• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

  • Beginning April 1st, and running through April 30th, there is a new 2024 BMW MOA Election discussion area within The Club section of the forum. Within this forum area is also a sticky post that provides the ground rules for participating in the Election forum area. Also, the candidates statements are provided. Please read before joining the conversation, because the rules are very specific to maintain civility.

    The Election forum is here: Election Forum

Seating the bead

tommcgee

tommcgee

Unfunded content provider
I've changed a couple of dozen bike tires and never had trouble with this before, but the last three tires have been a nightmare.

Yeah, I know a big compressor always works, kinda hard to carry one without a sidecar or trailer. Cycle Pump fails to do the job, but that's what I carry.

I broke the ratchet on two ratchet straps, used WD40/soapywater/LemonPledge to try to seal the gap, took the valve stem out, let the tire sit in the sun on an 82 degree day, bounced it, sat on it, kicked it, cursed, waved a chicken along with the incantation, cursed again -- no go.

So what's the secret?
 
Any tire in particular? With some of the stiff sidewall tires, I find high volume air is almost a must. I have even used a chain ratchet hoist on some stubborn tires:banghead Are they just not making contact with the rim enough?

On the road or if my shop compressor died, I would find a car shop that had a real compressor and hose still as the quarter eaters at most corner gas stations these days are fairly weak. They sound more like my Cycle Pump
 
Lmo1131 said:
I have seen this done twice, but have never tried this myself ... so I DO NOT endorse this method.

edit- I would add, neither was a motorcycle tire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLtBojvDEyc
Click to expand...

I know what the link points to without even looking at it, and no, I'm not going to try it.

The tires are Shinko 705 dual sport tires, definitely stiff sidewall. I'm working on getting my big compressor working, don't see any other option. I also have no idea where I could find a gas station with an air hose!
 
Tom-any mechanic or auto repair place-just use the regular shop air with their air chuck and no valve inside the stem and you should be good to go. Gary
 
This problem of getting the bead seated on tubeless tires is the reason I went to tubed tires for my DS bike on the advise of "the experts". If I get a flat in the boonies, a 12VDC compressor will reseat the bead after I fix the leak. Tubeless are easy to plug, but if the bead gets broken before you can stop, you may be S-O-L.

Tom
 
I seem to have more trouble with fronts than rears. The last one didn't respond to everything you said except airing it up with no valve in, right off my compressor. Then it popped on right away. I would have tried that early on but it required cobbling together some fittings.

Couple questions about Armor-all and WD40.
I can see how these would help in mounting/dismounting tires but not in getting the bead to seat, the problem seems to me to be large gaps where air blows out. ??

I've read that nobody ever has trouble with applying oily or soapy products to the bead seat but I can't understand how the wheel doesn't spin inside the tire under heavy load.
I'm currently using the "snot" tire guys use; apparently, it starts out as a lube and dries to a non-lube.
 
I had to repair my 6HP compressor fittings and hose, and when it was working, it did the job -- as expected.

Point taken about tubeless tires. I've never actually had to remove a tire out in the boonies, though I ride with some folks who have. I guess the easy answer for getting out of that kind of jam really is the explosive inflation method. I managed to drain the bike battery with the small pump today using it without the bike running. Lesson learned with that too.

To Mike: Any of the liquids usually are enough to bridge the small gap. As to the tire drifting around the rim, maybe it does, but there's no evidence unless you mark the tire. With tube tires, way back to bicycle days, the valve stem always wanted to drift -- suggesting that you're right.
 
I just went through this with my 1200 GSA rear tire. I was putting on an Anikee 2 and we could not get the bead to set. We tried every trick, from multiple lubes to straps. We even took it to a tire shop and they couldn't get it to set with their high pressure air. We even tried using a garden hose to help seal the gap as we hit it with air. 4 hours and nothing worked. It finally took us going REDNECK on it. Give it a few shots of starter fluid in the wheel and a match! WOOOP and the bead was set. It's not exactly the way I would recommend to set a bead, but as a LAST resort it worked good.:thumb
 
Seems to be a bit of confusion here...in my books, getting the bead to seat means popping it onto the rim edge fully.
 
Well I guess we all have to chip in and get one of these...
file_11_5.jpg


The BS-07 Cheetah?« Bead Seater makes seating the most difficult bead not only safe but simple, fast and economical. The BS-07 Cheetah?« Bead Seater is equipped with our patented discharge system as well as an ASME certified tank. The BS-07 Cheetah?« Bead Seater has an ÔÇ£End of TankÔÇØ discharge design, flared discharge barrel and a 2ÔÇØ discharge valve for maximum bead seating power. 5 Gallon Capacity ASME certified steel tank.

http://www.tsissg.com/bead-seaters/bs-7-bead-seater
 
GlobalRider said:
Seems to be a bit of confusion here...in my books, getting the bead to seat means popping it onto the rim edge fully.
Click to expand...

same here...getting the air to hold to seat the tire on initial inflation. With tubes , no problemo.
The worst I have are tubeless wheelbarrrow tires or the ATV ones on my Kawa Mule...those make me talk really bad:banghead

I sure could use that blaster however. A 2" discharge?
 
Try trflon

Bicycle shops sell teflon spray in a can with a tube like WD40 etc. That and a compression strap got my Mich PR 3s to seat pretty easily. It drys very quickly. Don't know about creep but I haven't noticed any yet.
 
henzilla said:
same here...getting the air to hold to seat the tire on initial inflation. With tubes , no problemo.
The worst I have are tubeless wheelbarrrow tires or the ATV ones on my Kawa Mule...those make me talk really bad:banghead

I sure could use that blaster however. A 2" discharge?
Click to expand...


This thing is cool ! Kinda big for my top case however !!

VIDEO of the blaster:

<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-OksPParv0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-OksPParv0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>
 
ka5ysy said:
This thing is cool ! Kinda big for my top case however !!

VIDEO of the blaster:

<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-OksPParv0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M-OksPParv0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>
Click to expand...

I have one of those sitting next to my tire changer in my garage.
 
Yes, a little confusion in what we each thing seating the bead means. I have always used it as Globalrider does. That is Not getting the air to hold the tire to the rim for initial inflation, but rather after that and getting it to do the final pop and/or fully seat with that line consistently the same distance out from the rim edge......But, now that we all know what the OP was meaning, I can deal with it....
 
58058D said:
Yes, a little confusion in what we each thing seating the bead means. I have always used it as Globalrider does. That is Not getting the air to hold the tire to the rim for initial inflation, but rather after that and getting it to do the final pop and/or fully seat with that line consistently the same distance out from the rim edge......But, now that we all know what the OP was meaning, I can deal with it....
Click to expand...

Why would you separate this into two parts? It's all part of the same process.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

41077
The trip was awesome, the fall not so much.
Replies
17
Views
7K
dude987
D
Back
Top