seating the bead

[1948man]

I got a front wheel in the mail (tubeless) that is badly gouged in or near the bead area. It is mostly where the bottom of the tire bead would contact the wheel. I'm thinking the most important area for seating is the side of the bead.

1. If you get the bead to seat does that mean it is probably safe or could it unseat catastrophically and have a blowout effect?

2. Is it feasible to fill the dings with something like JB Weld?

I'm took a pic but am having a little problem getting on the PC right now.

[WolfworksCustoms]

Is it a spoke or steel wheel ? if so, many spoke and steels were designed to have little ribs built in to prevent the tire from spinning on the rim if it went flat (I just fixed one like that).....
If its a deep valley alloy rim, Id "gently" smooth out" the gouges. Should be ok then. Ive also used some contact cement on the bead of tubeless just before seating them. But to be safe, id add a tube to it. They dont cost much, but are a PITA to install on a tubeless tire....make sure you inflate the tube a lil, and coat it in dishwashing fluid before trying to stuff it in.

[tkent02]

It should be really inexpensive to have a wheel shop take a look at it.
Or buy a replacement wheel from someone on this forum, they are cheap, I have an attic full of extras if you can't find one.
If it were mine, and I didn't have any in the attic, I'd probably just go with the JB Weld idea. That stuff lasts forever if done correctly.

I know of several "temporary" JB repairs that are still going strong decades later.

[wymple]

Unless you ride a lot of high speed on a heavy bike, I'd just toss a tube in there. I also have no problem with the JB weld.

[WolfworksCustoms]

JB Weld is great....just dont use the JB Quick....but with a tube, you wont need to worry about it at 90mph, lol....

[1948man]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to give it some attention today and maybe smooth out a little and touch up with JB weld.

[eil]

We'd have to see a pic of the damage for any of this advice to be worth anything, I'm afraid.

If you bought the wheel from somewhere like eBay, you can always send it back. "Item not as described."

One way to tell if it will work is to just install the tire, seat the bead, and inflate (or deflate) to some nominal pressure like 30 psi. If it holds air for a week, it will most likely hold air forever. Obviously file/smooth down any burrs etc first and clean up the bead seating area with a green scrubby.

[Datsa Noydb]

JB Weld is great....just dont use the JB Quick....

What's wrong with the "Quick" formula?

The only difference I have seen is that it sets up much quicker and can only tolerate a temperature about 100 degrees less than the "Regular" formula (I think it's 450 vs 550, or something like that).