heh, i have marthons on my old mountain bike, which are fairly snug seem to need a lot of effort, the bike shop that first fitted them did say they where rather stiff to get on.
I very rarely use a tyre lever to fit a tyre, just pushing the bead down in to the rim usually releases enough to get the rest of the bead over.
However, with marathons I had to resort to tyre levers after a long struggle.
yeah they are a bit stiff though so far no puntures and i do charge about a fair bit on that old bike, they are surprisingly okay off road. though that might have more due to the low bar that the cheap tires you get on most MTB set.
I've just spent over an hour trying to get a 700x23c onto a rim and only succeeded in snapping two park-tool tyre levers - tyres still not on!
Could too much rim tape (maybe up to four sets now) be making it more difficult?
Lots of talc on the tube. Then the tube slides over the rim easily, but you can still grip the tyre. Never fails. And use the Specialized thin rim tape, which doesn't puncture like the hard plastic Michelin stuff but is thin enough not to interfere, unlike Velox.
