beaded edge tyre safety

[john.bebb]

Hi Huw - please can we know model and year for the machine you are so concerned about? - and what do you use it for?
I'm somewhat bemused by the exceedingly high pressures being suggested...
An alternative to a security bolt or some form of rim "glue" is to drill into the sides of the rim and fit PK (self tapping) screws - these would of course would have to be the correct length such that when seated the points penetrate through half the tire bead / wall.
It's a weird remedy but I'm aware of its use in the 60's & 70's... particularly on the rear wheel of sidecar pullers...

[adrie.degraaff]

We are talking about old rusted and blasted rims, i was adviced to lay a leather strip in the rim to make a better fit.

[huw.parsons]

Another late night scouring the web for info....

John; the bikes I have with beaded edge tyres are a 1912 Ariel tt model and a 1926 Sunbeam parallel 9.
Neither of these machines have any chance of pulling the tyre round the rim, it's more a matter of what happens when one gets a blow out or hits a pothole and knocks the tyre off the rim. The locks are needed on the front as well as the back tyre.. The idea of security bolts is to hold the tyre on the
rim in the event of a blow out and hopefully let you come to an upright standstill...The high tyre pressures are all that holds the tyre on the rim unlike modern wired rim tyres

It seems that multiple security bolts were indeed fitted in the early days particularly to comp machines as Nev says, There are some threads from the Brough and Scott owners club talking about this.
Paul D'Orleans in his Vintagent blog has an article too about beaded edge tyre safety. I hadn't realised a rider had died in California in 2009 from a head injury sustained after being thrown down the road when he hit a pot hole and the tyre came off the rim of his ''24 Sunbeam. He was wearing a Davida pudding basin helmet though...a very sobering thought.

I'm beginning to think the way forward is to find and old rim and fit some locks to it then see just how hard it is to
manipulate the tyre onto the rim. Not sure how the chaps managed in the early TT's!
I suspect there's a good chance I'll end up taking Adries advice and fitting modern rims. I'm not a slave to originality and like to ride the bikes as the maker intended .
Thanks all for your help
it's a great group

Cheers

Huw