Hamon
Member
When it comes to bead breaking, there are several schools of thought:
-There are those who rely on having another bike around to use the sidestand to pop the bead off. (What happens when you ride on your own? It's kinda tough to break a bead with your own sidestand when you have a wheel off the bike.)
-There are those who risk life and rim by riding for a while on a flat to pop the bead and heat the tire up, making for an easier change. (What happens if you don't run rimlocks and want to reuse the tube? What happens if you spin a rim and tear a valve stem?)
-There are those who pack an extra C-clamp for the sole purpose of breaking the bead. (Why carry so much extra volume/weight for only one purpose?)
-There are those who pay a shop to change tires and pray that nothing happens when out riding. (I ride a KLR. This is unfathomable.)
Myself, I like the idea of being able to break the bead without any help, specialized tools, or risking more damage to an already damaged tire.. I ride alone, which makes the sidestand trick impossible. I don't run rim locks, so riding on a flat could spell the end to an otherwise fixable tube (by tearing the valve stem). A C-clamp is bulkier than I'm willing to pack, especially when it's only really for one purpose. And, we already established that I'm a cheap-a** by the fact that I ride a KLR. I'm not gonna pay somebody else to change my tires.
The answer is simple: use the tools you've got. I bring 3 tire irons with me on any ride:
It takes a bit of practice, but once you have the technique down, it's fairly simple to do. Here's how to use these three irons to break a bead in a controlled fashion with no stomping, whining, c-clamps, or relying on another bike:
Get your tire off, the valve out,and start with one iron, inside of spoon facing away from the tire:
Wedge it in and get your second iron in, same way (outside of spoon against the tire):
Lever both irons down, forcing the tire away from the rim:
At this point, you'll be able to look inside and see where the tire bead has seated into the rim. There should be a little gap between the bead and the seat:
Get your third iron in, opposite to the other two. If you're using Motion Pro irons with the nice little lip at the end of the spoon, it should "click" nicely into the gap between the bead and the seat:
With your two original irons, push down, compressing the tire away from the rim. With your third iron, pull up, separating the tire's bead from the bead seat (forgive the picture, I did the photos on my own, and this is a part where you really need two hands):
You may have to move your third iron (the iron we're unseating the bead with) to several locations to loosen the bead enough. Keep pushing down with the other two, and lever the bead off with your third. Finally, you should get here:
Keep moving around the tire, popping the rest of the bead off. It'll be easy once you get the first 8th done. Satisfaction:
Do the same on the other side:
And you know the rest:
Look, ma! No blood!
Granted, this was a controlled, warm environment. It also works elsewhere:
Hope this helps!
Travis
-There are those who rely on having another bike around to use the sidestand to pop the bead off. (What happens when you ride on your own? It's kinda tough to break a bead with your own sidestand when you have a wheel off the bike.)
-There are those who risk life and rim by riding for a while on a flat to pop the bead and heat the tire up, making for an easier change. (What happens if you don't run rimlocks and want to reuse the tube? What happens if you spin a rim and tear a valve stem?)
-There are those who pack an extra C-clamp for the sole purpose of breaking the bead. (Why carry so much extra volume/weight for only one purpose?)
-There are those who pay a shop to change tires and pray that nothing happens when out riding. (I ride a KLR. This is unfathomable.)
Myself, I like the idea of being able to break the bead without any help, specialized tools, or risking more damage to an already damaged tire.. I ride alone, which makes the sidestand trick impossible. I don't run rim locks, so riding on a flat could spell the end to an otherwise fixable tube (by tearing the valve stem). A C-clamp is bulkier than I'm willing to pack, especially when it's only really for one purpose. And, we already established that I'm a cheap-a** by the fact that I ride a KLR. I'm not gonna pay somebody else to change my tires.
The answer is simple: use the tools you've got. I bring 3 tire irons with me on any ride:
It takes a bit of practice, but once you have the technique down, it's fairly simple to do. Here's how to use these three irons to break a bead in a controlled fashion with no stomping, whining, c-clamps, or relying on another bike:
Get your tire off, the valve out,and start with one iron, inside of spoon facing away from the tire:
Wedge it in and get your second iron in, same way (outside of spoon against the tire):
Lever both irons down, forcing the tire away from the rim:
At this point, you'll be able to look inside and see where the tire bead has seated into the rim. There should be a little gap between the bead and the seat:
Get your third iron in, opposite to the other two. If you're using Motion Pro irons with the nice little lip at the end of the spoon, it should "click" nicely into the gap between the bead and the seat:
With your two original irons, push down, compressing the tire away from the rim. With your third iron, pull up, separating the tire's bead from the bead seat (forgive the picture, I did the photos on my own, and this is a part where you really need two hands):
You may have to move your third iron (the iron we're unseating the bead with) to several locations to loosen the bead enough. Keep pushing down with the other two, and lever the bead off with your third. Finally, you should get here:
Keep moving around the tire, popping the rest of the bead off. It'll be easy once you get the first 8th done. Satisfaction:
Do the same on the other side:
And you know the rest:
Look, ma! No blood!
Granted, this was a controlled, warm environment. It also works elsewhere:
Hope this helps!
Travis
When I purchased my first DS bike some years ago, I only had a vague idea on how to fix a flat on the trail.
