Forum menu
After struggling to fit some 43c Gravelkings to the gravel bike and having tried the usual tricks such as seating one half with a tube I thought 'what if I only had to seat half of one side the tyre at a time'. So I found a bit of waste pipe off-cut and placed the wheel on that so that the tyre was pushed into the rim well at the bottom of the wheel. I then pushed down the top of the tyre so it pushed that into well on the top of the wheel. 2 1 handed pumps of the track pump and the side walls popped out and seated, one more and I took my hand off and the other half seated.
It's probably an old trick I'd missed but just in case I thought I'd share.
It's been around in one folr or another, the classic was sticking a tube in to seat both sides of the tyre, then very carefully taking one side of the tyre off whilst leaving the other seated to get the tube out and then put the valve and sealant in.
Back in the days of bodging 'ghetto' tubeless systems into non-tubeless rims it was something you had to resort to fairly regularly.
To visualise this, do you mean put the valve at 3 o'clock, use the pipe to squash the tyre at 6, hand to squash at 12, and then got half the tyre seated on both beads, removed hand and the second side popped on?
Sounds like an great idea if it makes it easier to get that initial seal 🙂
I've tried all sorts of different things (with ghetto tubeless). An Airshot usually does it, but what works everytime is going to a petrol station and pumping it up with a proper compressor. I use Schraeder valve tubes as rim strips, so taking the valve out helps a lot.
what works everytime is going to a petrol station and pumping it up with a proper compressor
Trouble these days is most petrol inflators are gradual up to a pre determined pressure.
Not like the old days when you could pop the tyre on your bmx!
An simple(er) variation of your trick is thus...
There's possibly (i say possibly , cos this is what happened to my tyre yesterday eve) just ONE spot on the try where the tyre bead is a bit loose... i spent a few min looking closely at the bead/rim-well interface, and found just the one flappy bit..
I pressed that bit with my thumb whilst opening the bonty charge-pump lever, and it simply popped on with ease. Previously it was just gushing the air out from all round.
I've never thought that there could be just ONE spot that messes the whole system up..but hey ho!
DrP
You could probably stretch a 29er innertube around the outside circumference of the tyre to hold the whole tyre tight into the rim well? Basically gives the air less opportunity to escape around the sides?
Wish I'd thought of that 10 years ago when I finally gave up on tubeless after one particularly stubborn Conti Rubber Queen...
Edit: I've just remembered people talking about using luggage straps for this very purpose, but I never understood what they meant, now I do, use the long strap instead of an innertube around the tyre
I've had to do the luggage strap thing before! And nearly resorted to it last night too...
But honestly, have a little look at the bead-rim interface, and you MAY find a single looser bit. Pressure on that, and POP!
DrP
I’ve never really had a problem once I started soaping the beads properly, usually that makes the whole thing painless.
On the one occasion lately (Chupacabras) where the bead just wouldn’t sit I fitted a tube, went for a ride and the extra whipped the tube out next day: the bead snapped straight in.
I don’t think there’s a more frustrating job than trying to fit a tubeless tyre when it doesn’t want to sit (although an non-guided internal hose has to be a close second)...
Not tried this yet, so don’t know if it will work, but one idea I have up my sleeve if I run into problems is to seat the bead with an inner tube, then rather than breaking the bead All the way around on one side to remove the tube, just break it at the valve then cut the tube in half and carefully pull it out - hopefully keeping the bead in tact most of the way round the tyre.
Got some new tyres arriving this week, so will try it out if I have problems and let you know if it works.
Combine with a strap around the waste pipe and rim so you can use the pump two-handed to 'hit' it a bit harder?
Great idea, mind.
OP's trick sounds interesting. Will make a note of that, although have yet to find anything that can't be defeated by 140psi in a fire extinguisher.
My controversial tip: don't seat one bead first. I've seen a load of tyre/rim combos that'll go up fine by hand with both beads unseated, but refuse to go up with one bead already on. I think the problem is that it pulls the unseated bead into the middle of the rim channel rather than letting it seal against the edge.
I think the problem is that it pulls the unseated bead into the middle of the rim channel rather than letting it seal against the edge.
I've had that happen when I've popped one side off to add sealant. What I find helps is to lay the tyre on its side so that the bead flops down against the rim.
Yes spooky that's what I was trying to explain. I'd already done the tube in trick to seat one side but the soap solution showed air escaping from multiple places. I've tried strapping the circumference in the past with no joy.