[TheChad]

I'm having a devil of a time getting my ITP Terra Cross bead to seat. Time, repetition, extra lube haven't worked. I'm basically down to my last efforts before I trim the bead. Is there anything else I can try before trimming?

I saw someone mentioned using Astroglide to get the beads to seat. Now, having some experience with Astroglide, I happen to know that you can pretty much make an elephant fit thru a doorjam if you use enough Astroglide, BUT since I ride in some wet conditions, I think it could regain lubricity at an inopportune moment and allow the tire to slip eventually.

Having searched the forum extensively, it seems that the crowd is about 50/50 who's trimmed the bead and who got their ATV tire on without trimming. That being said, no one that I can find has discussed the following:

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE HOW MUCH TO TRIM OFF THE BEAD??? If you trimmed yours, did you take it to the steel belts right off the bat? I was thinking of taking 1/16" all the way around, but I want to make sure it's enough. Comments?

 

[admiral]

I'm having a devil of a time getting my ITP Terra Cross bead to seat. Time, repetition, extra lube haven't worked. I'm basically down to my last efforts before I trim the bead. Is there anything else I can try before trimming?

I saw someone mentioned using Astroglide to get the beads to seat. Now, having some experience with Astroglide, I happen to know that you can pretty much make an elephant fit thru a doorjam if you use enough Astroglide, BUT since I ride in some wet conditions, I think it could regain lubricity at an inopportune moment and allow the tire to slip eventually.

Having searched the forum extensively, it seems that the crowd is about 50/50 who's trimmed the bead and who got their ATV tire on without trimming. That being said, no one that I can find has discussed the following:

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE HOW MUCH TO TRIM OFF THE BEAD??? If you trimmed yours, did you take it to the steel belts right off the bat? I was thinking of taking 1/16" all the way around, but I want to make sure it's enough. Comments?

I used "the glide" on my Ceros. I've never had a problem with the tire since. No slipping on the rim, nothing. Before you trim the bead, I saw a post several years back where someone place a plastic covered cable around the rim between the bead and rim. I think the theory is to avoid one side of the bead to pop over the rim before the other. Then when the whole tire is over the rim he removed the cable and it finished seating from there. I've never tried it yet since I'm still riding on the Ceros for the past few seasons.

P.S. I didn't trim the bead on the Ceros. Lots of heat, time, and repeated airing up and down as you've no doubt been doing.

 

[Fred]

I always trimmed my Duro and TerraCross tires like what is depicted in this video. I try to replicate angle where bead seats on rim and stop short of the cord.
[h=3]yamaha tw 200 монтаж DURO power grip[/h]Jura Enna



7.9K views




A true tire grease probably works better than a water based sex lube for seating the bead.
There are a good 4 or 5 older threads on bead seating techniques using wire, lubs, variable pressure, time, etc. Try chasing down some of the threads linked to this: [h=3]Duro Rear Tire Trim Question - Yamaha TW200 Forum[/h]
[url]https://www.tw200forum.com › forum › performance-customization › 124...
[/URL]

 

[Fred]

Believe no trimming was down on this, just a tire grease and patience. 60 psi is a little scary so use a remote inflation device to inflate & deflate.

 

[TheChad]

Believe no trimming was down on this, just a tire grease and patience. 60 psi is a little scary so use a remote inflation device to inflate & deflate.

Tire grease or just grease? I don't think I've ever heard of tire grease.

 

[white mule]

The tire shops use a gel soap for mounting BIG tires. they get it in 5 gal. buckets. I don't know what's in it but it works good for cleaning your hands.

 

[Fred]

" Grease" is more of a common term.
More formal names you may see at stores include following...tire lubricant..tire mounting compound...rubber lubricant...tire mounting paste...tire mounting lubricant...bull snot...

 

[Andre]

I've had a fair amount of success with an explosive reaction. You can use ether and give it a short blast, then light it. The Icelanders use it to re-seat tires that broke the bead while wheeling I've used it a time or two in the bush as well.

