No worries but to be clear, do you stand by your opinion for old bikes? The ones I maintain are decades old and those 5 minutes I mentioned easily turn into 30 minutes at times because of brakes and guards working together against me. I've always considered that time to be the price to pay to have a cheap, undesirable (to thieves) bike and your estimate is challenging my world views!
Regarding tire removal, I recently did it like three times in a single week. It was like 15 minutes in sweat and finger pain every time. To get an idea of what one can achieve, can you remove a tire without tools with fat tires only or even thin road tires? Mine were thin, 23mm (less than an inch). By the way, in this instance, it wasn't a beater but a high-end 1970s bike.
Thanks for the advice, I'll look into it because it sounds like I'm missing something.
Don't worry, nothing I said is specific to newer bikes. Definitely, older bikes can present unique challenges but swapping tires hasn't changed. (Unless you get into tubeless... I wouldn't recommend it for road riding...)
How difficult it is to remove or replace a tire really comes down to the tire/rim combinations. Different types and sizes of tires can make a big difference.
Some combinations can definitely be trickier to mount, but with the right it can usually be down without too much physical strain. Mechanics in the bike shop do it many, many times each day after all.
Regarding tire removal, I recently did it like three times in a single week. It was like 15 minutes in sweat and finger pain every time. To get an idea of what one can achieve, can you remove a tire without tools with fat tires only or even thin road tires? Mine were thin, 23mm (less than an inch). By the way, in this instance, it wasn't a beater but a high-end 1970s bike.
Thanks for the advice, I'll look into it because it sounds like I'm missing something.