I’ve bought a secondhand set of road wheels and tyres. The wheels are just Fulcrom 7’s and the tyres are Conti GP4000s. The set is effectively new.

I removed the front tyre to align the logos with the valve, and after pumping it up I noticed that the tyre wasn’t seated evenly on the rim – ie it’s out of round. There’s a dotted pattern on the sidewall above the bead, and in parts that’s visible by around 5 – 10mm. In other sections it’s obscured by the rim.

I assumed it was something I’d done, but when I looked at the rear wheel (which I hadn’t meddled with) that was the same.

I probably need to go back to basics, but what might be causing this, and how can I rectify it? I may take them to a bike shop tomorrow, but I do need to know how to avoid this happening in the future.

Let tyre down, push bead into centre of rim, pump up hard and see if that solves it. If not put some tyre seating talc or washing up liquid on the bead and pump up hard and see if it pops into place.

Some tire/rim combinations really don’t like being paired together, have had some Conti tires that just won’t work with a rim, when another Conti will.

You may need to over pressure the tire to get it to seat, I have a similar issue with a Conti GrandSport Race on a Stans Alpha 400, takes a lot of pressure to seat correctly

Thanks for that. My track pump is broken – I’ve ordered a new one, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’ll try the suggestions, and will pump it up hard – I was using a hand pump, and as I wasn’t going to ride on them yet the tyres are still a bit soft.

The wheels have a rubbery-type of rims strip, and I don’t think there’s a pronounced well.

The inner tubes look quite small in diameter, although they’re for 25mm (same as the tyre), but maybe they’re for thinner tyres up to 25mm.

I’d be a bit worried that I’d have the same problem after fixing a roadside puncture.

My Mavic Crossmax rims are like this, I need 120psi in the tyres to get them to seat (3 different types of Conti’s, from 1.6-2.1″).

Proved impossible to do trailside, getting the damn tyre off to change the tube was hard enough, never mind seating the tyre again!

Had this with plenty of tyres getting beads to seat first inflation. Subsequent inflations are not as bad usually ime because the bead has stretched into place /shape.

I’ve had a similar problem the past with the same wheel Tyre combination, i did manage to get it to seat by “tweaking” the tyre gently clamped in a vice but i wouldn’t really recommend that tbh. As m360 says its a nightmare if you puncture when out riding.

I’ve put in more air, and things are looking better. It would probably be fine with 120psi, but I don’t think I’m getting near that pressure with my hand pump.

Some just seat at high pressures. My conti GP4000’s pop on at 100psi.

When I have this problem on tyres I let a bit of air out so the tyre is squishy and then the wiggle it from side to side (like you were trying to take it off without levers). This normally seats it or at least frees it enough that it pops in place at normal pressures.

Maybe talc or washing up liquid on the bead would help it slide on better?

Why do you need the logos to line up with the valve ?

Washing up liquid diluted with water does the trick, and get a good track pump to get the bead to pop. then adjust to the desired pressure.