I've swapped some tyres between rims on my road bike and managed to get the Schwalbe Pro ones to seat and inflate with my inflator. The other tyres are Giant Gavia 32mm which are going on a set of Giant SLR1 wheels. These are not playing nicely. I've got one up with a tube but have had to split one bead to get the tube out. Now I'm struggling to get the free bead to seat again. The valve core is out, I've used liberal amounts of washing up liquid/water to get some lube on the bead and using the inflator at up to about 130psi but it just doesn't even want to entertain trying to inflate. What are my options from here besides ditching the tyres for something else?
Pull/roll the bead into place with your thumbs working around the tyre, you wont get it anywhere near on but it's usually enough to close the gap enough that the compressor can do it's job. It doesn't look like it's doing much as you go, but does seem to work once you've worked all the way around.
What sort of compressor is it? IME road tyres often need a bit more oommph from a proper compressor with a 10l+ tank as it takes a few seconds for the stiff carbon bead to stick to the rim, not the little portable ones. Assuming it's upto the job then skip the inflator tool with the guage etc and just poke the basic air gun directly into the core-less valve, it'll deliver far more air, just be ready to quickly get the core in once it's seated.
Thanks @TINAS I'll give it a go. For reference the inflator is the Giant equivlent of an airshot. It works fine with the Schwalbes but I think the Giants might be wire bead although i couldn't be sure, so probably not as supple. If that's a no go then I have a mate who paints cars with a massive compressor so I could maybe get that involved.
Put the tube around the tyre to compress it to decrease the volume. You could also seat with the tube again and sacrifice the tube to leave most of the tyre seated. I have also had tubeless valves with very poor airflow, drilling the valve on the rim side made a massive difference.
Thanks @CTR might be worth a shot and good point about sacrificing the tube
If that’s a no go then I have a mate who paints cars with a massive compressor so I could maybe get that involved.
I'm usually really tight with buying 'nice to have' things, but spending ~£150 on a proper compressor is not something I regret in the slightest! Every time I use it I remember it's probably just saved me an evening's faff!
I have to confess I just a compressor to seat road tyres - normally remove the valve core, seat it, then fill will sealant, put the core back in and re-inflate.
I put some Conti's on a pair of SLR1 for a mate, most stubborn rims I've tried...valve out and soapy water got the bead partly on but not all around the rim, when you span the wheel you could see the tyre bobbing where it wasn't seated.
Kept refilling and hitting it with the Airshot until the final part of the bead snapped into place, took a few goes.
Another wrap of tubeless tape will help. I biased here but a Hi Flow valve means no faffing around with valve cores or special inflators
Have you tried the ghetto hack of wrapping a luggage strap around the circumference of the tyre to hold the bead in place and then inflating normally. Has worked for me on mtb and road tubeless
Trick I saw on YouTube (for MTB tubeless with just a track pump) was to use a tyre lever to lift the bead up to seat it on the bead hook.
The idea is you do half of one side, then flip the wheel and do the opposite half on the other. So 12-6 seated on driveside and then 6-12 the other.
With a road tyre you probably won't manage anything close to that much but the principle is the same... By manually seating a section you'll tighten up the remaining bead to reduce air loss during seating.
I swapped an old GP5000 for a new one recently. Couldn’t get the new one to seat (with a track pump) until I stuck another layer of tubeless tape on, then it was easy.
It might work to ride it for a couple of rides with the tube in to shape the tyre a little, then take it out and try to redo the tubeless. I always find tyres easier to reseat than seat the first time
I recently spent ages trying to seat a new pair of tyres to find the tape had developed more holes than a tea bag. New tape, no problem.
Sometimes the tyres don't seat symmetrically. I just pump until they pop into place, often well north of 100psi. I then drop back to 70 ish or whatever I'm running.
but I think the Giants might be wire bead although i couldn’t be sure,
If it’s a wire bead, make sure it’s a tubeless tyre as it could stretch and fail spectacularly
Quick update on this.
I went to mates who has the big compressor and tried it with that. No dice even with the one side of the tyre seated on the rim. In the end there were three of us with the wheel on it side, seated bead at the bottom, pushing the other side of the tyre up towards the unseated bead. This was the only way to get the bead to seat, so in conclusion you need 6 hands and a massive compressor. The garage next door even had a go and tried his rim blaster device but no joy with that either.
I will just have to wear these tyres out and hope I don't get a catastrophic puncture that requires the tyre off or grow some extra arms!
If they’re like mountain bike tubeless, they should go on easier once they’ve been seated and stretched by riding.