Originally Posted by
tonymarch
When I bought my Madone 5+ years ago, I opted for Shimano tubeless rims with Bontrager tubeless tires (I think Hutchinson actually manufactured them). I didn't have much trouble mounting the tires. But I could never get the tires to seat. I tried most of the tricks mentioned above with no success. I don't own a compressor, so I bought a special pump that's supposed to deliver a large rush of air to seat the bead. That that didn't help. Switched to Hutchinson-branded tires - same result. I would have to go to my LBS and have them mount the tubes with their compressor. Even then, they would have to use a port closest to the compressor itself or the beads wouldn't seat, I guess due to the pressure drop in the satellite ports. Based on the above, are the Shimano wheels the culprit? Sounds like most people with Mavic rims don't seem to have the issues I had. I still ride the wheels, but I run them with tubes. Wouldn't mind going back to tubeless if I could mount the damn tires. Thoughts/suggestions?
Some flash chargers are better than others. I have one from Specialized and it's... so-so, at best. For the best chances of success, you need to be able to deliver a large volume of air very quickly, and the Specialized doesn't excel at that. As my technique has improved, I've gotten better results with it, but I still occasionally run in to a tire that doesn't want to pop. At that point, I'll put a Schrader adapter on to it and visit a local auto shop that has the best publicly available air hose in town - it has never failed to seat one of my tires within the first two tries.
FWIW, I've been running Hutchinson tires recently (Fusion 5 Performance 11 Storm) and they've gone on and seated with such ease that I've been a little disappointed - one of those deals where you're looking forward to a fight and you don't get one.
Anyway, a good compressor is probably your best bet, moving forward. If that doesn't appeal to you for whatever reason, and it really doesn't appeal to me, then look at some of the better pumps/flash chargers out there - the one from Bontrager/Trek gets a lot of love, and that's probably what will replace my Specialized when I've finally had enough with it.