Hi all,
My front tire on my DT250B/MX250 framed desert assault weapon has the bead on the front tire not set in the rim properly.What is the best way to get this seated?
I am a little hesitant to over inflate but it may be the only way.Any thoughs on this?
Thanks. Final got it running good. Took it out to the Mojave Desert today and got to blast through some rough, sandy ,rocky goodness

. .

I think the "safe" limit to seat the bead is about 40 PSI. I frequently have to go much higher than that. If it doesn't seat, deflate and try again.

If you lube the bead with some glass cleaner or soapy water it may help. This issue is caused by the tire being offset to one side of the rim, which is how it ends up when you spoon the bead over. It can help to roll the bike around on it with no air to help get the tire more or less concentric with the rim. Shouldn't need as much pressure that way.

Sounds like good advice. I will give these methods a try.
Thanks

Free it fully from the rim with no air in it & look closely to be sure the rim band isn't caught under the edge of the bead where it seats. Then bead lube or soapy water--or something. I see 40 said to be the safe limit so don't let me influence you but i've probably gone double+ on mine. I've also tried to do bad ones with the valve out so you can release it quickly if necessary. Old MX tires turn into a piece of wood over time & if it's been sitting like that & ridden for years it'll 'not' like change. Reminds me--my Fergy 135 Tractor rear tyre is off the bead for 1/4 of the circle but i tried all my tricks then left it as is. Tire has big splits in it so could see bad things happening . Had already secured the air line to the valve fitting minus valve then hid around the corner for a while with the compressor. Gave up on that & left it as is.

I bought a gallon of genuine tire mounting lube a few years ago...  made the job of mounting and seating tires a TON easier and dries up quick and doesn't cause corrosion like the soapy water I used to use.  I've mounted a dozen or more tires and used less than a pint...  so a gallon is too much.  Next time I'd go to a tire store and see if I could buy a little. 

Anyway, I used to have to mount up truck tires with the split rims... (actually they had a series of lock rings on one bead... not sure why we called them "split rims")  Easier to mount but very dangerous to air up.  I saw one blow up once...  the rim flew well over 100 yards into the orange groves next door and we never did find it.  Lucky nobody got hurt.  The guy got fired and then we all had to take a safety class...  There's an incredible amount of power stored in an aired up truck tire! 

After seeing the video, nobody ever aired up a tire outside the safety cage again.  I think it was this exact video but the one we saw had literally had "blood and guts" scenes filmed after someone got killed by an exploding truck tire.



A couple of years later the company switched to 100% tubeless tires and rims which weren't quite as dangerous to air up but I still always used the cage...  and then they decided to call a mobile tire truck to do the tire repairs so we didn't have to do it anymore...  didn't bother me one bit...  but I still do enjoy mounting my own tires to the wheels on bikes and sometimes cars/trucks/trailers. 


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not applicable to a tire with a tube but still pretty cool!

 

I’ll second the true tire lube like Mark. I bought a gallon at NAPA plus a $5 tire lube brush and it’s been on like butter ever since. That plus a Baja No Pinch tool for the difficult ones and I haven’t lost a fingernail since.

I have never heard of the Baja No Pinch tool until now.  I always feel like I have lost a wrestling match when putting on large rear tires with rim locks, and then finding out I pinched the tube.  I watched a video of that tool, and it makes mounting a tire look easy!