Want to clean&amp;condition my gum-wall tires, hoping for tips/tricks/ideas on *how*!

111978 adfkje https://bmx-media-bucket-photo.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/users/111978/avatar/c50_53ce5bf03b73b_1417316861.jpg?1417316424 https://www.vitalbmx.com/community/adfkje,111978/all 06/17/14 1 84 325 2 2

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Joined: 6/17/2014

Location: USA

2/23/2017 11:47 AM

I've got a set of gumwall odyssey hawk tires, and while they're not so old that the rubber has any cracks, the gum-walls are starting to get 'stiff' ie threads/fibers starting to come loose, I cut them instead of pulling as they pull looong strands when I tried pulling any of them...

I want to clean my tires and then 'seal'/condition/protect the gum-wall (obviously I don't want anything slippery on the rubber that touches the road!), but I don't know what to use!! My first instinct was armor-all, but some googling tells me that's a bad idea, that it's a temporary fix that, when it fades, leaves the product worse (similar to licking one's lips when it's cold out, it may moisturize them briefly but they then dry-out even worse than before they were licked) So, am here with hopes that someone who has done this before can tell me what product to use for 'sealing'/conditioning the walls!

I'm sure the cleaning aspect is as simple as cleaning any other thing would be, and want to do it both for newer-looking tires and because you kinda *have to* clean something before conditioning/sealing it, I'm just unsure what product to use for the gum-walls once they've been cleaned - some ideas I've had were VG (vegetable glycerine), petroleum jelly (vaseline), white lithium grease, and regular 'ole polyurethane liquid...am kinda thinking that vaseline or lithium grease would be best if the walls were rubber, but them being gum-wall it's a different material so I'm not sure the logic would extend there (I'd figured a petroleum-based lube/conditioner would be ideal for *rubber*-based stuff, but I've no clue what material the gum-wall of a Hawk tire is made of!)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, am hoping to do this this afternoon and am just winging it at this point, any&all thoughts are really encouraged & very very appreciated!!

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2/23/2017 12:05 PM

If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where it's coming from. This seals it and stops it from happening again.

Cleaning, I'd suggest a degreaser. Any degreaser or dish soap plus a bit of elbow grease should remove any dirt.

Seal them with wax, I'd suggest you spin the tyre over while holding a block of clear wax to the sidewall, then spin it over while holding a rag with hot water on it against the sidewall. This will fill any cracks and seal the whole sidewall for a while. Depending on the riding conditions wherever you are, it should last a while. If you use a grease, they'll end up dirtier than they were in no time.

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adfkje

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2/23/2017 6:53 PM

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where ...more

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where it's coming from. This seals it and stops it from happening again.

Cleaning, I'd suggest a degreaser. Any degreaser or dish soap plus a bit of elbow grease should remove any dirt.

Seal them with wax, I'd suggest you spin the tyre over while holding a block of clear wax to the sidewall, then spin it over while holding a rag with hot water on it against the sidewall. This will fill any cracks and seal the whole sidewall for a while. Depending on the riding conditions wherever you are, it should last a while. If you use a grease, they'll end up dirtier than they were in no time.

...more

wax huh? am surprised that didn't even cross my mind, I'm imagining you mean car wax right? Have you done this more than once on tan gumwalls with success? If so I'd really like to know which specific wax you used so I can be sure to get the right product!

I'd imagine a viscous wax would be able to penetrate&protect it almost as well as grease but, like you say, it'll be far cleaner (since wax will be a *coating* in the end, grease & oil-based stuff wouldn't be....but as I type this I can't help but think of how my front's gum-wall is too tan/light and it'd benefit from some darkening, I may do the front with oil for that on purpose as 2 sets back I had gumwalls that were real dark and I liked that look a lot better than the bright-tan of my current walls)

Am curious, does anyone flip their wheels if they only grind on 1 side? Was out sessioning today and was thinking it'd be useful to flip my tires, like have them 'backwards' (they're hawks so almost full slick, I can't imagine I'd notice a difference in riding them backwards) to start getting grind-wear on their un-grinded sides and extend their life a bit smile

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2/23/2017 7:24 PM

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where ...more

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where it's coming from. This seals it and stops it from happening again.

Cleaning, I'd suggest a degreaser. Any degreaser or dish soap plus a bit of elbow grease should remove any dirt.

Seal them with wax, I'd suggest you spin the tyre over while holding a block of clear wax to the sidewall, then spin it over while holding a rag with hot water on it against the sidewall. This will fill any cracks and seal the whole sidewall for a while. Depending on the riding conditions wherever you are, it should last a while. If you use a grease, they'll end up dirtier than they were in no time.

...more

adfkje wrote:
wax huh? am surprised that didn't even cross my mind, I'm imagining you mean car wax right? Have you done this more than once ...more

adfkje wrote:
wax huh? am surprised that didn't even cross my mind, I'm imagining you mean car wax right? Have you done this more than once on tan gumwalls with success? If so I'd really like to know which specific wax you used so I can be sure to get the right product!

