Spent 20 minutes trying to seat a tubeless tire before a customer pointed out the rim tape was bunched up

Was fighting a Continental GP5000 on a set of DT Swiss rims in the shop yesterday. Could not get the bead to pop no matter how much soap and pressure I used. Customer walks over, looks at it for 5 seconds, says 'your tape is wrinkled right there.' Sure enough there was a little fold near the valve stem letting air escape. Fixed it in 2 minutes after that. Anyone else ever miss something that obvious cause you were too focused on the harder stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_adams661mo ago

Cleaning the rim edge with alcohol fixed a similar stubborn bead issue for me.

johnson.daniel1mo ago

That moment when you're cussing out a tire and the rim tape is just sitting there laughing at you. Nothing humbles a mechanic faster than a customer spotting the thing you looked right past. At least the GP5000 didn't win that round.