Bead breakers

This entry is part 6 of 16 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #26

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A flat tyre out in the mulga is sure to wipe the smile off any rider’s face, but adventure riders have a special set of challenges. Breaking the bead is one of them.

There’s a lot of pressure on an adventure rider over a tyre repair or change. For starters the bikes are usually heavy and the terrain unsuited to suspending a bike with a wheel off the ground. Once that’s accomplished, the big horsepower nature of modern adventure bikes usually means the tyres are held fairly firmly to the rim, especially the rear rim.

That firm grip, necessary to cope with the drive and torque in the absence of rim locks, and especially with the seal needed for tubeless rubber, means the basic process of breaking the bead on the tyre becomes a problem.

It’s not only the big-horsepower glamour bikes, either.

DR650 owners will know what we’re talking about.

Adventure Rider Magazine decided to have a look at a few alternative solutions to the bead-breaking dilemma.

Basics

Before everyone reaches for their credit cards and starts apply-ing financial leverage, lets consider a few basic bead-breaking methods.

The first is jumping on the tyre wall. If that works, you’re in.

The second is warming the tyre.

That’s a polite way of saying ‘ride on the flat tyre until it heats up enough to free up the bead’.

We don’t recommend this because the chances of damage to the wheel, tyre and, if there is one, tube, are high. But if it’s a choice between sitting in the desert and waiting to die or risking wheel damage, we’ll take our chances. We’ve done it in the past. The only thing we can suggest is to keep the rider’s weight off the effected wheel as much as possible and to keep the riding distance to the barest minimum.

The other basic technique we’ve used often and do highly recommend is to use the sidestand of another bike to pop the bead.

Drop the sidestand of a mate’s bike, put the foot on your deflated tyre as close to the rim as possible and let the weight of the bike – often with a little added weight from the rider – do the rest. It works most of the time.

We’ve had a few instances where the sidestand wouldn’t break a bead though, and that’s when some heavy-duty alter-natives are needed. Usually that means some type of specially designed equipment.

Oh look! We have a few examples right here…

Using the sidestand of another bike to pop the bead is the go-to method on a ride.

Motion Pro BeadPro

In general Motion Pro makes good equipment.

The BeadPro is a pair of tyre levers that fit together to form expanding jaws designed to force down a stubborn bead. Once that’s done the levers flip end-for-end and become regular tyre levers.

That’s straightforward enough, and for general use the system has a lot going for it. The levers make for a compact package, they’re light and strong, and they’re as simple as can be to use.

But…

Well…

We just couldn’t get them to cope with really serious jobs on tubeless and big-bike beads. A couple of times they did the business, but a couple of times we gave up.

On top of that, we didn’t warm to the shape of the levers when it came time to remove the tyre. We like the hook-shaped ends we hardly ever see these days. The large, flattish spoons are supposed to be less likely to grab and pinch a tube, but we find they don’t grab the tyre too well either.

But that’s just us. And with a little concentration and persistence on the part of the operator, the BeadPros will peel a tyre off a rim just fine.

Certainly on the KLR tyre we had they rocked. We found breaking the bead was sometimes a two-step process where we jammed the two levers under the rim, squashed them together to move tyre a little, then jammed them in again a little further and squeezed again and we were good to go. But on a DR650 rear wheel in a bad mood we were left in doubt. DR rears are tough at any time, and we had one with a Mitas 09. That’s a tough combo, but a common one, and we couldn’t give the Motion Pros top marks.

Sometimes we could get a result, especially with two riders on the job, but not always.

We bought our pair from Darin at Adventure Motorcycle Equipment for $135 plus postage.

A Mitas 09 on a DR650 rear is a tough combo, and it took a lot of work for the BeadBreakers to get the job done. It wasn’t a 100 per cent result.
The BeadPros are light and compact. We bought ours from Adventure Motorcycle Equipment.
Tyre levers one end, bead breakers the other.

Tyrepliers Motorcycle Beadbreaker

Tyrepliers is an Aussie company specialising in tyre-changing and repair equipment for all kinds of vehicles from big trucks on down. The company offers a heap of wheel-repair accessories as well.

The Motorcycle Bead Breaker has been around for ages, and the example we’re using here has been the editor’s for a decade or more. It’s his second one, so that says something. After the first one bent in a panic grapple involving a mallet, cold chisel, some G-clamps and a great deal of colourful language, he replaced it straight away.

