Bead buddy for bicycle tire installation

Simple device which clamps to a bicycle rim to keep the bead from unseating while working with particularly tricky or tight-fitting tire installs.

Saw a post on a facebook bike mechanics' forum about the Motion Pro Trail Bead Buddy which is a motorcycle tool designed to keep the tire bead in place while installing tires. The post mentioned that this was a great tool for installing Cush Core tire inserts but it could be useful for all manner of difficult tire installations. Just like my recent clone of a Stan's NoTubes presta valve nut loosening tool, when I saw it, I thought "I bet I could 3D print that".

So, a little work in Fusion 360 and here we have it. I went through a couple of iterations and found a design that fit well on any of the wheels I had on hand, and I had one with a tire that was a little tight to fit, and it sure seemed to help make the installation easier. Forgive the rough surface finish on the printed part - that's an issue with my printer I haven't bothered to figure out yet.

The knurled nut is just a McMaster 92545a183 imported through Fusion, and prints up and fits nicely.

This would also work nicely with my Park TL-4 clone tire lever

Print Settings

Notes:

Printed with 5 shells to get decent strength so it doesn't need to be 100% infill, 20% infill seems to have been fine. Honestly, 5 shells is probably overkill, but it worked. Originally printed at 0.087mm to get good results on the threads, but later prints with 0.131mm layer heigh also worked well. I did have one print where the thumb screw was 0.087mm and the body was 0.131mm and that did not want to thread in, so I guess it's important to make sure the layer height matches between the two items.