I bought a second hand Solaris last week and noticed the rear wheel wobbling during my first ride. Im running 2.2 Conti Mountain Kings on Hope Tech XC wheels. When I got home I deflated the tyre, checked that the tube and tape wasn’t displacing the bead and tried the washing up liquid/60PSI trick to seat the tyre properly. I checked the alignment and it was still wobbling so I took the tyre off to inspect the rim. It was slightly untrue so I figured this was probably the cause – took the wheel to my LBS, got it trued and tried again when I got it back. Still wobbling!

I had the same problem on my last bike when I bought it new, also Mountain Kings but 26″. Are these tyres prone to imperfections?

Is there anything else I can try before buying a new set of tyres?

it’s certainly not unheard of. I had a strange incident in a Gorrick last year. Tyre was perfect before the race and for a couple of laps. And then….no warning…the tyre is bashing on the seat stays.

Assumed I must have buckled the wheel or something, but no. The tyre had suddenly mis-shapen and a massive wobble appeared.

That was on a Conti X King Protection 29. I wrote to Conti and they wanted me to send it to Germany for inspection. Which I didn’t.

Yeah I’ve noticed mishaped tyres (all brands) and some inner tubes don’t blow up uniformly either, can make for a rather lumpy wheel not quite square but defo lumpy.

I put a new tube in to make sure that wasn’t causing it but no luck.

Thanks for the replies, I think I’ll be binning the Mountain Kings and replacing them with a Specialized Purgatory / Ground Control combo.