Help seating the bead...

Well, changing the front tire this weekend. I had to cut off the tightest-tire-known-to-man... An old Avon that had good tread, but was cracked and checked. The new Shinko tire from Motorcycle Superstore went on pretty easy. Only had to lever on the last half of the second bead. Went as well as the rear tire.

However... Now there is a 14" section of the tire bead that won't seat. Everywhere else along the rim, the tire looks and feels great. But this cursed section won't hold air. It is like the tire is pinched together at that point. In fact, I'll bet it is where my knees were when I was putting the tire on the rim. Anyway, are there any suggestions? Over the last hour and a half I've used lots of soap to lubricate it. Just blows bubbles. I've bounced it, banged it, twisted it, pressed it, compressed it with a tie-down strap, and everything I could think of to get it to hold air or seat.

As always, any suggestions would be very welcome.

 

I was in the exact same boat last May. I ended up calmly putting the tire down, turning out the garage lights and coming back the next morning. This might be bad, but, Windex, soap, etc, etc, didn't work, I used 30W oil. Using my trusty little oiler can, I put oil along the bead and on the second try with the air, the bead just popped on. A lot of the oil seemed to squeeze out, which I wiped off. I am not sure how much ended up inside the wheel, but it is on and seemed to balance fine.

Option 2 - humbly take it in and have a pro with way more CFM than you have seat that narrow rimmed wheel

 

If I understand you correctly you're not even getting it to pressure up?

Sometimes the strap doesn't work, the tire just puckers.

Those can be very tough. You need a lot of air in very little time to get it started. One trick is to pull the valve out of the stem - this will let the air in faster.

If it's just one section of the tire that is collapsed you can try squeezing it to the rim to hold air while things get started. Once pressure starts to build up it should lift up onto the lands where it seats.

Of course if you have a regulator on your compressor you want it maxed. You'll never start a tire trying to push 40psi air down a 30' hose. You need a lot of pressure at the chuck, but still don't inflate the tire more than the max pressure on the sidewall or you could get hurt.

 

did you clean all the old tire off the rim with a wire brush and scotchbrite pad?
thats a very good thing to do
push off the side that won't seat and spray your windex between the rim and tire then before it dries shoot the air to it
once the tire's started on the rim the lube can't get to where it needs to be
i always seat the bead with way more than the max pressure, if it can't take 60 psi new i'm not going down the hiway on it

 

OK. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see what my compressor regulator is set to. I have a larger compressor available, as well, if I need it.

I did clean the rim with a wire brush. Got all the old tire gunk off.

Anyway, I'll see if I can get some more psi into the tire quickly. When I pump air in, I can feel it coming out the gap between the tire and the rim. Perhaps more air faster is the way to go.

Thanks again!

 

MiCarl, you get the prize. I took the valve out of the stem, and that sucker popped in 1.3 seconds. Thanks for the tip... Now, if only I could get those two hours back...

 

I think Michael J Fox had a time machine available for use at one time....

 

Wonder if I can get a 1 gigawatt flux capacitor to fit my Maxim. :wink:

 

Nothing to do with tyre fitting - but the flux capacitior made me laugh.

A few years ago I worked at a brewery and they had a few bottle inspecting machines on the bottling line.

On developed a problem and had a crack in a prism (They were optical devices) and we didn't have a spare.

The new supervisor thought this was arse covering time and decided to write a very long and technical email all about what the problem was and what they were doing about it.

The only problem was that he didn't know what he was talking about.
Halfway through his very long email his mind went blank and he couldn't remember which part was broken. He turned to "Hemi" for advice and said, "What's that broken bit called?"

Hemi replied, "The flux capacitor".

The supervisor completed his email, detailing the problem with the flux capacitor and how they were getting a new one couriered in (Maybe "Doc" was bringing it in the train?).

Worst of all, he copied it to EVERYONE.................