A little lighter fluid…

Hey Guys,
Have been reading about the Darkside for a while. This economy has hit me hard and I have been looking for ways to save a little dough. I love riding but I cannot afford to replace my tires every two years. I’m not Darkside yet but I will be by next year’s riding season.
I don’t have a question yet, but I do have a thought. Reading about some of the problems people were having seating there tire bead made me think about something. When I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, the local fad was to put narrow tires on a wide rim. Once they got the tire on the rim they would squirt lighter fluid around the inside of the tire and throw a match at it. That is how they would force the bead of the narrow tire to seat on the wide rim. Has anyone ever tried this method to seat a car tire on a bike rim? Any thoughts?

I'm wondering too; it's an old country trick and a good one too. Also, starting fluid is used, but you have to use just the right amount. And ANYONE using ANYTHING explosive should have the sense to wear eye protection before ignition.

Not a good idea with MC wheels with rubber seals on them

It's been brought up.

Jerry

I think I would stick with just setting them out in the sun....

Don't care about cars doing this. However, putting too narrow a bike tire on the rim always poses the possibility of having the tire come off the rim while in a corner. If it does, you crash, sometimes you'll walk away, sometimes you'll be carried, sometimes in a body bag.

I have car tires on both my bikes, and feel they are perfectly safe, however, putting too narrow a tire on any rim that's used like a bike tire is dangerous.

Fly wrote:Don't care about cars doing this. However, putting too narrow a bike tire on the rim always poses the possibility of having the tire come off the rim while in a corner. If it does, you crash, sometimes you'll walk away, sometimes you'll be carried, sometimes in a body bag.

I have car tires on both my bikes, and feel they are perfectly safe, however, putting too narrow a tire on any rim that's used like a bike tire is dangerous.

Then you shouldn't watch........my rim is 3.5" wide!!!!! LOL It takes a machine to break mine down and don't think even a low tire could come of the rim. JMO

Me think you took what he said backwards Bobby.

I was hoping to put a BMX tire on my bike! lol! :-)

Thanks for the input guys.

I cannot believe how fast I went through my MC tire. I don’t think I ride it that hard and I was hoping to get one more year out of this MC tire. I’ll be lucky to finish up this year’s riding season on it.

I have used the starter fluid trick on several tires including the motorcycle and some lawn mower wheels that were almost impossible to seat. Always works and works fast. You need an air chuck that will lock onto the valve stem so the air is blowing in feeding the fire. The explosive force seats the tire on both sides and with much less pressure than commonly used here to seat the car tires. I usually have around 50psi in the tire when its done.
Someone mentioned rubber seals being a problem, not sure what rubber seals he was talking about, but the starter fluid burns so fast it doesn't even produce alot of heat.
There is some danger doing this trick, but I think its alot less risky than putting 110psi in the tire to seat it. My first darkside tire developed a bubble in the sidewall which I believe was caused by using soo much air pressure.

To each his own, but this method works well.

Eye protection / log lighter. Rock on, Garth!

I was having trouble mounting a CT on my wife's 400 Burgman I tried Vegetable oil, soap, leaving out in the sun and running the air up to 130 psi.
\Could not get the tire to seat. I was just about to give up and then got a can of wheel bearing grease off the shelve. Out a light coat of grease on the bead and put the air to it it want up to about 65 to 70 pounds and pop goes the bead. I think this is what I will be using now on.
So far I have mounted
3 tires on a Sabre rim
1 tire on a Roadstar rim
1 tire on a VTX 1300 rim
1 tire on a Burgman 400 rim
1 rear tire on the front of a Shadow 1100 rim.

all this done with a tire iron and a pry bar

Brett

I've always been a big fan of popping tires on with starting fluid. This method is more effective than using a Cheetah, or any other fancy gadget that I've seen. I've even successfully used this on dump truck tires and a back hoe before.

The one trick I would add is that it's best to make a trail of starter fluid around the sidewall of the tire onto the tread. That way you can light it without exposing your hand to the flames that will shoot out around the rim. Also, I don't run any pressure to the valve stem, so that the fire will smother as soon as the tire seats. It actually creates a vacuum, as the air inside the tire rapidly cools, so make sure the valve core is out or the tire can come unseated again.

I avoided this problem with seating by installing the VTX1800 rear wheel on my 1300. The wheel is about 6" wide. This is the normal width of a car wheel. So seating isn't a problem. I mounted and balanced the tire on the rim myself with no problems. The added benefit is, it's now 2" taller than stock and lowers my RPM's at any speed. Truly a fine cruiser now.