The blurb on the TyrePliers website says the tool is suitable for use on rims up to 15cm in width, weighs 700 grams, has been designed to fit in a pannier and is supplied with a 12-month warranty.

Using the thing is simple in concept, but actually takes a little thought. If you try and use the breaker with the tool from the tread-side of the tyre – don’t laugh. We’ve seen it – it’s unlikely to be a successful operation.

Position the bead breaker between the spokes with the jaws on the tyre as close to the rim as possible. Grab a spanner and crank away on the threaded rod until the bead pops.

Presto. Done.

Except we seldom found it that simple.

If the bead’s tough, sometimes it pays to move the bead breaker a couple of spokes in either direction from the first attempt. That quite often works well.

Sometimes it needs for one side of the tyre to be blocked with a chunk of wood or something equally strong. We used a tyre lever once. Rest the tyre lever or block on the rim of the wheel, put the opposite jaw of the bead breaker on the tyre lever, then crank away. The jaw on the reverse side will travel further and drive the bead down into the wheel well.

It can sometimes be a little tricky to wind the rod and close the jaws on the bead when things get tough. It was a great deal easier when we changed to a ratchet socket, but we don’t carry one of those on the bike. With a ringee or – Dog forbid – an open-ender, it’s a bit of a mission.

Mitas 09 on a DR650 rim? Piece of psssss.

BestRest BeadBrakR

Okie dokie. Here we go with the blue-ribbon option.

Before we go any further we need to say no-one at Adventure Rider Magazineowns one of these rigs. When we decided to have a look at bead breakers we chatted with some industry people and Adventure Moto was keen for us to try the BestRest and sent one over.

The BeadBrakR is like the skeleton of a full-service rig aimed at riders who want the quality and effectiveness of a shed bead breaker in a portable set up.

It comes in a nifty tool roll and looks a little confusing to start with. In the kit are:

• Three 22cm, gold, zinc-plated, Motion Pro tyre levers
• One BeadBrakR assembly – corner, lever, plunger and lock bar in stainless steel
• Two lanyards to secure the five quick-release assembly pins
• Two rubber rim protectors
• One bottle of BeadGoop tyre-mounting lube
• One valve-stem multi-tool
• Instructions with bead-breaking and tyre-mounting tips.

Basically, the tyre levers pin together with the other components in the kit to form a frame with a captured lever, just like the manual tyre-changing machines people take to races or have in their sheds. Once assembled the wheel sits on the frame, a jaw is placed next to the rim and the operator can swing as much of his weight as he needs on the lever to depress the bead.

It’s very effective, tubed or tubeless, big wheel or small. Clunk! Down goes the bead. If it doesn’t, adjust the fulcrum points, or maybe eat a hamburger, and swing on it again.

Instructions with the kit are very thorough, and although it’s a bit fiddly, set up is logical and operation is easy.

Once again, at 1.5kg it’s a bit heavier than we’d like to carry, and at $325 it’s a fair investment. But considering it could be left hanging up in the shed ready for general tyre changing, then dismantled and taken when needed, we can see where it’d work well. Also, once the bead

DR650 rear rim and a Mitas 09? Resistance is futile!

The Tyrepliers takes a little time because of the positioning and spanner winding, but it’s very effective, and we haven’t seen it beaten too often. It’s good equipment we wouldn’t like to be without, but even so, we don’t carry one on the bike. At 700gm it’s a chunk of metal, and seeing as we haven’t found any alternative use it’s just a tad heavier than we’d like to carry for a single-use tool that may not come out of the kit – hopefully – for months at a time. For a group travelling together and sharing the tool load, it’d be a must-have.

It’s standard equipment in the shed though, and there’ve been numerous occasions where we just couldn’t get a bead broken and some patience and the Tyrepliers did the job.

That’s a heap better than heading down to the local bike shop or tyre place to ask for help.

The price currently listed on the Tyrepliers Bead Breaker is $82.50 plus postage. We think it’s good value.

The Tyrepliers bead breaker is good kit that can be relied on to do the job.

is broken, the tyre levers which form part of the assembly can get to work removing the tyre. So the weight isn’t quite as drastic as it appears.

Grab one from adventuremoto.com.au. The models for tubed and tubeless have different valve-stem tools. Make sure you get the right one for your needs. If in doubt, get the tubed version.

It’ll work for both.

It’s a little scary when all the bits tumble out of the BeadBrakR tool roll.
The instructions included are good, and setting up is actually easy to follow and sensible.