I have this EX500 racebike in my shop, among others things, I am to mount the new 150/17 rear tire supplied by my customer. now I have been swapping motorcycle tires since my first MC shop job in 1974, nothing special about this, except........ I CANNOT get the tire to seal up against the rim in order to inflate it. All the air I put into it comes out around the sidewalls. Of course when I first ran into this trouble, I remove the schrader valve from the stem and use my special air chuck with no depressor in it to blast huge volumes of 125psi air into it, no luck. next I put a ratchet tie down and cinched it, no luck. eventually (yesterday) I gave up and went home. Today I popped the tire back off the rim and set it outside in the 80* sunshine. rolled the warm tire on the rim by hand.......figured this would be the ticket, still no luck. Tire bead is slightly 'pinched' inward, maybe where it had been wrapped with packing tape for a long time. finally got out the sure fire BIG GUN- diesel starting fluid and propane torch!! after 4-5 whooshes, still not sealing the tire on the rim, all the 'explosion' is blowing out around the sidewall and open valve syem. so I put cap on valve stem and tried several more times with starting fluid. Still no good. By now I am several hours labor into trying to get the tire to inflate, I call my customer and tell him whats going on, he offers to send the tire back ( I think he got it from Monte STT). Before I closed up the shop today I put an inner tube inside the bare tire and inflated it to expand the sidewalls to about 4-5 inches and left it sitting on the tire machine, I'll see what tomorrow holds. I am about out of ideas......anybody ever had such a stubborn tire???
never had one on a bike but a couple of atv tires that acted that way. lots of lube (enough to make a mess lots), air and a couple of busted knuckles later it finally gave in and seated correctly. good luck
What's the date code on the sidewall? I've had the public bring in tires that were "new" but shelf-stale by several years.
I've had a few that were particularly difficult as well. As with most things, lots of lube and patience eventually paid off.
update! after the bare tire sat with an inflated tube inside it overnight, pressing the sidewalls out, I was able to mount, seat and inflate the tire today. keep that fix of file.
Yeeeeeeep On that very same bike. We use this "tornado" inflator thing... Big yellow tank with a spout and ball valve on it. It puts 100 lbs all at once and seats the bead and scares the shit outta everyone involved! You need it on the EX500 rim w/150/60 tire. Cost about $160 and it's NEVER met a bead it could not seat.
Yo Monte, I've seen those blasters, never had a chance to use one. Still can't be as scary as starting fluid and a match, which has 'always' worked for me on 4 whr and Jeep tires. Until this EX I had never met a motorcycle tire/wheel so stubborn that I would have to try exploding the tire onto the rim. I'm just glad I finally got it mounted and my customer didn't have to bug you with 'sending it back'.
was most likely an OLD/dry tire. as was suggested above. and yes a "cheetah", that brings back memories...
Tires like this we use a strap around the outer circumference keep pulling the strap tighter making sure its dead center and then add air. I have been able to inflate most tires without the use of something like a tornado inflater. Its a little safer IMO
Every time I've ever had this problem it was one of two things. One of the beads was partly on the ledge, or one of the beads was slightly deformed from something sitting on it. Either way, your tube fix is going into my bag of tricks.
