Yes, the rims have plenty of area for the bead to seat on just like the utilities do. The difference is speed and usually a lighter tire causing flats. Once it is flat if you keep riding eventually the bead will seperate from the rim. I think I had all of 3 miles on my YFZ when I slashed a front sidewall. The Banshee had a habit of rolling tires off the rear rims...

 

Hi MooseHenden: It sounds like you have absolutely perfect ATV trails in your area. Rocks, logs, snow, mud, water, lions and bears. Maybe you have trails with deep V ruts in them to straddle. None of those graded, smooth, wide, gentle roads for you.

You do reaffirm the importance of ground clearance and long travel IRS in a trail ATV. And I'm glad to hear breaking beads on the trails is pretty rare.

David

 

I was right behind a guy who broke the bead on his Grizzly while going up a big hill that had some big bumps at the bottom. He hit one of the bumps too hard and his quad bounced up in the air, turned sideways, came back down, bounced again, turned straight, came back down again, and he kept on going. When came down sideways it knocked the tire off the bead on one of his rear wheels. Our whole group stopped at the top of the hill to fix it. I used my winch and ****** block in a tree to hoist that corner of his quad off the ground so we could work on it. We had to squeeze the tire with a tie-down strap around the circumference to try to get the tire against the bead and used starting fluid and fire to blow the tire onto the bead. When we finally got the bead seated someone had to go down the hill and borrow a bicycle tire pump from someone who was parked there. That was the only time I saw a tire almost come off the rim.

 

No lions and I've only seen one bear while riding. There are some smooth trails way up in Northern Maine. Not so much down South.

 

jumbo: That sounds like a real ATV adventure. Lucky the rider didn't bounce off that bouncing ATV. Very creative ways to repair a floppy low pressure tire. An Apollo 13 "we have a problem" kind of thing.

moose: The guys around here often see mountain goats while riding. The goats are accustomed to ATVs on this trail and don't pay much attention to them. I have seen two black bears cutting through our yard this year. The bears don't like us humans much and keep moving. They will stop for a garbage can potluck.

David

 

When his quad came down sideways I don't know if it was just luck that kept him from rolling it over or if gravity wouldn't let it roll uphill. Either way it made for an interesting ride that day. I hope people learn from his "trail riding technique".

 

I'd rather ride in a V like a drainage ditch vice a V of the opposite persuasion. Good advise from all!