I'd imagine a viscous wax would be able to penetrate&protect it almost as well as grease but, like you say, it'll be far cleaner (since wax will be a *coating* in the end, grease & oil-based stuff wouldn't be....but as I type this I can't help but think of how my front's gum-wall is too tan/light and it'd benefit from some darkening, I may do the front with oil for that on purpose as 2 sets back I had gumwalls that were real dark and I liked that look a lot better than the bright-tan of my current walls)

Am curious, does anyone flip their wheels if they only grind on 1 side? Was out sessioning today and was thinking it'd be useful to flip my tires, like have them 'backwards' (they're hawks so almost full slick, I can't imagine I'd notice a difference in riding them backwards) to start getting grind-wear on their un-grinded sides and extend their life a bit

...more

Literally just a candle with no colouring, nothing specific. With the process I mentioned, you put a good amount of wax on the sidewall and then rub it in with a hot wet rag. That way you melt the wax just enough to push it into any cracks or pores in the tyre without soaking the melted wax off the tyre into the rag. Some will go on to the rag but only usually the excess. Works very well for me and now that I think about it, you could probably achieve the same thing with turtle wax, never tried it though.

You should avoid any oil-based stuff on the tyres, a lot of oil-based coatings and lubricants will soften or eat the rubber. Also, if you find one that won't, they'll usually pick up every speck of dust or dirt that comes near them so the effort to clean them would have been a waste.

I have a friend who flips his tyres to get a bit more life out of them, he does really short quick sliders out of most fakies which wears one side more than the other. In that case, it makes sense and I've heard of people doing it once but I've never bothered.

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My Sunday Soundwave V3 Build
Insta: @p.gibbons

"You can't educate pork"
- grumpySteve

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!""
- Hunter S. Thompson

adamnmexican

105254 adamnmexican https://bmx-media-bucket-photo.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/users/105254/avatar/c50_B01F0308_56A0_4324_961B_8FCC9D15B9CD_1602563978.jpg?1602563564 https://www.vitalbmx.com/community/adamnmexican,105254/all 05/05/13 23 3 https://www.vitalbmx.com/community/adamnmexican,105254/setup 95 4101 22 7

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2/24/2017 5:39 AM

just buy new tires

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adfkje

111978 adfkje https://bmx-media-bucket-photo.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/users/111978/avatar/c50_53ce5bf03b73b_1417316861.jpg?1417316424 https://www.vitalbmx.com/community/adfkje,111978/all 06/17/14 1 84 325 2 2

Posts: 409

Joined: 6/17/2014

Location: USA

2/24/2017 8:07 AM

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where ...more

p1p1092 wrote:
If a thread starts to pull out, burn it. You don't need to hold a flame on it or anything, just light it pretty close to where it's coming from. This seals it and stops it from happening again.

Cleaning, I'd suggest a degreaser. Any degreaser or dish soap plus a bit of elbow grease should remove any dirt.

Seal them with wax, I'd suggest you spin the tyre over while holding a block of clear wax to the sidewall, then spin it over while holding a rag with hot water on it against the sidewall. This will fill any cracks and seal the whole sidewall for a while. Depending on the riding conditions wherever you are, it should last a while. If you use a grease, they'll end up dirtier than they were in no time.

...more

adfkje wrote:
wax huh? am surprised that didn't even cross my mind, I'm imagining you mean car wax right? Have you done this more than once ...more

adfkje wrote:
wax huh? am surprised that didn't even cross my mind, I'm imagining you mean car wax right? Have you done this more than once on tan gumwalls with success? If so I'd really like to know which specific wax you used so I can be sure to get the right product!

I'd imagine a viscous wax would be able to penetrate&protect it almost as well as grease but, like you say, it'll be far cleaner (since wax will be a *coating* in the end, grease & oil-based stuff wouldn't be....but as I type this I can't help but think of how my front's gum-wall is too tan/light and it'd benefit from some darkening, I may do the front with oil for that on purpose as 2 sets back I had gumwalls that were real dark and I liked that look a lot better than the bright-tan of my current walls)

Am curious, does anyone flip their wheels if they only grind on 1 side? Was out sessioning today and was thinking it'd be useful to flip my tires, like have them 'backwards' (they're hawks so almost full slick, I can't imagine I'd notice a difference in riding them backwards) to start getting grind-wear on their un-grinded sides and extend their life a bit

...more

p1p1092 wrote:
Literally just a candle with no colouring, nothing specific. With the process I mentioned, you put a good amount of wax on the ...more

p1p1092 wrote:
Literally just a candle with no colouring, nothing specific. With the process I mentioned, you put a good amount of wax on the sidewall and then rub it in with a hot wet rag. That way you melt the wax just enough to push it into any cracks or pores in the tyre without soaking the melted wax off the tyre into the rag. Some will go on to the rag but only usually the excess. Works very well for me and now that I think about it, you could probably achieve the same thing with turtle wax, never tried it though.

You should avoid any oil-based stuff on the tyres, a lot of oil-based coatings and lubricants will soften or eat the rubber. Also, if you find one that won't, they'll usually pick up every speck of dust or dirt that comes near them so the effort to clean them would have been a waste.

I have a friend who flips his tyres to get a bit more life out of them, he does really short quick sliders out of most fakies which wears one side more than the other. In that case, it makes sense and I've heard of people doing it once but I've never bothered.

...more