Seating a tyre bead

Tau

Changed a tube for the first time with the tyres that came on my BeOne Storm (no puncture, but the valve broke).

For some reason, the tyre hasn't seated at the same depth the whole way around, so that in some places the tyre is going to effectively be thicker between the rim and the ground.

I've actually seen this before on a friend's bike (caused some pretty crazy vibration) and the solution then was just to pump up the tire more, but I'm pretty close to max pressure already.

What causes the tire not to seat in the same way all the way around? Is there a way to fix this?

seamus

It should seat the same all the way around, you shouldn't notice more than a couple of mm difference between any two points.

It's usually at the valve that the tyre doesn't seat in properly. Let the air out of the tube again and try pushing the tyre in fully all the way around.

Home:Ballyhoura

Deflate slightly so its easier to manouver around easier. Then give it a good pull and tug to try and get it even all the way around. Pump way up to max pressure, wait to hear it jump into place. This process can be helped by using some washing up liquid if really necessary (which I would hope you shouldn't need as it is not recommended due to claims it causes rims to corrode. Make sure to wash it off as much as possible if you do use it though). I think high pressure should be your solution though, once it is set into place you can drop it down to your desired pressure and it will hopefully stay seated properly. Hope this helps. Best of luck and let us know how you get on! Cheers

Lumen

Don't use pressure. If you try inflate a badly fitted tyre it will likely pop dramatically off the rim. I did this twice at the weekend when lazily refitting a 35mm tyre. The tube totally prolapsed, it was a bit scary.

Best to put just a little air in then rotate the wheel, pushing the tyre down hard to seat the bead.

Dan_85

I too had a similar problem but in my ignorance just pumped it up to my desired psi... new tyres had just been fitted, feeling happy with the speedy change of both tyres i took them out for a spin... ah that new tyre feel... 20 mins into the spin bang a blowout, coasted to a stop on the hard shoulder of the duel carrageway. luckily my friend went back and got me a replacement tyre... so do it right first time and at home, don't have to do with the evening traffic passing you by beeping at you...

tomasrojo

I used to have trouble getting Armadillos on straight. I ended up pumping the tube up to about 1 bar, leaving the wheel to one side, not touching the ground, for a short time while I did other bike maintenance, and then pumping it up to 6 bar (recommended pressure on the sidewall).

It generally worked (or seemed to).

I read somewhere about using talcum powder on the sidewall. I never tried it though.