Leak in a newly mounted tubeless tire | GTAMotorcycle.com

Leak in a newly mounted tubeless tire

tricky

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I mounted my first set of tubeless tires last week on my GS500. I don't have a real compressor, just a small 12v job. I put on the rear tire and brought the PSI up to 40-ish without the valve core. Emptied in, put the valve core in and brought it up to 36. At the time, it seemed to hold air fine, visually it looked like the bead is seated. But it seems to slowly leak, something in the ballpark of 5 psi a day. I'm wondering if it isn't fully seated. Any advice? Pulling the tire and breaking the bead in 40 degree heat is something I am trying to avoid at all cost :D

I couldn't get the bead seated on the front tire, so I paid a shop to hit it with their air to drive it home. The front tire is fine, holding air.
 
there is most often a visible line on the tire which you can use to reference for a proper tire seating - it should be even and close to the rim all the way around on both sides.

the soapy water should have been used b4 mounting the wheel/tire back on the bike. ditto for valve stem.

edit- question; when you hand pumped the tire with air was it easier to do with the valve stem removed? just curious.
 
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IS 40psi enough to seat a tire onto the rim? Leaving the valve core out makes it easier to drop the pressure back down quickly.
 
Is a heck of a lot easier to bead a tubeless tire if you take the valve core out, it increases the air flow volume significantly. 40psi should be enough to bead the rim and if not then spill a little soapy water on it. Something else you can do to bead a new tire easier; before attempting to mount it put an inner tube inside the tire, pump that up and leave it overnight to stretch out the tire sidewalls.
 
Tire lube may make the seating easier. I did my offroad tires easily with my small tire-inflator (albeit a 120V unit).

You can always try starter fluid:

[video=youtube;bSlG9M-B1Ps]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSlG9M-B1Ps[/video]
 
If you're driving on the tire the bead is seated.
If it is leaking around the bead you'll have to break the bead and clean the sealing lip.

Seating the bead on a tire is not so much a pressure issue as an amount of air issue. You need A LOT of air quickly



... and LOTS of lube
 
have you ridden at all?
sometimes riding will make the bead seal up
heat, vibration and bumps can make it settle

edit: the ether trick is fine for off road equipment
would not recommend for any on pavement, high speed application
 
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edit: the ether trick is fine for off road equipment
would not recommend for any on pavement, high speed application

Why? Does the ether degrade the rubber? If you don't go crazy with the ether, it should use up the ether in the explosion leaving you with a tire full of mostly C02. If you are concerned about left over harmful gasses, inflating and deflating a few times should clear out enough that you could torch the tire off without a problem.
 

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