How Do I Set the Bead on This Tire?

Yesterday I put a new tire on my front rim.

For the life of me I cannot get the bead to set. It's pinched in on both sides.

I've hit it was a continuous blast of high-volume 75psi air.
I've lubed the bead with silicone.
I've beat on it.
I've sat on it.
I've bounced it like a basketball up and down my driveway.

Isn't there some old trick where you put lighter fluid on it and set it off?

How does that work? Where do you put the fluid? Inside the tire? Along the bead?

What else can I do?!

I have seen a car tire seated with starting fluid. The guy shot starting fluid for 1/2 second inside the tire and threw a lit match at it. The tire and wheel came at least three feet off the ground in the ensuing explosion. Then as the fire inside burned out the tire got all shrivled and deformed untill he put some air in it. I can't say that I would do this on any tire of mine, let alone a motorcycle wheel and tire of mine...

Scott said:

I have seen a car tire seated with starting fluid. The guy shot starting fluid for 1/2 second inside the tire and threw a lit match at it. The tire and wheel came at least three feet off the ground in the ensuing explosion. Then as the fire inside burned out the tire got all shrivled and deformed untill he put some air in it. I can't say that I would do this on any tire of mine, let alone a motorcycle wheel and tire of mine...

Click to expand...

I think I'd lube it some more and turn up the air pressure. I use 100 psi to seat the bead. If you have the right type of nozzle, you can remove the core and air it up much more quickly and increase your chances of success.

Thanks guys!

For whatever reason, I tried it again today using 75psi and she popped right into place.

Perhaps sitting over-night allowed the bead to move out, or allowed to silicone spray to penetrate under wherever the bead was sticking to the inside of the rim.

I will remember the trick about removing the valve for next time. That makes sense.

Here's a picture of my new Michelin Pilot Road versus the old one with 11,707 miles on it.



My previous Metzler ME4 only lasted 8,900 miles.

Very uneven wear with blocking.

Crap, I'd be happy getting 5K out of any rear tire on the VFR! I have tried the BT-020, Pilot Road, D205, Metzler M1's, and a few others I can't recall. I generally get about 9-10K on the front and 5-6K tops on the rear. It helps to go somewhere like Arkansas occasionally where you can actually use somthing other than the center of the tire!

Adios,

Never tried it on a motorcycle but my Dad did a lot of work on mowers growing up. Seems like every tire you get for a riding mower is deformed. We put a ratchet strap around the tire and cranked it down until the tire expanded to fit.

I've done the ether (starting fluid) trick quite a few times, it's an old tire guy trick.

Sometimes it's about the only way to get some large balloon tires on their bead. My fave was a balloon forklift tire, we'd wrap 1/4 nylon rope around the tire a couple times, squeeze it down the center to get the bead as close as possible by twisting the rope with a dowel and then do the ether lighting thing.

The tire would just pop the 1/4 inch rope like yarn, and pop about 6 feet in the air and come down with about 5PSI in it.

If ya think that's scary you should see what happens to an 18 wheeler tire when the bead rim (the bead rim is removeable to get the tire on) jumps off of it's wheel with 100psi in it. Many have been killed by them.

I would never use the ether thing on a tire as small as a motorcycle though, or even a car. Just air pressure, soap or grease and getting the bead up against the rim all the way around is usually easy enough.

I usually hit inside of my rim with sandpaper before putting the new tire on. It helps clean off the old rubber bits that keep the new tire from sliding into place.

-=Tim=-

When changing the tire, I always use a can of the Yamaha brand tire lube. Liberal use of this stuff makes the old tire slide right off the rim with very little effort. I also use it on the new tire, again, very liberally. The new tire generally slides on with little effort and I have never had any trouble getting the bead to seat even using a crappy little low pressure compressor. Soap and water are NOT a substitute for this tire lube, trust me. I have changed a crap load of tires and this stuff works far far better than soap and water. The down side is that it is a bit messy. However, it does wash off with just soap and water At about $5 per can, it last for a long time, atleast 10-12 tires if you use it heavily. Considering how much easier it makes the whole process, it is well worth the cost compared to soap and water.

Adios,