seating bead on new tire

[drincruz]

i had some issues with seating the bead on my front tire today. rear tire's bead seated nicely, but the front tire gave me hell! i used dishwasher soap and water to lubricate, bounced the tire around like crazy, and also tried applying pressure all around the tire. nothing! i ended up just taking it to a bike shop that is not too far away and the guy got the bead seated in 5 minutes. i'm guessing my air compressor needed a little bit more power to it, but then again the rear had no issues.

anybody else have a similar issue? how did you get the bead to seat?

cheers,
~drin

[scratch]

How much psi does your compressor put out?  40psi should be enough to seat a bead.  What about the WD40/match trick?

[ineedanap]

EDIT  forget it, reread post

[JB848]

I think that WD40 trick is so cool and works for us that don't have high volume compressors just fine. 

[The Buddha]

You need ~60-80 psi to seat the thing and as per werase, skinnier bs is harder than fat tars. I make a bike it have a 200 front and 350 rear ... minimum ... of course I power it with a 350 cc twin for best efficiency.
Cool.
Buddha.

[ohgood]

more lube. anything is possible with more lube.

[PachmanP]

more lube. anything is possible with more lube.

Now those are words to live by.

What kind of compressor do you have?  Just like one of those little portable ones that are good for soccer balls and that nonsense or a proper one with a tank and such?

[tt_four]

What's the WD40 match trick? It sounds kinda cool. I think I'm probably gonna have to get some new tires on the bike before it'll pass inspection, so I'm sure I'll find out all about it though. I'll turn the compressor up to 150psi just to be sure!

[cboling]

I had the exact same problem I could not for the life of me get the front bead to seat. I kept dowsing it with soapy water and filling it up and one small section of tire was just hung near the center. It would fill but never seat. Then, I went home, filled my bottle with extra soapy water, went back and let the air out, pushed the beaded side back to the center, poured some soapy water on the rim and tire bead really good, then plopped in the quarters at the local convenience store air machine and commenced to pumping. 

I watched the gauge on the fill nozzle and when it got close to the 41-43 mark, POP!

I think it just needed more lube! (+5 from above.)

[jeremy_nash]

I have used a ratchet strap bfore, works great on lawnmower tires and such. wrap it all the way around, then tighten till it touches the bead all the way around.  once it starts going, take the strap off.  finish airing and your done

[Roadstergal]

Lots of dish soap + 50ish PSI.

[Esteban]

What's the WD40 match trick? It sounds kinda cool. I think I'm probably gonna have to get some new tires on the bike before it'll pass inspection, so I'm sure I'll find out all about it though. I'll turn the compressor up to 150psi just to be sure!

Boom!  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vboJDpXU5ng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0GNLvPmAg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wa1CQ3eZRg

[drincruz]

this is my compressor: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KJ12EY/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

i felt like it had enough PSIs. 

i've read about the match trick, but i dunno there's something about fire and tires that i'm gonna be riding on that i just don't trust. hehe

maybe next time i'll try the ratchet strap too.

thanks for all the feedback.

cheers,
~drin

[Roadstergal]

i felt like it had enough PSIs.

Er, what are you inflating the tire to?

[tt_four]

The compressor should have enough PSI to do it, but you'd have to keep in mind that if your compressor starts at 100psi, by the time you start putting air in that tire, the compressors psi is going to drop so fast that you may only be working with 40psi, so just make sure the compressor has a second to refill. I used to have a little one and I remember not even being able to fill a whole bicycle tire before the compressor motor could kick on, not to mention a motorcycle tire that's bigger than my compressor was.

Also, make sure your compressor is set to the higher PSI. Even if it's a 100psi compressor you may only have it set on 30-40.

Just a couple guesses.

[Steve146]

When I've done this the key is to make sure the entire bead on both sides is pushed down into the well of the rim.  If the bead slips up then that's where the air will escape.
The pressure doesn't need to be more that 40 psi.

[qwertydude]

WD-40 doesn't work as good, use starting fluid, it's much better and doesn't leave oil behind. Oh yeah it's not the pressure that matters it's the volume of air you can deliver at that pressure since you need a lot of air to be able to pressurize the tire enough with a big gaping gap between the wheel and tire in order to force the bead onto the seat.

[drincruz]

ya know, i think the issue is that this air compressor of mine is just one of the portable ones that you need to use with your car's outlet. i don't see a knob i can use to control the pressure. i think this explains things.

[lopee]

Buy a valve tool and remove the valve first, then fill and the air will rush in and seat the bead. Next screw the valve back in and fill the tire to the correct pressure. job done.

link to a valve tool, but you can get them at bicycle shops or walmart.--

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COMXGS

[drincruz]

Buy a valve tool and remove the valve first, then fill and the air will rush in and seat the bead. Next screw the valve back in and fill the tire to the correct pressure. job done.

link to a valve tool, but you can get them at bicycle shops or walmart.--

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COMXGS

ya know, i've read about a couple of people who've done this. i guess next time (whenever that'll be) if i get stuck i can try this as well.

cheers,
~drin