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Frustrating Tire Bulge

Old 10-31-13, 06:52 AM
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aquateen
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Frustrating Tire Bulge

I recently built up a cyclocross bike and I am having an issue with tire bulge. On my Alex R500 rims I have put Kenda 700x30 cross tires and keep getting tire bulge in the front wheel no matter how hard I try to seat the tire correctly. No issues whatsoever with the rear wheel. At first I thought there was an issue with the rim itself but it appears fine to me and when I take off the tire and tube and reinstall the bulge happens in different areas.

Is this safe to ride on?
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Old 10-31-13, 07:06 AM
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Put it on the rear wheel.
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Old 10-31-13, 07:08 AM
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and see if it bulges there?
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Old 10-31-13, 07:10 AM
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Originally Posted by aquateen
and see if it bulges there?
Yep... Could be defective if it bulges there.
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Old 10-31-13, 07:12 AM
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will do, thanks
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Old 10-31-13, 07:14 AM
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Are you sure that the tube's double thick valve base is not trapped between the rim and tire bead? Or any part of the tube is trapped? Yes, exchanging the tires F-R might give more info. Andy.
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Old 10-31-13, 10:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
Are you sure that the tube's double thick valve base is not trapped between the rim and tire bead? Or any part of the tube is trapped? Yes, exchanging the tires F-R might give more info. Andy.
While you’ve made a noteworthy point as concerns the valve stem and its thick base being trapped, it doesn’t apply in this case as he stated the bulge happens in “different areas” each time he remounts the front tire, but the valve stem of the inner tube remains oriented at the same location within the rim hence, it would be a bulge at the same location each time, oriented at the valve stem.

As concerns any other portion of the inner tube being trapped, he’d have to be trapping the front inner tube time after time, and while this is possible, it’s not likely to repetitively and persistently happen, so it sounds more like he has a defective tire, in which case, I’d return it.

However, swapping the front tire for the rear and vice versa is an excellent method to establish that the tire is defective regardless of which rim it’s mounted on, and I always do this prior to returning any defective tire, so swapping them is an advisable protocol.
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Old 10-31-13, 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by aquateen
....when I take off the tire and tube and reinstall the bulge happens in different areas.

Is this safe to ride on?
First of all, I wouldn't ride a bulging tire, except at low to medium pressure just to get home.

Question - when you say the bulge happens in a different place, is that a different place with respect to the rim or valve? Or in a different place on the tire with respect to the tire's label?

Knowing that would separate a possible tire defect from a seating problem.
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Old 10-31-13, 10:58 AM
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What is the condition of the rim tape? Does the tube have patches?
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Old 10-31-13, 12:19 PM
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Everything everyone said + mark the tire & rim . Change tire to different wheel & or rotate on rim .I've Had this happen on ocassion , mine were the tire had defect

good luck
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Old 10-31-13, 12:24 PM
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stiction , use baby powder on tube , tire and rim . Put pressure info at valve , inflate . Same place ?
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Old 10-31-13, 02:37 PM
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A 30mm tire on an Alex R500 rim is nearing the recommended max, but isn't a safety issue. It does mean however that you may have problems getting tire to seat evenly around the rim channel; if this is the problem you will notice the tread of the tire has a considerable wobble from side to side when you spin the tire. When I run into this problem I usually go to a plastic rim strip (Velox makes a good one), which is slicker and thinner so the cord can slide into the channel easier; baby powder or soapy water may also work if you don't have a cloth rim strip.
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Old 11-03-13, 05:47 PM
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finally got around to taking off the tires and inspecting the situation. the bulge definitely is coming from one of the tires at the same spot. looks like i need a new tire.
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Old 11-05-13, 05:10 AM
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Kenda is a bit of a cheap and nasty brand, IME.

If you can spare the bucks for Continentals they definitely tend to be worth the money.
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Old 11-05-13, 11:00 AM
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Kenda is not a cheap and nasty brand, while certain models of tires may be low costing and thus cheap and nasty but most manufactures offer cheap and nasty models. My longest mileage least number of flats I ever got from a light weight road tire was the Kenda Konstrictor, this was a great tire which quite frankly surprised me! I wore out one set with about 5200 miles and only had 1 flat the whole time and that happened in the last 1000 miles, I still have 3 other sets on 3 other bikes that are going strong, though I don't ride those other bikes much.

Also I have a Kenda Kwest tire on a MTB that's been on that bike for about 8 or 9 years and while it's only seen about 1800 miles of earth, it's seen 8 or 9 seasons on the trainer. This tire has no cracks either from age.

Last edited by rekmeyata; 11-05-13 at 11:04 AM.
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