trying to put a tire on for the first time. won't inflate?

[misterprofessionality]

Well, at least you gave the tire changing job a shot and won't be wondering whether or not you should be attempting it in the future.

You should also lubricate the inside of the rim so the tire won’t stick making it harder to bead. You need to use something that won’t corrode the metal rim. Something that evaporates. And removing the valve stem is a must to get the tire bead to seat. When I do a good job of wetting the rim I don’t need a strap using an air compressor at home. But the tire strap works well.


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i used loads of lubricant, believe me. wasted an entire jar of the stuff. its supposed to be specifically for tire mounting. it still took me almost 4 hours to get it into place. probably the most backbreaking, insane thing i've ever physically done. i will NEVER attempt it again.

Lol, my two Millennial kids are also unbelievably cheap.

If you don't want to spend money on even a low-end compressor, you could get an air tank and fill it someplace with free compressed air. Maybe your little compressor could even pump it up and then you could use it to seat the tire bead.

+1 on Razor's tip to remove the Schrader valve (you'll need a special but - thankfully - cheap tool) and then just blast a high volume of air into the tire quickly to seat the bead.

BTW, check Facebook Marketplace for used compressors and air tanks. The prices are often ridiculously cheap.

lol. being cheap is a matter of survival for my generation. if i wasn't cheap i wouldn't have everything I have. thankfully I'm one year away from owning a home outright, i own my vehicles, i get vacations and work one professional job, and I have all of that because i'm cheap as all heck. i cut corners at every opportunity, lie, cheat, steal, and beg. i will never, ever, ever let one thin penny escape from my pocket if there was any other way to get around it, and it's because of that strength that i've been able to be successful where 75% of my generation has failed.

being cheap is actually what gave me the idea to try to mount this tire. i thought "the shop wants like $40 bucks to mount the tire...the guide says all i need are tire irons, rim shields, lubricants, and an inflator. i've already got the inflator, so that's an easy choice. i can spend $40 on tools right now and never spend $40 to mount a tire again."

yea...what the guides didn't tell me is what you guys are telling me now, that i absolutely have a 3-digit price-range air compressor, that i need to spend another 20-30 bucks on ratchet straps, and what i found out on my own that the rim shields will be totally demolished after the first use. right now i'm trying to make sure that my ignorance doesn't cost me any money. i'm going to tell some lies and return the tire iron tools after this is all over, and never attempt this crap again. clearly it's cheaper just to let the shop do it if you don't already have an air compressor.

I used straps on tires for a wheel barrow and you need a lot of air FAST to set a tire on a rim , should not be that difficult.

You always have a "russian method" for anything, and it's always an effective (and dangerous) one.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLtBojvDEyc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLtBojvDEyc

If somebody tries it, please make a video

that's awesome and gnarly, but needless to say I will not be attempting that. i spent enough money on my tire, i don't need to buy another one.

very cool to watch though. you're not the first person to suggest the fire method to me, but i hadn't actually seen it done before.

MP, have you tried removing the valve insert and inflating, setting the bead that way like razor mentions
Worked for me last time at the local fuel stop since it allows for more airflow, as soon as it was removed the tire inflated fine.
Once the bead pops on you deflate, re-insert the valve insert and inflate normally.

i do have that valve tool, and i've tried inflating both ways. the gas station air pump had no more success than my home device, but then of course i don't own ratchet straps.

The only option I have at this point is to try to bum some air compressor time off one of the installers that works for me. they might have a ratchet strap too. I don't know yet.

If you work on your bikes a lot you NEED an air compressor , they will last you a life time if you buy a good one . Even if it means spending less money on up graded parts. Even for house hold jobs an air compressor is very handy : drying , cleaning , staples etc etc.

haha houtman i'm quickly learning what my instincts have always been screaming at me: working on bikes is not for me. Every single time i try something new it ends up like this. nothing ever works like it's supposed to work. it always ends up costing me money. the sole exception to that is when somebody is actively sitting down and showing me what to do step by step, and there's nobody going to teach me how to work on bikes like that.

Bike parts are expensive as heck, so the way I see it, if i make a decision to buy some, they have to go on correctly the first time, without fail, without worry, and without fumbling around trying to figure out what I did wrong. Whatever bike parts i get in the future, they're going to go right to a shop and go on in the hands of a professional, which is the way I always have conducted business up to this point.

Clearly something broke in my brain when i decided i was going to attempt to learn how to do this stuff. lesson learned.

I'm suddenly detecting the irony in your user name.

I design, source, and sell cabinetry for a living. If you know anything about the industry, you'd see how important cost cutting is to the entire economy of it. my personal proclivities have served me well. I often end up rather well respected for my ability to make numbers work and put vendors and clients in their place to avoid unnecessary extra costs. well respected *within my industry* that is. vendors and clients come to know me as an insufferable ballbuster.

I have a couple recommendations:

- The tire should have a painted yellow dot near the bead , it should be aligned next to the valve stem so the balance is closest and you should need fewer weights. Of course, be sure the direction of rotation arrows are correct.

- motorcycle tires very rarely need a strap to help them bead up. I have one of the inflatable red straps made just for this, and needed it only once in hundred of times (on a car tire).

- If the beads aren't touching on both sides, you will need a large volume of air at moderately high pressure (about 60psi +), so just a small tank-less compressor won't do it. Any car or bike shop should have one.

- If it doesn't bead up, use soapy water or a foaming spray cleaner liberally on the tire at the bead.

- Hold the tire upright, holding the wheel up with one hand and jiggle the wheel side to side against the beads while the tire is filling. The tire should bead up.

As for balancing, you can get very close using the stock axles. Be sure you remove the calipers and any spacers that engage a seal so there is no drag.

Thanks for all those Peking. most of those i've covered from the beginning, i did attempt to use soap and lubricants to pop the bead out when attempting to inflate, but there's just no pressure being generated within the tire since i don't have any kind of real air compressor. all the lubricant in the world isn't going to make up for that i don't think.

as for the balancing dot: there was none. I knew of it and i've looked all over the tire for it but it's nowhere. the dot guy at the michelin plant was sleeping that day i guess.

My local independent shop will mount tires off the bike for $20 each, while you wait. I buy my tires online and he's more than happy to take my money. For me, it's a no-brainer, but if I had to do it all over again, I should have purchased a No-Mar tire changing machine when I thought about it 25 years ago so I could avoid all of those pesky $20 tire changes (it adds up when you have more than one bike to maintain).

you know what, at approximately $500 flat for the basic version, that's actually much more cost effective than buying all the tools for a manual change (over time) because you don't use up all the consummables like rim shields over and over again. . If one wanted to do their own tires, financially, it seems like that's the only way to go.