The closely guarded ancient ninja secret to DIY tire changes turns out to be to use actual professional tire bead lubricant. I finally got a gallon bucket of the stuff online which will probably be a lifetime supply, and using it almost feels like cheating. Forget about Windex and dish soap.
On every rim I've tried it on it completely eliminated the struggle other than breaking the bead on the crustier examples, for which I have a selection of bead breaking tools anyway. I put a front tire on my KLR a couple of months ago which is a 21" diameter, and using the lubricant stuff after breaking the bead I was able to shove the old tire off by hand without using any spoons at all, and I very nearly got the new tire back on without any spoons, either. I only needed to spoon it for about the last one sixth of its diameter on the second bead.








