Flat tyres?

[razor-]

hey.
When i bought my pocket bike it was advertised to have "tubeless tyres" which does have air in it but in the rubber not the tube.

Well anyway my front tire is Really badly leaking from the valvue or has a hole in it so i was going to get pocket bike tire tubes.

1 would this work in my tyres as there "tubeless"?

2 How do i get the wheel off the rim? i cant see if they really are "tubeless" or not because i cant get the wheel off the rim.

I have changed push bike tubes but how do i get the pocket bike wheel off?

ive got the wheel off the frame but cant get it off the rim.

Thanks

[Crash Dummy]

Hey there mate. Before you go trying to install a tube give this a try first. Personally I hate tubes. Dunno why. I've just never liked them.

Tubeless tyres work by having two perfectly matched surfaces (The Bead) on the rim and tyre which mate together and are held interlocked by air pressure within the tyre and the pressure of the steel belts within the tyre.

Get a spray bottle of some kind. I like the clothes pre-cleaner style ones for removing stains. I squirt in a heap of dish washing detergent and fill the rest up with water so it's going to be really soapy.

Pump the tyre up a bit so there is some air in it then spray some of the solution on the valve itself first just to confirm it's not leaking. Not leaking ? Good.
Next step.
Making sure there is air in the tyres still spray some water all the way around the rim on the join between the rubber and alloy wheel. If there is any leaks at all they will manifest themselves as bubbles which are expanding. If you see any leaks along here your on the right track. I've seen two reasons for these tubeless tyres leaking. One is the guys throwing them on the rims are in such a rush that they just do a really poor job of it or secondly while doing their poor job they manage to cut the tyre along the bead so it won't seal right no matter what you do. Hopefully the latter isn't the case.

If the leak is coming from the bead deflate the tyre fully then take a flat blade screw driver and a piece of plastic (ice cream container is good) the plastic is to protect the rim. You want to stick that between the tyre and rim to break the seal. Do this all the way around and then apply some of the soapy solution to the bead on the tyre. Thats right. Soap it up and get it nice and wet. Don't fill the tyre up inside with water though. Do your best to squish the tyre back into position. It won't go back on you say ? Just pump it you hit about 35psi then if the bead hasn't reseated itself rotate the tyre and give it a bang on the ground with a bit of body weight behind it. Keep rotating the tyre and you'll find the tyre will slide into place nicely.
If your using an air compressor to fill the tyre just ramming the air in hard and fast is usually enough to make it pop onto the bead once you've got a seal.

If both sides were leaking do the breaking of the seal on both sides of the tyre and complete the reseal process. This should get your tyre sealed up real good and get you riding again in no time. It might be tricky the first time you do it but i think the results are worth it.

Tubes suck!

[SAMMY]

or if it is coming out of the actual tyre and u dont want 2 get a new 1 just use some slime like they use on push bikes a m8 did that and it works great

[Crash Dummy]

Hey Sammy.
What is that slime product called ?

Oh funny story. At the last pocket bike meeting I went to I felt the rear tyre on my Samurai bike and it was dead flat, I pumped it up then went for a ride. I thought I had become spoilt from riding my F2 because the handling felt horrible for me. I did a lap chasing down a mate then decided to pit. It was at this point it dawned on me and I felt the front tyre which was dead flat also. LOL!!! By this point I realised uh oh. Tubeless tyre which has been used with a load on it. It will surely leak. So I try to pump it up and surely it leaked. I started feeling for the rush of air as I pumped then I found it. I spat on the leak hoping it would seal. No luck. I squeezed the tyre in the centre around where it was leaking. Leak slowed.. Hmm this is good I'm thinking. So I turned that part of the tyre to the bottom. Spat on it some more then sat on the fuel tank to compress the centre of the tyre and force the sidewall outwards and pumped furiously like I'm performing an indecent act by myself in public and like magic the tyre began to fill up and fill and fill until it was at the correct pressure and holding steady.

I was happy as! I got to go out and ride that bike then and had a blast!
I would like to thank MacGyver for the inspiration.

[razor-]

ok thanks.

although how will i know f the valvue is leaking if i spray the stuff on it?
The back tyre isnt to bad.. when its fully pumped it will start goin down in bout 3 days although even when the front one is on a small air compressor it wont go up at all!! ( i think its not on the rim properly)

also how bg would the bubbles be if it had a hole in the actual tyre?

[SAMMY]

Originally Posted by Crash Dummy

Hey Sammy.
What is that slime product called ?

the slime product is called slime it comes in a green tube from k-mart or a bike shop

[Crash Dummy]

Originally Posted by razor-

ok thanks.

although how will i know f the valvue is leaking if i spray the stuff on it?
The back tyre isnt to bad.. when its fully pumped it will start goin down in bout 3 days although even when the front one is on a small air compressor it wont go up at all!! ( i think its not on the rim properly)

also how bg would the bubbles be if it had a hole in the actual tyre?

Razor. You'll know where the leaks are because if there is air coming out you will see bubbles forming. Detergents have a very high surface tension so it takes a lot before it will break. When you place a layer of the stuff on a surface like your valve the air pushing out will try to push through the layer of liquid and the high tension of the detergent will stop it from just escaping straight to the atmosphere, Instead the air becomes trapped in bubbles Then they go pop.

You know how you blow bubbles using soapy water solution ? This is just the same. The soapy solution also helps form the seal along the bead of the rim as well as lubricating the whole shebang while your trying to push it into place to form a seal in the first place.

If your wondering why I say use something like dish washing detergent, tyre fitters usually use nothing more then some laundry washing liquid in a tub and paint that onto the tyre's that needs to form the seal. That's it. There's no rocket science involved. Using these tricks you'll probably be able to get a previously leaky unfillable tyre to fill up normally once you've had a play.