[Ausable]

During the past weeks I have converted a good number of wheels (for friends , wife’s bike etc) using the DIY method of strapping tape and recycled valves from old tubes. Besides the notorious hassle of sealing the Supersonic tires (pinholes) , I have found that narrow, 1.9 mud tires are also very diffucult to inflate using the standard method.
The couple of tricks below can facilitate airing up difficult tires – just thought that others might be interested..

How to seal Pinholes: Instead of spending hours shaking, reinflating and refilling tires hoping that sooner or later all the pinholes will seal, just get a brush and some undiluted latex. Degrease the innner casing with soap, and paint it with a thin layer of liquid latex, focusing on the sidewall where the majority of the pinholes are locates. It’s a 3 minutes job.
Let it dry for a couple of hours, mount tire, fill with Stans/homebrewn solution and inflate.

How to bead difficult/narrow tires: before mounting the tire, throughly cover with latex the tire bead at the rim interface. Mount the tire with an inner tube and let the latex cure overnight. The following day, unseat a small portion of one bead (i.e. left side)and carefully remove the tube. If you have a surgeon’s hand, 60% of the left side and 100% of the opposite bead will stay in place, glued to the rim by the cured latex. This trick works wonder if you use the DIY or Eclipse method. You cannot fit a tube if you have the Stans rimstrip/valve in place. In that case you can simply fill the tube leaving a small section of bead “unbeaded” and leave the valve stick out of the sidewall (just don’t pump it to 50 psi!!)

Hope this make sense –
Now use this thread to share >Your< top secret tips!!

fab

 

[tscheezy]

Interesting and innovative. One question: how do you remove a tube from the tire without unseating the entire bead on one side? Do you cut the tube all the way through and pull the loose ends out or something?

 

[Ausable]

sorry i forgot to mention that. At first I removed the bead entierely, but didnt work. On the second try (the tire was a Skinny Jimmy, very narrow 1.9 that was impossible to air up!) I cut the tube close to the valve and pulled out the ends. It worked and the tire inflated quite easily.
But the final solution is to take an old tube, chop it in half and knot the ends. Then slightly inflate the "salami" and inflate the tire as usual. You don't need a lot of pressure, 20 or 30 psi is Ok for a good contact between the bead and the rim.

fab

 

[wmalan]

How to bead difficult/narrow tires...

I've not tried this on a bike tire (still running tube) but... on big 4x4 truck tires, a trick is to wrap a rope around the tire (mounted on the rim). Apply a tourniquet to the rope to squeeze the beads out to the rim. Then fill with air. Perhaps this process could be done on MTB tires as well?

--
Bill

 

[4212darren]

Hears one for the "don't try this at home kids" file. Down on the farm when when we have trouble seating beads on truck or tractor tires we'll spray ether inside the tire and then light it, from far away. It takes some experience to judge the proper amount to use.
Another trick my Trans Rockies buddy taught me was to take a tube cut it in half and zip tie the ends so you have a "sausage" looking tube. Use that to air up the tire and leave the end hanging out of bead like mentioned above and then pull it out after thr tire is inflated.

 

[Ratt]

Hears one for the "don't try this at home kids" file. Down on the farm when when we have trouble seating beads on truck or tractor tires we'll spray ether inside the tire and then light it, from far away.......

When 4x4 in the desert sand we air down street tires (non-bead lock) to 10 psi. Of course sometimes we corner too hard or spin the tire on the rim and pop the bead. I've seen white gas and propane used like this to reseat the tire and its the dammest thing to hear the instant POP! and good to go in seconds.

Back on topic. I think the secret to mounting tubeless tires is an air compressor and perseverance. If i have trouble getting a tire to seal all of its pinholes i just go and ride it, sometimes it takes 2 full rides but after that it stays aired up for months.

If i have trouble seating a bead i just leave it aired up with a tube over night

 

[mb300]

I've not tried this on a bike tire (still running tube) but... on big 4x4 truck tires, a trick is to wrap a rope around the tire (mounted on the rim). Apply a tourniquet to the rope to squeeze the beads out to the rim. Then fill with air. Perhaps this process could be done on MTB tires as well?

Nope doesn't work - been there tried that. MTB tires aren't stiff enough.

How to bead difficult/narrow tires: before mounting the tire, throughly cover with latex the tire bead at the rim interface. Mount the tire with an inner tube and let the latex cure overnight. The following day, unseat a small portion of one bead (i.e. left side)and carefully remove the tube. If you have a surgeon's hand, 60% of the left side and 100% of the opposite bead will stay in place, glued to the rim by the cured latex. This trick works wonder if you use the DIY or Eclipse method. You cannot fit a tube if you have the Stans rimstrip/valve in place. In that case you can simply fill the tube leaving a small section of bead "unbeaded" and leave the valve stick out of the sidewall (just don't pump it to 50 psi!!)

This is the best method that I have found- but I use "liquid electrical tape" from Orange Hell or Lowes to lightly adhere the tire to the rim. No rubber degradation so far. It is also what I use to seal up the strapping tape and to seal up the valve core to the wheel.

It only takes about 1/2 oz to seal up the wheel- way lighter than using a rim strip.

 

[TallahasseeTrails]

Hears one for the "don't try this at home kids" file. Down on the farm when when we have trouble seating beads on truck or tractor tires we'll spray ether inside the tire and then light it, from far away. It takes some experience to judge the proper amount to use.

While I don't want to see anyone turned crispy while attempting this stunt, !'d enjoy a YouTube of you hillbillies losing your uni-brows and mullets after misjudging "proper distance" and/or "amount" of ether. No offense intended to any hillbillies, of course!
Perhaps an inflation gone wrong would be no worse than this:

To paraphrase Dead Kennedys lead man Jello Biafra in Holiday in Cambodia, "Oakleys will not help you here."
All the best,
jk

 

[Ausable]

the liquid electrical tape looks like a great idea, especially for sealing up the strapping tape and the valve.
I'll try to source it locally , otherwise I will add it to my purchase list of my next trip to the US (together with the 32 oz bottle of tubeless slime...)