Originally Posted by LQQK_OUT

Yes, more tire lube.
Where have you been placing the tire lube?
Put tire lube on:
Duck head
Outside of rim
Inside of tire, bead seat area

You want to place the tire lube in the area so that it helps the tire slip over the rim.

Originally Posted by 702

I only put it on the bead of the tire to help the duck head slide easier.

Originally Posted by LQQK_OUT

Placing the tire lube in the drop center helps to make setting the bead easier.

Originally Posted by foxtrapper

In the drop center of the rim? How is that helping?
Or do you actually mean in the groove of the rim that the tire bead seats in?

Originally Posted by LQQK_OUT

I finally got another chance to try out my Rabaconda street bike tire changer this past Wednesday. If you recall, I mentioned in post #63 that my first attempt at using this machine didn't go very well. I was working on a 2016 HD Ultra 17" front tire with dual spoke mount rotors. The included magnetic wheel supports didn't raise the wheel enough to prevent contact with the frame of the machine. I called customer support, and they sent me an adapter free of charge which raises the magnetic wheel supports. I'd rate customer support as very good!
Time to work on the rear 16" wheel off this same 2016 HD Ultra. My friend was running a Metzeler ME888 Marathon Ultra rear tire and the same brand/model of tire was going to be installed.

Tire removal/installation process was a piece of cake. This machine just works. Unfortunately, for comparison, I've never worked with a Metzeler ME888 Marathon Ultra rear tire on my No-Mar machine. But whenever I've worked on a 180/65-16 rear tire (Dunlop American Elites) on my No-Mar, I've always had difficulty. With this Rabaconda, it was a piece of cake. I was shocked at how easy it was compared to the difficulty I've had on the No-Mar. I truly believe the trick is the Rabaconda ratcheting duck head.

A couple of additional thoughts:

Bead Breaking
I've never had a problem breaking a bead with the No-Mar. I purchased an extension to use on the No-Mar bead breaker (3 feet of 1-1/4" black pipe) for more leverage. When breaking the bead using the No-Mar machine, you need to position the dog/cam block above the yellow dot on the frame arm. Then you need to pick-up the wheel and rotate it below the bead breaker arm so that you can break the bead around the wheel. Sometimes, it's possible if you don't position the wheel correctly under the bead breaker arm, the tire can jump while you press down on the bead breaker. Then after bead breaking, you need to remove the wheel, remove the dog and cam blocks and replace with the posi-clamps. Adjust the posi-clamps and then clamp down the tire.
It's much simpler with the Rabaconda. I was concerned that the bead breaking arm on the Rabaconda wasn't long enough to provide enough leverage, but that wasn't an issue.

Advantages of the Rabaconda over the No-Mar were:
1. No chance of the wheel jumping around during bead breaking
2. Very easy to turn wheel to reposition during bead breaking
3. No need to change anything when ready to remove the tire.

On this particular tire change (2016 HD Ultra rear tire 180/65B-16)
1. Wheel fit on the machine with the stock magnetic wheel supports. I did not need to use the adapters they sent me.
2. I could not fit the stopper pin in an available hole. The hole was blocked by the rotor. So I just used the supplied strap.

I was very impressed with the machine and it's portable! I would highly recommend this machine over a No-Mar and I have both.

Originally Posted by Goose_NC

Wondering what the tire temperatures were during the R/R. I have had issues with cold tires for mounting and seating.