Can a tire be lopsided from the factory?

Triathlon Forum
1

I am trying to mount a brand new clincher (Bontrager Race Lite FWIW) and the thing has a huge bobble (up and down, not side to side) when I get it mounted. It’s not the wheel, without the tire it spins perfectly true. I have tried remounting it about four times now. I’ve done it in 3-4 stages, stopping every 30 pounds or so of pressure and checking that the bead is seated properly all the way around at each step, but no luck. I can see the point in the revolution where it has the big bump, but when I inspect the tire there I can’t see anything visibly unusual looking about it, and the bead appears to be seated properly all the way round.

I’ve never seen this before. Is this something that happens to some tires? Is it just a dud and I’m out of luck?

2

Try it on a different wheel.

You shouldn’t be out of luck- it should not be lop-sided.

What I mean is that if you find it is lumpy on a few wheels, contact the manufacturer and INSIST that you get a new tyre.

3

yes. I just returned a set because they were lopsided. It’s very annoying. They were Hutchinson tires.

4

Happens alot with tubulars, no reason to expect different with clinchers. Get them exchanged.

BTW, how many of you take a good close look at your newly-mounted tires for roundness?

5

First rule of diagnosis by internet forum. Rule out the bleedin’ obvious.

  1. Try a different inner tube.
  2. Is the lump by the valve. Depending on the tyre bead / rim width then you may need to push the valve towards the tire/tyre tread to leat the tyre seat inside the rim with the valve flange on top. So much harder to put in writting. But from the hub outwards then you have the rim, the rimtape, then the tyre bead, then the valve flange/inner tube and then the tyre prior to inflation.
6

First rule of diagnosis by internet forum. Rule out the bleedin’ obvious.

feel the love

7

Just to clarify, I was not casting any aspertions on the OP, simply wanting to confirm the simple things before advising on a more hassle solution involving going back into the lbs / posting stuff back to the place you bought them, etc etc.

And because after 35 years of bike fettling then I still occasionally do #2.

8

No offense taken - the obvious is often the answer. But I do know what you are talking about in #2 - been doing this for 27 years myself. That’s the not the issue though - everything is seated correctly there. And I tried a couple of different tubes as well - not the tube.

Unfortunately I bought this off a bargain table (although at 25 bucks it really wasn’t that cheap for this tire) in the spring and just finally mounted it this week. So the receipt is long gone and I’m guessing the LBS won’t do anything for me. Probably SOL if the tire is bad.

9

agree with duncan likely the second. sometimes getting the bead right around the valve does this.

10

Sometimes tires, even folding tires shipped in boxes, are bundled at some point during their handling into large batches with other tires. They may be joined together by a tight polymer band. If you get the tire that was on either end of the bundle there is a chance the polymer packing band has bent the bead of the tire- wire or Kevlar- and changed the shape of the tire.

When this happens to the tire may not mount correctly.