 

[TheChad]

Since I can only trim the bead once, I've decided to go the bear grease, pressure, heat, time route. If the beads dont seat within 10-14 days; a-trimming I will go, a-trimming I will go, Hi ho the dairy o a-trimming I will go.....

 

[molochnik]

I'm having a devil of a time getting my ITP Terra Cross bead to seat. Time, repetition, extra lube haven't worked. I'm basically down to my last efforts before I trim the bead. Is there anything else I can try before trimming?

I saw someone mentioned using Astroglide to get the beads to seat. Now, having some experience with Astroglide, I happen to know that you can pretty much make an elephant fit thru a doorjam if you use enough Astroglide, BUT since I ride in some wet conditions, I think it could regain lubricity at an inopportune moment and allow the tire to slip eventually.

Having searched the forum extensively, it seems that the crowd is about 50/50 who's trimmed the bead and who got their ATV tire on without trimming. That being said, no one that I can find has discussed the following:

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE HOW MUCH TO TRIM OFF THE BEAD??? If you trimmed yours, did you take it to the steel belts right off the bat? I was thinking of taking 1/16" all the way around, but I want to make sure it's enough. Comments?

Dude, this is pretty funny.
That said, I have yet to change a tire on our Tdub BUT from what I've read so far in regard the trials of tire changes, I would recommend No Mar tire lube. There are some mail order outfits who just sell the tub of lube so you can check out RMATV or Dennis Kirk, et al.
My tub came with the tire changer when I ordered it from No Mar many years ago and I'm still on that original tub. They recommend diluting it with water but I've have done just fine using just the lube when out on the trail (with typical dirt bike tires) that I carry in a small bottle.
When I was racing supermoto, I used Behr rims and some of the tires were absolute headaches to change, which prompted me to buy the changer instead of just using the old trash can method. Many of the tires required an extraordinary amount of air pressure to get the bead seated - the Behr rims had a smaller bead the tire had to get past before they'd seat against the rim - like a safety rim.
From all of the stories related to difficult beads, I'm expecting to use a whole lot of the No Mar lube. It's vegetable based and doesn't seem to cause any trouble when riding through wet areas.
A major problem with soap is that it will not get along with the tube; it can lead to drying out the rubber. Lots of people use it, so it can be done and shouldn't be a problem if you go through tires quickly enough but I've seen soap dry out rubber in too many other instances to use it on a tire. Just my opinion/experience.
Astroglide...makes the 15 year old part of my brain laugh. I guess if if it doesn't cause a rash (never used it myself) it should be fine on a tire. The No Mar lube doesn't regain lubricity, or it at least doesn't cause any trouble should the tire get wet.

Edit:The high pressures I mentioned to seat the slicks on the Behr rims didn't bother me so much because the tube is shored up by the tire as opposed to a tubeless rig. By high pressure I mean I'd often go as high as 60 to 70psi. I realize that's awfully scary with a tire like on our Tdubs but I was using 120/70-17s and 160/60-17s. I'm not saying it's safe, it's just what I did. On tubeless tires I'd often leave 50 psi on the tire for a while and try deflating and re-inflating, sometimes squirting lube into the bead area until I could get it to pop on.

 

[TheChad]

I've had a fair amount of success with an explosive reaction. You can use ether and give it a short blast, then light it. The Icelanders use it to re-seat tires that broke the bead while wheeling I've used it a time or two in the bush as well.

I've used that on tubeless tires, but how does it work with tubed tires?

 

[Fred]

Good question regarding using flaming ether with a tube.
I fear the rapidly expanding combustion gasses initiated on one side of the rim might expel a portion of the tube out the other side of rim and thus get pinched and possibly punctured.
The ether does work well on a tubeless ATV tire/TW rim combination if one doesn't have an air compressor with a big tank capable of dumping many CFM to initiate the bead seating.