I have a tire I just can't get to seal. It leaked with my Barts and it leaks with my new Champions. I'm assuming the tire bead is damaged. It leaks about 5 psi/day:mad: The other 3 only loose about 1 psi/week. I've heard people talk about using Silicone to seal beadlocks. Has anyone here actually done this? How did it work? I'm assuming you apply the Silicon around the bead mounting surface on the wheel, seat the bead then install the ring.

Any suggestions?

that's exactly what i did to one of my champion's, mine wasn't a bad bead it had a pinhole in teh weld where the ring was joined together... doesn't leak anymore... and my other 3 have never lost a pound, no matter how full or aired down

I was thinking about applying a 1/4" bead to the mtg surface. Is that enough?

I did mine. I just made a nice thin coating by smearing it with my finger. No leaks. They have been sitting for 3 months without any drop in pressure, except for one that has a bad valve stem. Might want to use the soapy water in a spray bottle treatment to doublecheck exactly where you are losing the air.

Originally posted by MattS
. Might want to use the soapy water in a spray bottle treatment to doublecheck exactly where you are losing the air.

That's exactly what I did. The leak is comming from between the tire bead and the ring. All the way around.

My Champions will leak if I don't torque the bolts after beating them up on the trail. Other than that, I don't have any problems. I've found that 12 ft/lbs is all I need to prevent leaks. 15 is recommended. I torque all 96 bolts before and after every trip.