Peculiar Tire Problem

[HKThumpinStuff]

I recently replaced my deathwings with the Kenda Trackmaster. I paid for someone to replace the rear. Its been a while since I changed a dirt bike tire but I remember the rear tires being knuckle busters.

I am having problems with the front tire. The bead on the side wall isn't fully seated. Part of the rubber edge that should barely cover the edge of the rim, is too far down. I tried deflating and pushing, hammering. But I cant seem to get the bead to fully set. My Dad has an 09 DRZ and he replaced his tires as well, when he rode the other day he noticed the front tire was bobbing up and down. After the trouble I had with my front tire today, my Dad checked his and its doing the same thing.

Has anyone run across this problem before when replacing tires? Any help or opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[DRZ04]

You need to seat the bead. Deflate the tire, break the bead on both sides, apply a soapy water solution so it gets between the tire & the rim. While it is still wet air the tire up to well in excess of normal pressure. If tghe bead does not seat on its own then you can beat around the tire with a rubber mallet & it should seat then, make sure the tire is wet. Some people use WD40.

[reverand_redbeard]

lots of soap, you need to lube the bead better, its just friction holding it back

[GOF1]

Let the air out. Break the bead loose and soap it up real good. Air it back up and see what happens.

[BONESTOCK]

Same as the top three posts. Soapy water. I use dawn about half and half. REAL slippery! I use a hand pump to seat my beads. LOL

EDIT make the 4 posts above mine. Miscounted

[HKThumpinStuff]

Thanks for all the help. I will try this tonight. I am sure it will work. I didn't think we could have two defective tires. I was pretty sure it was something I was missing. Can't wait to go offroad with real knobbies instead of the deathwings. Thanks again.

[fttam]

Or you have a broken bead, and then nothing's going to seat that sucker. Kenda Trakmaster.....my buddy mjst have broke his bead when installing it because that's exactly what happened. He couldn't seat it so he brought it by my house. We pounded with rubber mallets, we put 100psi of air in the thing, we lubed the hell out of it, nothing. Took it off, and the bead was broken. Show over.

Good luck, hopefully yours is just being finicky.

[Chas_M]

Extra air pressure, up to 60 psi, will ordinarily be enough to seat the tire beads.

[Mephistophiles]

Extra air pressure, up to 60 psi, will ordinarily be enough to seat the tire beads.

I'm with this guy. At the auto shops I'd use over 120psi sometimes to seat performance car tires. Just remember the more pressure the more violently it will pinch your digits/fling soap into your eyes when it finally does seat.

[Rock Monster]

Extra air pressure, up to 60 psi, will ordinarily be enough to seat the tire beads.

That is about the magic number. With soapy water it will often seat before 40 psi.

[HKThumpinStuff]

I wasn't aware of the possibility of the bead being broke or busted. Hopefully, that isn't the case. If it is, My father and I managed to break both of the beads on our new front tires. I will post when I have figured out the problem.

Thanks again for all the experience and helpful info.

I did inflate the tire to 65 psi and it still wouldn't seat. Of course, this was last night and the bead/tire was completely dry.

Thanks again.

[DougZ]

I just did my tires two weekends ago....same Kenda Trackmasters. I had many issues with tubes( will always buy the heavy duty ones from now on)..so I brought the wheels and tires over to my buddies. Even with the 50/50 soapy water for lube, we had to inflate up to ~100 PSI to get the bead to set right.....that little ribbed ledge just did not wanna budge at first. We did not do any beating with hammers....just repeated inflating, deflating checking, more soapy water. Took a couple tries on each, but we got it.

On a side not..with the amount of work it took, I am simply amazed some guys do this trail side.