A word of warning regarding Continental GP5000 TL tires.
August 2022 Update: Well, this has certainly been the most popular blog we have ever written. Sorry if we have not approved all the comments. We get about 300 spam comments per day (in case you want to know where to buy cheap prescriptions from Russia, we have you covered).
We have looked at the changes that tubeless tires have gone through over the years. When we released our original tubeless rim beds, the tires we were installing all were very easy to install. However, tires have gotten tighter and tighter over time, so we made the decision to revise the rim beds of the wheels to make the tighter fitting tubeless tires easier to install.
The Conti GP5000 TL will still be incredibly hard to install! However, the newer model Conti GP5000 TR go on much easier than before. We have been mounting them here with just our hands.
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Our tubeless rim bed meets all the critical dimensions to successfully run tubeless tires. The dimensions make for easy installation and tubeless set up. We have tested tubeless tires from a large number of tire companies and had success with almost all of these. Some tires fit a little tighter than others, but for that case we made a video showing how to easily mount tighter tires
https://boydcycling.com/blogs/news/boyd-cycling-the-tire-mounting-trick
Unfortunately, the new Continental GP500 TL tire has a bead diameter that is way tighter than any other tire we have seen. With Continental being such a large brand, we have had frustration with a lot of customers trying to mount those tires wheels. This is not unique to Boyd Cycling wheels, as there are reports across all wheel brands that the GP500 TL tire is near impossible to mount.
We would prefer that our customers not resort to extreme force on tire levers just to get the first bead on the rim. With that, we are heavily discouraging the use of Continental GP5000 TL tires on the carbon wheels. Any damage to a carbon rim caused by excessive force on tire levers will not be covered by the wheel’s lifetime warranty.
For tips, tricks, and videos on setting up your wheels tubeless, please visit:
Hey Don,
Those tires mount easier on alloy wheels, although they are still going to be fairly tight.
What are you thoughts on the newer Continental Grand Prix 5000 S Tubeless Ready, specifically mounting on Altamont Lite wheels?
the thinner contis are marginally easier to mount… i.e., 28s aren’t too bad but the 32s are god awful.
GP 5000 TL are great and I admit they are tight but you wouldn’t want them coming off the rims! They are no more difficult to fit than any other tyre, just warm them up either on a radiator or a really low oven for 10 mins first and they go on a treat without using any levers.
I agree. I have Ultegra wheels that I have run the 5000 non-tubeless on and there is no way that 5000 TL is going on. I have mounted Hutchinson Fusions successfully in the past.
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