Tubeless tyre removal – the easy way | TECH

Tubeless tyre removal is not easy at the best of times without a tyre machine.

It’s even harder on the tubeless wheels made for classic Vespa and Lambretta due to the shallow ‘well’ in the middle of the wheel. In many cases trying to remove old tyres from these wheels with levers will result in damage to the rims, so here we show an easier method using tyre levers and an angle-grinder fitted with a cutting disc.

This method can also be used to ease tyre removal from any other make of tubeless wheel.

You will need:

• Valve core tool
• Tyre levers
• Rim protectors
• ‘Bead Breaker’ type tyre tool (you can also use tyre levers or a vice)
• An angle grinder fitted with cutting disc
• Goggles and work gloves

The method shown in the video below is a lot easier than battling with levers. It is best avoided by people who are unable to to get food in their mouth without stabbing themselves in the eye with a fork. A modicum of dexterity is required when using power tools as the end of the video highlights. If in doubt, take your wheels to an experienced tyre fitter instead.

If you cut tyres off as shown, make sure to clean the wheels thoroughly to remove any filings before fitting new wheels. SLUK will have a follow-up video on tubeless tyre fitting by hand in the future. There are other videos on YouTube showing how to do it, but it’s rarely as easy as they make it look.

SLUK problem page

There are plenty of other scooter maintenance tasks that many of us struggle with. If you’ve got a problem (marital/sex and addictions are out of our remit) and you want us to help solve it, just drop us an email and we’ll see if we can do a video, or article to make it less daunting: editorial@ScooterLab.UK