Tubeless rims to rims?
 

Hey
After getting four flats in one day I have had enough of my tubeless rims! (and tubeless tyres) I understand that new rims are expensive. So I was thinking of machining off the 'lip' that makes getting the tyre off so dammed hard! Has anyone tryed this? one method, maybe a tad crude would be to fit the wheel with no tyre on it back on the bike, with the bike in first gear proped up and file/grind it off! Any opions on my idea would be great.
Cheers George
(I am sure it does't matter but it is a TT600RE (04) )

forgive my ignorance but shouldnt a TT600 have tubes in the tyres?

Having tubed tyres doesnt really make it any easier.

The lip your talking about is mostly there to hold the tyre bead. Tubed or tubless.

Repairing or replacing an inner tube is far less of a hassal though.

It's much easier to fix a tubless flat than one with an inner tube.

Just to clarify, are you running tubes in your tubeless tires? As far as shaving down the safety bead, well i guess it would depend on the rim and it's structure. But before you do something drastic like altering the rim, do you use soap or grease when you change or remove your tires? Using a lubricant makes a HUGE difference in getting tires on and off the rims. It also helps pop the bead with tubeless. I also carry a wire brush to scrum the rubber from the rim. This helps too. Personally, i prefer tubeless. It's really easy to plug a tire on the road, and if done properly should last for the life of the tire.

Hey
I am running tubes in my tube less. But I will soon be on regular tyres. Because of the 'safety lip' it is very difficult to get the tyre into the center of the wheel to remove and refit the tyre. Looking at it, removing this bead of metal, to make the rim like a normal rim, and hence alot easyer to remove.
Cheers George

TT600RE's should have tube tyres, standard fitment is pirelli MT70 90/90 21" front, 130/70 18" rear. I have never had a problem changing tubes with 200mm tyre levers. Changing tyres can be awkward but perseverence pays.
Are you sure you are pushing the bead in to the well on the opposite side of the wheel, if not it can be bloody hard to get the tyre back on the rim.

Hi Leigh
What I am finding is that the lip on the edge before the center/well of the wheel makes it very hard to get the tyre into the center. I have been told a normal rim does not have this lump, hence making it alot easyer to get the tyre into the center and off/on. The little black bump ilistrated in my terriable drawing of a cross section of my rim is what I am thinking of removing, because I am told a regular/non safety rim does not have this. My question is, is doing so going to weaked the rim?
Or am I gravely mistaken and there is nothing wrong with my rim!
Cheers again for all your help.
George

Assuming your rim is standard fitment the same as my 2 TTRE's, there is nothing wrong with it. Just practice, a warm tyre is easier, kneeling on the tyre should push it in to the well easier. Consult the puncture repair diagrams in the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook for nice pictures.

Standard rims have this bead too (or at least the tube-type rims on my XT have them). I sympathise though, I just took a Bridgestone standard equipment semi-trailly off the back wheel and it took about 89 swearwords I'd use in front of my mother, 68 I'd use in front of a pretty girl and 28 I'd only use in front of a sailor with a criminal record.

I don't know if this will help but make sure you have one long tyre lever, about 12inches is normally good enough. The second lever can be small and you use this to hold the tire to prevent it from slipping back. The long lever you use for the hard work to lever with and once the tyre is over the rim put the small right next to the big one and move the big one up about two inches and repeat the process.
To get the bead of the rim into the centre, I find using the levers is useless.
The technique I use is to place the wheel flat on the ground or floor with something to protect the rim and hub like a rag or piece of cardboard. I then use my 100+kilo body weight to step on the side of the tire and sometimes you need to rock your body weight to increase the pressure but I have always been very successful doing it in this way.
For the lightweights I guess the only advice I have is that you have to eat your porridge in the morning.

I have to correct myself here as I try to remove a Michelin Desert using this method yesterday.
When I put all my weight on the tire the first thought is that it was still inflated. This tyre have the sidewalls of a truck tire and would not budge for nothing. I fetched my tire levers each about 18 inches long and it was incredible how easy it was when you have some leverage.
I think the biggest problem with changing tires is the size of the tire lever. So as they say size does count and I can clearly remember taking of a tire using the BMW provided 6 inch lever and eventually having to give up with badly bruised hands from applying as much pressure as I could.
Long levers will make all the difference and the longer the better, only problem is where to stow the buggers as they can get long and heavy.
You will get away using a combination of long and short together so you can save on weight but for the long I would recommend carrying one as long as what can fit in your pannier box.

The biggest factor I find when trying to break the bead on a tyre is size of the lip/curve/point etc the end of the lever.

You have to get that initial movement which is almost impossible with large levers. Very thin narrow levers are good for this. I carry one for this very task and bigger ones for actual removal.

I have even bent the end of a flat blade screwdriver and eased it under the bead with lots of lube before. That almost always works.

Hi
Thanks for all your replys. I think I will get hold a longer leaver and also a small thiner one too. So am I mistaken about rims with out this raised lip, in Chris Scotts book he calls this 'locating lip' on safety rims, are rims avaliable with out this extra lip? Beacuse it does make getting the tyre into the center harder
Cheers again George

H.U. Meeting
 

George, I will be at the meeting with either my TTR or TTRE, I can chat with you about TTR related issues. I have only ever needed to use 200mm levers, but I know I wouldn't be able to with a desert!