Glued-in tires?

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xray

xray

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Has anyone come across 2.25 inch tires GLUED into the rims?

I've got a Schwinn Signature Hornet, 26" bike. I was going to swap in a motorized front wheel. When I got the wheel off and deflated the front tire, I discovered that it is very firmly glued into the rim, which was totally weird to me, I have never even heard of this.

These are kind of unique tires - they have the script "Schwinn" logo in the tread pattern. They apparently came on the bike, as I obtained it from the original owner's widow.

I've heard of glued on clinchers - really thin "sew-ons" as we used to call them. I never heard of it with fat tires like this.

It just sort of blew my mind. I picked and pried at them a little, thinking they were just "stuck." I could not even get a tire tool under the edge. Going all the way around both sides, they seem to be solidly glued. I'm not seeing any traces of glue, I'm just seeing that they are very uniformly adhered to the rims.

Since these tires are in very good condition, almost no wear at all, I am going to change my plans and electrify a different bike. I don't think it's worth risking damage to the tire in getting it off and learning a new skill to re-glue it properly to the new rim.

I'd still like to hear if anyone has dealt with this.
 
Signature Hornet is a newer bike. I bet they are just stuck as there is not any new technology for tires like that.
 
Is the rear glued on, as well? The rims are listed as Alex Zuma 1.0s...a standard single wall clincher. I'm thinking this was either something the previous owner thought was 'advantageous'...or, a someone who was tuning up/fixing the bike was having problems getting the tire to seat, and this was the solution?

Strange, for sure.

Jason
 
I've looked everywhere, can't find anything on glued tires. I've had old bikes with original tires that seemed stuck until I really pushed the edge to break them free.
 
I have had problems seating Duro tires and used Sho Goo on the spot I had a problem with. The next day I inflated and it usually has another small area where it wont seat. A little more Goo and drying and good to go. You need very little Goo to get it to seat and the tire is easy to remove from the rim. I bet yours would not seat and someone used too much of a too stong glue.
 
Thanks for your replies, guys, I appreciate at least knowing that I am not hopelessly misinformed in thinking that this is bizarre. I certainly never heard of any such thing.

I got this bike from a widow. I didn't know the guy who had it, but I do know from my friendship with her that he was a sort of unique character who might have come up with this himself as the solution to not being able to get the tires to seat properly.

I did not try the back tire. Once I saw how absolutely uniformly the front tire was stuck, and how solidly, I just abandoned the effort to understand it until I had a chance to ask the question here. I thought maybe it was a common practice of which I was ignorant.

These are pretty fat tires. I guess it is possible that someone had trouble seating them nice and straight and getting them to stay in the rims properly - therefore resorting to glue.

The thing that threw me is that the tires are very uniformly set into the rims, and there is no sign of sloppy jury rigging. Once you press the tire away from the rim, not much of the tire comes away, and the great majority of the width of the bead surface is adhered. You can't roll it back much at all. It's very even, and very stuck. When I saw that, I decided to not ask for trouble by getting into something I did not understand. I might now be willing to dig a little deeper and use a little more force - maybe even use a solvent.

On the other hand, these are pretty cool tires. I'd hate to mess them up. I ended up putting the electric motor on my old 63 Schwinn Racer that I got from a fellow member of this forum. (Hi, Jeff.)
 
Could the rubber have melted onto the rim?
 
I never thought of that, but we are indeed located in tropical SW FL, and the bike was stored in a garage for several years. It could have gotten quite hot for extended periods of time, and while the rubber looks very good, I guess it is possible hot rubber against metal for a few years, there could be some kind of adhesion from the chemistry of the rubber breaking down some?
 
I think some of it is the result of the natural decay of rubber over the years and I've mostly seen it with old gumwalls, but this is the Northeast and we don't get the kind of consistent heat as FL, of course. I've seen tires stuck to the rims so that trying to pull the tires off with a screwdriver or something peels the nylon carcass from the outer case, leaving it to have to be scraped off the metal.
 
Don't try solvent on the tires. But consider dish washing soap and water. Start by pressing the tires from the side until they release all the way around on both sides. Once the tires are off, then you can use a solvent to clean the residue off the rims. You will probably need new rim strips too.
 

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