to because I don’t have any spare tubes with the long of a stem. Her are some pictures of the front tire.
Now for the rear wheel. The old Continental tire was a little easier to remove than the front one. It had not been off the rim for a long time. Two tire tools came in handy again. While this wheel was off the bike I checked the inside of the left chainstay again to see if the Duck tape had any sign of rubbing. There was a couple of scratches but not through the tape.
After this I removed the old tube from the rear tire. It had two patches on it and to be safe I wanted to replace it but I did not have a tube with a 60mm or longer stem. It went back in the tire and finished mounting the new tire on the rear rim. Airing it up to 110 psi made the tire firm and ready to go back on the bike.
Ready for the rain to end and get some miles on the new tires.
