Bicycle Mechanics - "Crooked" tire??.........

Just put a "new" set of tires (actually old ones that hadn't been used) on my wife's bike. The rear tire, a Specialized Team Master, 26 x 2.10, seems to be "crooked", when you roll it, looks like an out of true rim, the rim is true. The bead is set in the rim, I've tried letting air out and manipulating the tire, but still has a spot where it veers to the side. It is the first tire, on a motorcycle or bicycle, that I have ever seen like that. Anyone experienced a bad tire--it's a first for me!

Just put a "new" set of tires (actually old ones that hadn't been used) on my wife's bike. The rear tire, a Specialized Team Master, 26 x 2.10, seems to be "crooked", when you roll it, looks like an out of true rim, the rim is true. The bead is set in the rim, I've tried letting air out and manipulating the tire, but still has a spot where it veers to the side. It is the first tire, on a motorcycle or bicycle, that I have ever seen like that. Anyone experienced a bad tire--it's a first for me!

I've seen it a couple of times especially on knobbies. I had a Panaracer Dart that drove me crazy because every time I looked down at the front wheel it seemed that the rim was waaaay out of true. Didn't affect the performance however.

Some Specialized brand tires have been really crappy when new. Suggest you trash that one.

Al

Just put a "new" set of tires (actually old ones that hadn't been used) on my wife's bike. The rear tire, a Specialized Team Master, 26 x 2.10, seems to be "crooked", when you roll it, looks like an out of true rim, the rim is true. The bead is set in the rim, I've tried letting air out and manipulating the tire, but still has a spot where it veers to the side. It is the first tire, on a motorcycle or bicycle, that I have ever seen like that. Anyone experienced a bad tire--it's a first for me!

It might be a bad tire, but that would be quite unusual for Specialized. My guess is that it's a seating issue.

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/flats.html#seating

Sheldon "Round Is Good" Brown
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Without checking Sheldon's link, I have a solution that usually works for me when tires don't seat properly. Assuming the tube is in properly, I pump them up, check the bead, then over-inflate them by a bit and let them sit for a while. Things seem to work themselves out from there, and then I just reduce the pressure to the desired psi.

It might be a bad tire, but that would be quite unusual for Specialized.

The Specialized tires that came on my son's new Allez were absolute crap, 700 X 23. The front one separated on the first ride and the rear was out-of-round. The bike dealer said that Specialized had quit marketing the tire and would not replace them.

Al

Without checking Sheldon's link, I have a solution that usually works for me when tires don't seat properly. Assuming the tube is in properly, I pump them up, check the bead, then over-inflate them by a bit and let them sit for a while. Things seem to work themselves out from there, and then I just reduce the pressure to the desired psi.

That's what they are doing as we speak. I figure maybe, if the problem is the bead seating (think it's a bad tire-not the bead), that overinflating might slowly work the bead into place. Before giving up, going to try a few rides on it--surely rocks and roots will either beat it into place, or bust it off of the rim if it isn't seating properly!

I've had some problems with Kevlar bead tires. On Mavic rims, it take a lot of work to get them on, but on cheap hoops, they slide right on (and off, presumably). After installing them, they didn't seem to seat properly. I always talc my tubes to make installation easier, and here I was having all sorts of trouble. Well, as I was looking at the tire, I noticed the bead just "Pop" into place. From that day, I've made it a habit to over-inflate the tires, and they will generally seat themselves in few minutes. I can't really suggest riding with it overinflated and not properly seated though.

Good luck.

Sometimes there will be a very small section of tube that gets pinched btwn the bead and the rim that caused it to go out of round.

Try this. With your thumbs, push one side of the tire over and look down between the rails of the rim. You should see only the rim strip. If you see the tube at all, it is being pinched there, causing your problem.