When we build tubular wheels at our shop, customers often bring their own tires, and among those, Continental Competition is especially common.
This tire,
↑The inner diameter is just ridiculously small! Will it even fit on a rim?!
I'm probably not the only one who double-checked the tire label wondering if I'd accidentally grabbed a 650C tubular.
You'd want to stick your foot inside the tire and pull it to stretch it, but
↑there's a warning label specifically telling you not to do that.
The fact that Continental felt the need to warn against this tells you how ridiculously small that inner diameter really is.
↑Continental's official answer is:
First, mount it on the rim→
Inflate to 10 bar→
Then leave it for three days.
But the problem is, you can't get it mounted on the rim in the first place.
You'd think Continental would do this step before shipping them...
It's not like the tires shrink dramatically after leaving the factory...
Even if I could force it on through sheer brute strength, most regular customers would find it pretty much impossible.
↑So I came up with this.
A tire stretcher, the "Stretcher Y."
It was supposed to be Stretcher X, but it ended up with three legs, so Y it is.
The belt section connecting the rims is genuine leather (←totally irrelevant info).
The rim section, divided into three parts,
stretches the tire evenly.
Then, once you inflate it, you can easily recreate the "mounted on rim" state.
↑It does seem like it's stretched, now that I look at it.
It's become noticeably easier to mount on the rim.
This tire,
↑The inner diameter is just ridiculously small! Will it even fit on a rim?!
I'm probably not the only one who double-checked the tire label wondering if I'd accidentally grabbed a 650C tubular.
You'd want to stick your foot inside the tire and pull it to stretch it, but
↑there's a warning label specifically telling you not to do that.
The fact that Continental felt the need to warn against this tells you how ridiculously small that inner diameter really is.
↑Continental's official answer is:
First, mount it on the rim→
Inflate to 10 bar→
Then leave it for three days.
But the problem is, you can't get it mounted on the rim in the first place.
You'd think Continental would do this step before shipping them...
It's not like the tires shrink dramatically after leaving the factory...
Even if I could force it on through sheer brute strength, most regular customers would find it pretty much impossible.
↑So I came up with this.
A tire stretcher, the "Stretcher Y."
It was supposed to be Stretcher X, but it ended up with three legs, so Y it is.
The belt section connecting the rims is genuine leather (←totally irrelevant info).
The rim section, divided into three parts,
stretches the tire evenly.
Then, once you inflate it, you can easily recreate the "mounted on rim" state.
↑It does seem like it's stretched, now that I look at it.
It's become noticeably easier to mount on the rim.