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  • Seating reluctant tubeless tyres: elliptic's water method
  • elliptic
    Free Member

    As we all know water is incompressible. So if you fill the tyre with it first, it massively reduces the amount of air you need to get the tyre seated properly. Best done outdoors for, err… obvious reasons.

    (1) Seat one bead by hand or with an inner tube (unseat other side to get the tube back out again).

    (2) Lay wheel and tyre flat on the ground with the unseated bead upwards.

    (3) Fill with water through the valve stem, as much as you can until it dribbles out everywhere (a sealant syringe is handy for this and you’ll need one anyway).

    (4) Inflate with track pump / CO? canister / 9p cokebottle device to seat the other bead.

    (5) Let water out.

    (6) Add sealant, install valve core, re-inflate, done.

    Worked like a charm, having spent an entire evening failing to get a new Larsen 2.35 seated on my Bonty back wheel using all the traditional tricks.

    bails
    Full Member

    How do you let the water out?

    onandon
    Free Member

    Ive always used this method with tough tyre/wheel combos.
    you don’t need to fit one side with a tube just fill with water and the weight is enough to do the job 🙂

    Edit.

    the air will push the water out of the value – give’s it a nice clean too 🙂

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    igm
    Full Member

    I thought you were going to bodge a hosepipe to valve connector (having removed the core of course) and turn the mains on.
    Still don’t quite get how you get the last I the water out. Presumably most comes out when you disconnect the pump driven by the 50psi of air that you just pumped in but doesn’t that leave an inch or two in the bottom?

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    CO2 is all I need to seat them. Then pop a little off the rim, add sealant (lots of sealant!), pump with track pump. Spin wheel. Should be good to go.

    I’ll wipe the bead of the tyre with soapy water sometimes just in case or to clean it.

    It all very much depends though on the rims and tyres. UST rims or conversion, the profile of the rims, and likewise UST tyres, single/dual ply, tubeless ready or ghetto and then still depends on the tyre (e.g. some Maxxis stuff is pretty much tubeless ready, just they aren’t marked as such, whereas others are hopeless beads for tubeless).

    househusband
    Free Member

    Beware using C02; it can set some sealants solid.

    I have used it to seat some tyres but have always let it all out and then inflated, let down, and re-inflated with air a couple of times to vent as much C02 as I can before introducing sealant.

    elliptic
    Free Member

    Still don’t quite get how you get the last I the water out.

    Comes out quite easily just by squeezing the tyre. If there’s a little bit left it doesn’t really matter as latex sealant is water based anyway.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    you could get the last bit of water out using a syringe & needle through the tyre – should seal afterwards 🙂

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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