How to Install Schwalbe Marathon Almotion Tubeless Tires on a Priority Apollo Bicycle

Since my bike tour is coming up in a little more than a week, I thought about changing my stock Priority Apollo tires to tubeless tires instead of carrying the tubeless tires and change them later while I'm on the road. It turned out to be a good decision because it'll save me the weight and the conversion to tubeless tires turned out to be pretty time consuming and difficult. I want to document my process in case anyone else on the internet wants to change their stock tires to tubeless tires on a Priority Apollo bicycle.

Back in November, I ordered Schwalbe Marathon Almotion 700c tubeless tires (HS603) 700 x 38mm TLE from BikeTiresDirect.com when they had a sale. Many touring cyclists use Schwalbe Marathon tires and the Almotion is the only Marathon tire that I found to have the tubeless variety. This is the official link for the Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tires with detailed information.

The reason that I want to switch from tube tires to tubeless tires is because tubeless tires are more resistant to punctures. Also my stock tires have about 1960 miles on them already when I cycled to Florida in 2023. So I thought that changing to Marathon tubeless tires before my trip is a good idea.

First, I highly recommend watching this YouTube video made by WTB and this YouTube video by The Gravelist to get an idea before you start.

Here are the things you need to convert a tube tire to tubeless:

• Two Schwalbe Marathon Almotion 700c tubeless tires (HS603) 700 x 38mm TLE ($89 each at Bike TiresDirect.com)
• One bottle of Orange Seal Cycling Endurance 8oz Sealant with Injector ($20 at BikeTiresDirect.com)
• Valve Core Remover Tool ($5 at Amazon)
• Stans-No Tubes 44mm Presta Universal Valve Stems ($13 at Amazon)
• TCS Tubeless Rim Tape 28mm x 11m ($17 at REI)

You also need tire levers if you don't have them.

Follow The Gravelist video to remove the wheels, remember to remove the cable by the rear hub before taking the rear wheel off. I found it easier when I shifted the gear to a looser setting so the cable can have some slack. See this Priority YouTube video to learn how to take out the cable.

Once you have both wheels off the bike, deflate the tires. I had so much trouble getting the tire off the rim that I ended up standing on the tire and pull up on the rim to get the tire walls off the rim. This YouTube video explains it.

Putting on the rim tape was easy after watching the WTB video. Make sure to use the 28mm wide rim tape since the stock rim is 23mm and you need 5mm extra tape to fit the tape in the rim well.

The hard part is to put on the Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tubeless tires since they are a tight fit. I followed the WTB video to put on the tire. I got one wall of the tire onto the rim with the help of my tire lever. However, the hardest part was to put on the rest of the tire since the fit is so tight.

After some research online, I prepared some soapy water and rubbed it inside the tire wall and around the edges of the tire. This will lubricate the wall of the tire. Then I used a towel to cover the tire so I can have a better grip when I pulled/rolled the tire onto the rim. I realized that when I tried to pull/roll the tire wall onto the rim the opposite side would slip out. I ended up tying one end with a zip tie very tight so that there's no way for the tire wall to slip out. Then I gripped the tire with the towel again and pulled/rolled the tire. Finally, after several tries I was able to put the tire on the rim.

I filled up the tires with air from my floor pump. One of the tires made two pop sounds, indicating the tire walls are seated to the beads. But my other tire made no sound when I filled it up with air. By visually inspecting the tire for evenness, I confirmed that this tire is seated on the beads correctly even though I didn't hear any pop sounds.

I then followed the rest of Gravelist video to put the sealant into the tire. Since the Orange Sealant is 8oz, I used about 1/4 of the bottle, or 2oz, for each tire. Now all that's left is to put the wheels back on the bike.

This entire process took me several days since it's my first time putting on tubeless tires. I wanted to learn how to do this on my own so I can fix my bike when I'm on the road. However, I thought about taking my wheels to a bike shop if I couldn't get the tubeless tires on. Luckily, with persistence and the internet, I was able to do it.

I hope this post can help someone else putting on tight fitting tubeless tires. The zip tie trick was my idea and it worked well. Hope someone can benefit from that. I also hope the Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tubeless tires will last for at least 10,000 km, or about 6200 miles, and the sealant can fill up any punctures that I might have while on the road.