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  Yuri Timenkov 4 minutes ago · Edited 0

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  What an unusual topic for the blog!

  What you should do is:
  1. With only one side of the tire on the rim, put tube's valve into the hole an tighten the nut. This is needed so that valve is perpendicular to the rim (points towards the center of the wheel, not to the side).
  2. Put the rest of the tube. Go symmetrically from valve and meet on the other end. If you didn't secure the valve, you can move it so it looks bent. Also this is when you make sure that tube is not twisted and evenly distributed...

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  What an unusual topic for the blog!

  What you should do is:
  1. With only one side of the tire on the rim, put tube’s valve into the hole an tighten the nut. This is needed so that valve is perpendicular to the rim (points towards the center of the wheel, not to the side).
  2. Put the rest of the tube. Go symmetrically from valve and meet on the other end. If you didn’t secure the valve, you can move it so it looks bent. Also this is when you make sure that tube is not twisted and evenly distributed (older tubes can be stretched). It also helps to properly distribute the tube if you inflate it slightly, so it looks like a doughnut.
  3. Now it’s time to put the second half of the tire. If you inflated the tube – release the air. Otherwise it will be difficult to put on tire, because you want it to be in the middle of the rim (where the kind of cavity is, not the seated on the side) – this is especially important if you’re putting winter or stiffer tires.
  4. Internet says and I just follow the advice to go from the part of the rim opposite to the valve, symmetrically, meeting at the valve. As I said, if tire is stiff, try to push it to the middle of the rim and pull towards valve (to create as much slack as you can at the “meeting point”). This is also the point where you may want to apply some soap to make tire glide into the rim. I didn’t use tools to finish putting tire on the rim, even with winter tires and bloody stiff tubeless GP 5000 (but I had pain in fingers for couple days).
  5. Now, we need to inflate it properly. Here are tricks. First, unscrew the valve nut. While inflating, you want to push valve into the tire, so nothing prevents beads to get properly on the rim. You can do it for 1-1.5 bar, then it will be hard (and pointless). Second trick, if you do it planned at home (not an on-road repair) is to apply soap to tire and rim. Even if you put on tire effortlessly, having some glide while inflating drastically increases chances that tire will be seated nicely. I used a cloth with regular soap, but recently switched to small spray bottle, spraying into the gap between the tire and the rim.

  That’s basically it. Then you inflate the tire. Go to max pressure (some tires just plop onto the rim) and then release air to the desired pressure. I tried to inflate to <1bar and adjust tire if it's not symmetrical, but soap does wonders.

  It is much longer to read this than to do, with a bit of practice. I have 4-5 bikes in family which we use daily and I change tires every spring and fall on all of them for several years now 🙂 Plus countless tube repairs.

  So, TL;DR; for your original question – you first tighten the nut, then unscrew.

  Have a safe ride!

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  Bradley Uffner 4 hours ago · Edited 0

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  You should partially inflate the tube, just enough to make it easier to insert in to the tire, before tightening the valve-stem nut, then fully inflate the tube. This makes it far easier to insert the tube without kinks and helps avoid getting it caught between the rim and the tire, which will cause a flat (or even a blow out) if it happens.

  The nut isn’t required, but really helps inflate the tube when the pressure is very low, especially when you have a tube with a very short valve-stem.