I put a new tire on my rear wheel and it was the tightest fitting tire I’ve ever seen. Extremely hard to wrestle on there but I eventually got it. Now, though, it’s not quite seated right all the way around. There’s about a 3-spoke length just on the one side where the little textured edge, instead of peaking out from behind the rim, dives down a bit behind it. Is this a problem worth fixing or should I just ride on it? Will it eventually fix itself? Otherwise, what do I do to fox it?
Here’s a vodeo and some pictures
https://drive.proton.me/urls/4NRWGSFBRM#-Sz--Bw29n1a
https://drive.proton.me/urls/V08ZW5DS8C#BBsUhnp3RHTn
Deflate it and message it and spray some Windex around the bead and re inflate it.
^ this
How much pressure did you put in it when seating? You might take it off and slide it back off the bead and slide some dish soap under it to lubricate it.
While seating not enough pressure to measure. Just a little chubby if that. But when I noticed the problem, I’ve tried manipulating it with my hands and slowly adding more pressure up to the stated max, 50 psi. I may have stopped at 45 now that I think of it
Did you smash the tire into the ground after getting it on? Usually that fixes things, but riding would also fix it. Least that’s what I would do considering how hard it was to get on.
I did not smash but I’ve already ridden. About 5 miles to work this morning and 5 back this afternoon. Problem persists. I can try smashing
try to give some lateral smash too. Kind of want the tire to move up or down the rim not into it.
*Could also be just a funky tire.
Yeah, the problem is that it’s such a tight tire, it wants to sit down in the well of the rim where the radius is smaller rather than up on the edge of the rim where it’s supposed to be
It is your main point of contact / connection to the ground so if something isn’t right with it then I think it is definitely worth fixing. The bead hasn’t correctly hooked over.
I would personally pump it up to around 70 or so psi and then pull back on the shoulder of the tyre away from the side that isnt hooked in correctly to try and get it to hook in correctly. If it won’t seat correctly and also for fitment in the future a little bit of washing up liquid around the bead helps to get the tyres on and for the bead to get seated correctly.
If it was my bike I’d be riding that to see. It looks fine to me, if it didn’t feel weird after a test ride I’d be leaving it as is.
If the tyre is super tight, you can leave it out in the sun for a while to soften it up a little, and I’d suggest getting a tyre boot to help with that final bit of bead. They’re super cheap and removes some misery if you find a particularly tight wheel rim vs bead combo
Is a tire boot called something else in the US? I have tire levers. The metal ones scratched the rim and the plastic ones just barely held up
Edit: this? How would this have helped?
https://www.parktool.com/en-us/product/emergency-tire-boot-tb-2
Sorry, brain problem, tire seater is what I meant
Something like this: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tools/koolstop-tyre-mate/?geoc=US
I have a plastic one (the park tool version is metal which seems overkill).
It lets you grab the last bit of bead and gives you leverage to pull it over the rim without scratching everything up


