removing urethane tires

[Gary Coyne]

The rubber tire on my Rikon 10" broke so I got some urethane tires and it was then that I realized that the wheels had no crown. By a different conversation in these hallowed electronic halls, someone else who had the same issue I called Rikon and they are sending me a brand new pair of wheels WITH a crown.

However, I've already installed the urethane tires on the old wheels and I'd like to place them on the new wheels. So how do I get them off so that they are still viable?

I did place them in hot water so that they'd be pliable enough to be stretched onto the old wheels but there's no way I can place the 10" wheels in hot water.

I was thinking of GENTLY heating the tire with a heat gun to soften them and then take a slotted screwdriver to lift them off but am not sure if there's a better way.

Thoughts, suggestions, jokes?

[Alex Zeller]

I've put mine on and removed them plenty of times with no issues. I simply used a small flat head screwdriver to get under the tire without damaging it. The urethane stretches but it returns to normal. After putting them on I did the same thing with the screwdriver but spun it around the entire diameter of the wheel several times to make sure that the tire was evenly stretched. I've never used hot water or any other trick to heat them up.

[Eric Danstrom]

The rubber tire on my Rikon 10" broke so I got some urethane tires and it was then that I realized that the wheels had no crown....

Did you decide they couldn't work without a crown? I have the blue tyres without crown and they work very well as replacements for my OEM crowned black rubber tyres.

[Rod Sheridan]

Why wouldn't you use a non crowned wheel?

Regards, Rod.

[Gary Coyne]

Hi Folks,

To answer in series:

1) Alex, thanks for how to remove the tires. Easier than I thought it would be.

2) Eric & Rod, it was not that I thought they wouldn't work without a crown, it's that I spent over an hour trying to align the blade on the two wheels and could not do it. The rubber was apparently more forgiving but the urethane tires would not let me align the blade.

Perhaps some of you folks have flat wheels and had no problem getting the blade to align but I've always had some "issues" and with the urethane, it was just not going to happen.

What I'm expecting/hoping is that the crown will provide a specific focus region on the wheel for the blade to reside during turning. Perhaps there are small micro regions on the wheel that rise up and down and cause the blade to wander. The urethane, being more dense than the rubber, is more likely to not absorb the variations. (The Rikon wheels are not an engineering wonder.) With the crown, there is a specific region on the wheel (centered no less) that hopefully will be uniform throughout the circumference.

It'll take about a week for the new wheels to come in, I'll let you know how it works out.

[Edward Dyas]

The rubber tire on my Rikon 10" broke so I got some urethane tires and it was then that I realized that the wheels had no crown. By a different conversation in these hallowed electronic halls, someone else who had the same issue I called Rikon and they are sending me a brand new pair of wheels WITH a crown.

However, I've already installed the urethane tires on the old wheels and I'd like to place them on the new wheels. So how do I get them off so that they are still viable?

I did place them in hot water so that they'd be pliable enough to be stretched onto the old wheels but there's no way I can place the 10" wheels in hot water.

I was thinking of GENTLY heating the tire with a heat gun to soften them and then take a slotted screwdriver to lift them off but am not sure if there's a better way.

Thoughts, suggestions, jokes?

I would just pull it off. They come off a lot easier than putting them on. In fact one of the negative sides of urethane tires is they tend to come off when you don't want them to. Not like rubber tires that are glued on. From what I've seen most people don't crown a urethane tire since they are thin.