Trouble seating c/t

I just got made my first attempt at darksiding, but was thwarted by tires which refused to seat.

My bike is an '04 Honda VT750c which came stock with a 160/80 15, but I have been running 170/80 15s to get my speedometer closer to accurate. I attempted to go to a 195/65 15 HP259 c/t. Having installed many of that particular brand tire on car rims, I knew that they are difficult to seat and generally require some pretty high air pressure. I noticed while installing it, that it was much more difficult to get onto the rim than any bike tires I've installed manually. Once on the rim I inflated it to 120 psi and neither side would pop.

I figured that it might just be the fact that HP259s are particulary difficult to seat, so I then installed a Goodyear of the same size. The Goodyear was considerably easier to install. Just as before though, over a 100 psi could not get the beads seated. I had been using pledge to lube the beads while installing the tires, but I went farther by using copious amounts of liquid soap to try and get the beads seated.

One thing which I think may be causing the problem is I am trying to run an inner tube with the tubeless tires. Perhaps the tube cannot push the sidewalls in the proper direction to get the tires to seat?

Has anyone run into this problem before?

With my shadow with a tube it wouldnt seat. I think Otis got his to work

Don't get discouraged , and don't sand down the tire bead so it will slide on easier, I know you have a tube but the bead also centers the tire and balances it as well. Soap it up again , pump it up to 85+ psi and let it set out in the sun for a few hours. if no joy, search the board for what others have done.
if all else fails,,,,,,,,, here is the tire that i use but in the size you are looking for.

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details=Ordern&cart_id=13891178.135.17330&typ=R-137153&ranzahl=4&Breite=195&Herst=Nexen&Quer=65&Felge=15&weiter=0&kategorie=6&Ang_pro_Seite=15&Transport=P&dsco=135

mine went on fast and easy, I shouldn't matter about the tube as long as you cleaned the rim with a green scrubber or steel wool .
then soap and water both the rim and tire.
I know it's another tire and $54.00 after you tried two tires already but I'm just saying that this tire worked for me.
good luck.
Horse

First welcome to the site. The tire needs to be really greased up good. The bead width of the tire your putting on should be 1" or less wider than the rim its mounting on. My douglas from wallyworld was about 1/2" and it seated at about 40 lbs. Good luck.

Jerry

welcome to the DARKSIDE,and you WILL have to grease the hell out of it.it should pop around 80-90psi.

Just be patient. Observe all safety when mounting tires.


My trick...wash the rim with a hose and a rag and remove ALL the old soap from previous mountings and then lube the heck out of it to include the rim and half way up the side of the tire! Then, tire to seat the bead with a lot of air and plenty of waiting. I have had to try mine multiple times of trying to seat the bead and then try again until....POP! It should go on for you. Try the sun thing and let it sit for a while.

(Remember, with mounting any tires yourself....you do this at your own risk) It is dangerous, so please be careful!

.........................bobby


.

++++1
please be careful!

Thanks for all the replies so soon.

I'm not sure how large the difference in wheel width to tire width is, but perhaps that is my sticking point. I'll have to go out and measure the two and get back to you on that.

I did clean my rim off pretty extensively beforehand, so that shouldn't have been the trouble.

On the bright side, I got both the tires for free. The Goodyear is pretty crappy and used, I was just trying to install it to see if it would work. The HP259 is also used, but it has less than 1000 miles on it because of a cosmetic blemish.

I wouldn't think that the 195/65/15 would be too wide for your rim. I have heard though that the wider tires are more difficult to get the bead to seat on a spoked rim.(with a tube)

my tire is the 165/80/15, planning a future switch to a 185, this will be as wide as I will go on my vlx.

good luck

mark f

clean the rim and the tire really good. I used copius amounts of vegetable oil. Air it up to ~100psi and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. Should pop.

I DID have one tire that never would seat. had it up to 140psi just ot see if it ever would pop. never did. threw it away figuring I'd probably damaged it with the high psi. I didn't want to ride on it anyway.

Good luck and be safe.

I measured the tire and rim. The rim is approximately 4.5 inches wide, and the tire is just a shade over 5.5 inches at the bead, so it should work theoretically.

I mounted the HP259 again and lubed the hell out of it with Pam, got it inflated up to 100 psi. The bead on one side made those nasty crackling sounds that indicate the tire is on the verge of failing, or it's about to seat. It looks like the one side is very close to popping on, but the other side still had a ways to go. If I can get the one side on I'll deflate it and shift the bead on the opposite side, to try and get it to pop in a different spot.

I'm so close I can taste it, or maybe that's just th pam.

Well it took some doing, but I got the tire to seat. I hosed the beads down with pam and inflated it up to 100psi, then let it sit for over an hour. When I came back, the top side had popped, but the bottom was no closer. Deflated the tire, lubed it up again, and shifted it across the rim to try a different spot on the bead. I inflated it to the same pressure and it took about ten minutes to pop.

Just required a bit of patience is all.

Excellent! Your patience paid off! Like most things in life ... it aint always easy, but sooo worth it. Let us know what you think of the ride! Remember that if you are balancing with dynabeads to wait 500 miles before adding them in. Gotta get rid of all that oil inside the tire so the beads don't just stick to it.

Post some pics when you can.

ttexastim wrote:Excellent! Your patience paid off! Like most things in life ... it aint always easy, but sooo worth it. Let us know what you think of the ride! Remember that if you are balancing with dynabeads to wait 500 miles before adding them in. Gotta get rid of all that oil inside the tire so the beads don't just stick to it.

Post some pics when you can.

Just got pics up in the general forum.

I balanced it using spoke weights, so it's all taken care of already.