I think people put more effort into changing the tires than thought. It is more about techniques than machine, tire, or braun. I can and do change my own tires on a "inferior" HF tire machine alone, and I do it without breaking a nail, or even chipping my nail polish.
One must be smarter than the tire they are trying to mount. You obviously are. Others obviously are not.
I too have not had trouble using the HF changer (MoJo adapted) with the GT tires. Yet there are some who have much more experience and knowledge with bikes than I, that
are having problems. I've been trying to determine why that is, and I can only agree that it's "technique" and that a simple change for them would give them an "aha!" moment. I'll try to show how my "aha!" came about and maybe it will help. Hopefully it won't muddy the waters.
(sort of a disclaimer section here)First, the tire bead closest to me is always down in the center of the wheel and I usually have a piece of wood on top of the tire and below the rim to help keep it there. Some are just able to push down on that portion of the tire with their hand to avoid using the wood. (If I were taller, or if the HF changer were shorter, I could probably do that as well and avoid using the wood.) This has been posted and repeated by many so I'm sure that those having trouble already know to do this, but I had to add that here. I also use RuGLYDE in a spray bottle. I have not yet had to heat or set the tires in the sun to soften them up, but I'm in Texas so I haven't changed them yet when my garage was below 55 degrees. I'll also add (I know you already know this) to put a ratchet strap around a wheel spoke and the changer so the wheel doesn't spin in the MoJo blocks as you apply torque to it. My description below refers to the mounting of the second bead of the tire as I'm assuming that nobody is having trouble getting the first bead on (?).
(end of sort of a disclaimer section) In the diagram below I originally assumed that the end of the MoJo lever went at point
W (
W for
Wrong) and was supposed to clip under the rim and force the tire bead down as I moved my end of the bar to the left against the center rod thus moving the clip end to the right. The rim lip, or clip as I call it, of the lever would slip out and I would have to keep moving my end of the Mojo lever higher and higher to keep it in place. I finally got the rear tire (PR3 IIRC) on using that technique but I was already sore when I started to work on the the front tire which I thought would be easier. Wrong, it seemed I might pull the changer out of the floor. I had the bar high at my end and had both arms on the lever trying to move it to the left and there were muscles and tendons screaming at me, my brain was also pretty insistent that if something broke or slipped I was going to go flying and be seriously injured. That front tire just would not go on. With my sweat dripping on the garage floor, I went inside frustrated and exhausted to cool off in the AC. With a glass of lemonade and a couple of Ibuprofen, sat down and watched some tire changing videos on YouTube. One of the videos had a link to
this pdf of Preston Drake's instructions so I reread them and then my "aha!" moment occurred when I got to page 6, last sentence of instruction 6, and saw the top photo on the page. (I'll insert my own RTFM
right here to save others the trouble) I went back out to the garage and moved the lever end to the correct position (marked as
C in the crude sketch below) and the tire slipped right on. I had a firm grasp of the lever but I think I could have done it with a couple of fingers. I stood there in disbelief and in awe of my earlier idiocy. The purpose of the tip of the MoJo lever is not to force the tire bead
down, but rather force it
out just past the edge of the rim so it can drop down below the rim on it's own as the tip of the bar is moved out of the way. Once I understood that, it all flowed "like Buttah". I have not had any trouble mounting any tire including PR4 GTs since that day. I still don't know how I mounted the rear PR3 that day using the wrong technique. I doubt I could do it again.
I hope this helped someone. If not then all I can say is, if you already know all about it and are still having problems, then go back and RTFM until you do actually know all about it.
Just don't tell anybody all about it, like I just did.
Returning to the original topic
, anyway that is how I'm going to mount my Dunlop RoadSmart 3s if they ever come to this country and aren't costlier than PR4GTs.
(edit: Just one more thing, lemonade and Ibuprofin are not a good combination, especially on an empty stomach. But then you knew that. )
