I work in a bike shop where I change tires all the time. It’s basically second nature to me at this point. I forgot to mention it’s an ebike shop so most of the bikes have those big fat tires. So when my dirtbike needed new tires I thought ‘no problem I do this all the time on bikes how much harder can it be for a dirtbike’, oh boy I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It all started on a faithful day during the end of the fall semester of 2024. I was house sitting for my cousins, and had physics and calculus finals that I needed to cram for. But for some reason I had enough time to do the tire change on the dirtbike or at least I thought I did. I bought a dirtbike stand on facebook marketplace and a set of tires off of amazon. I sat my bike on the stand in the driveway and started working. I’m going to spare you the details and just say, it did not go well. I had basically no idea what I was doing. I was using regular tire levers instead of spoons. The rear tire which was the one I opted to do first was extremely stiff. I ended up having to cut off the original before I could even think about putting the new one on. Basically the whole time I was just getting more and more frustrated at how hard it was to put new tires onto this dirtbike. I finally got the new tire almost entirely on… Then I pinched the tube… Then I gave up.
Fast forward to present day it is now the end of the spring semester of 2025 and I am taking another shot at this. I set everything up in my garage, I got proper spoons, and I hit the ground running. I started with the front tire after learning my lesson with the rear back in winter. I got the old tire removed and got the new one halfway back on, then I pinched the tube. Ok I thought no problem I have the old tube that is still good I can try again with that. Nope pinched that tube too. So yeah that is where I am at. I need to patch the front tubes and get the front tire on without pinching the tube. Then I need to open up the bead of the rear tire and place a new tube in there without pinching it.
I did some interneting yesterday after pinching my third tube looking to learn from my mistakes. What I’ve found is that I need to be more gentle with my spoon and go less deep into the bead and also use lubricant. So I am going to try again today with that new information and techniques. Wish me luck.
Fuck putting new tubes into dirtbike tires. The good news is that I’ve found that using soapy water to lube the tire, rim, and tube makes it a lot easier to get the tire on. The bad news is that I have pinched two more rear tubes and will now have to patch one and try again.
A month later after getting back from a trip I asked my co worker who has a lot of experience putting tires on surrons which have similar tires albeit a bit smaller, and even he couldn’t get the front one on without pinching the tube.
So I decided not to sink any more time into this endever and just said fuck it and took it to a shop.