I am trying to use some wheel covers I bought last year on a rim which is ever so slightly more shallow than the one they were built for. It is 20mm instead of 22mm. They fit as per the images below. There is a very small space remaining between the cover and the rim, maybe 0.5 - 1mm. Also, even with the shortest fasteners bottomed out, they have still a little bit of space left.
Is this fit good enough or am I going to have significantly losses? I still have the option to mount on the 22mm, but would rather avoid if I can cause that currently has a Conti trainer tire which is extremely hard to remove/install.
I don’t use the screws, but rather cover the holes with a piece of electrical tape about an inch long. The tape extends up onto the rim a bit and holds the cover in place while applying tape around the edge. BTW, you should use 3M 33 or 88 premium electrical tape. The cheap stuff doesn’t hold up well at all.
The short pieces are just used to cover the holes and hold the cover in place while doing the final taping. Everyone I know runs tape lengthwise all the way around the rim. The short pieces just make it easier to do the taping…
I’ve done it more carefully in the past but after doing it 5 times or whatever I’m not too concerned how it looks anymore, lol.
Main thing is to first clean the surfaces to be taped with rubbing alcohol, don’t touch the parts getting taped, have half the tape on the cover/half on the rim, and keep the tape off the brake track. Note: the bolt holes are taped off on my setup. Since your cover is not sized exactly right, I’d continue to use the bolts for safety.
