To fold a wire bead tire without damaging the bead is what we used to do before folding tires were ubiquitous.Â
With the tire horizontal in front of you, reach under the the part closest to you (we’ll call that 6:00 o’clock), slide your hand all the way across (let’s call that 12:00 o’clock), reach up over the top and as you pull that portion of the tire towards you and you get about 2/3rds of the way across, flip the other two ears over and you should quickly end up with three loops.Â
Does that make sense?
I don’t think I have any wire bead tires here to make a video but I’ll check.Â
It’s a very easy method and because it’s forming something like a figure 8 with an additional loop, it doesn’t crease or kink the bead.Â
Ray