Honestly I’m pretty sure the tape will hold up fine. It’s not very compressible, it is reversible if we ever get Kevlar bead tubeless tyres, and its adjustable. Once it’s in place it’s not going anywhere.
The other advantage is that it maintains the bead retaining lip (although it does move it slightly).
I’ve been using mine for 36er MUni at around 25 psi and no problems so far. Also using it for 36er trials, hopping up stairs, and I actually rode it UP a set of 6 stairs at the same psi. At least it’s good for something, and light as a feather! (But I won’t hold my breath for a new 36er tire from Nextie to solve the fit issue.)
Isn’t the problem the fact that the walls aren’t high enough? Adding tape where you mention may help seat the tyre more evenly than it otherwise would, but there’s still a lower margin of error than there should be due to the short walls.
Or am I misunderstanding the problem?
Maybe this is a stupid question, but is there any reason why we shouldn’t consider gluing the bead to the rim?
Yes but also the bead diameter of the Nightrider tire seems to be larger then ideal. For a tire to blow off a rim one part of the tire rides up and over the edge but most of the tire is at the very base of the rim. If the whole tire expanded uniformly all around, the tire would be fine. If the BSD (bead seat diameter) is made larger with tape or whatever the tire will not have enough clearance to pop off in any one place. It is kind of like mounting or removing a tire, one part of the tire needs to be deep in the rim to allow clearance to install or remove.
Although I’m sure you could get adhesive that would successfully bond the resin in the carbon fibre to the rubber of the tyre, I suspect it wouldn’t be an easily reversible operation.
It’s an expensive tyre and rim to experiment with.
You are describing the bond that the split tube setup will achieve
With the split tube setup, surely if the bead is going to expand and pop off the rim without it, it’d still be likely to do so with it. The split tube will be attached to the tyre, but it wouldn’t actually be holding the tyre down in the rim.
The additional tube thickness may help, by enlarging the BSD, but I’d not be inclined to trust it at higher pressures still. Gluing the tyre physically to the rim should stop any expansion of the bead from the bead seat.
The split tube would also raise the bead of the tire in the already shorter than standard inner rim wall, likely increasing the likelihood of blow off. The NR’s wire bead, embedded in the rubber, is big, and barely fits under the rim hooks, so I would be concerned about the beads fully seating under those hooks.
I don’t think the NR bead seats in the hooks at all really, based on the max pressure achieved before blow-off with the hooked rim being basically identical to the hookless one.
The split tube method increases the BSD, making a blow-off probably less likely, same as my electrical tape. The absolute wall height circumference isn’t changing so the blow-off risk generally wouldn’t get any larger.
I’m assuming it does seat under the hooks based primarily on the “pop” sounds during inflation as the beads seat; the same sound when inflating my (tubeless ready) tire on my 26er cf rim. After initially seating the beads by inflating the NR to about 30psi, I then deflated the tire and the beads were still well intact at zero psi. It took a fair amount of grip pressure to break the beads. It seems that blowoff occurs when psi exceeds around 40-45psi, as the expansion of the tube most likely forces the bead up and above the hooks, and off the rim.
The pop is the bead going over the bead retention humps, not anything to do with the bead hooks.
Those humps help to stop the tyre ending up in the well of the rim - they do nothing to resist the tyre rising over the walls.
The BSD of the NR in relation to the Nextie rim only really becomes an issue when the psi exceeds around 40psi. But, of course the main point is we didn’t get what we paid for or what was promised. IMO it’s not that the NR is too large, but that the rim is to small, the inner walls too short, and not enough center channel depth. Again, had Nextie modeled the “Unicorn” after the stealth ll/Dominator rim and we wouldn’t have had this problem.
So I took my 36er — with the Nextie carbon rim — out for some BIG wheel MUni. It performed better than expected. It’s so fun shredding the trail on a 36er, although it’s a lot more risky, especially when your pushing 70! (years, not MPH. haha!) 
Have a question for those of you that have built up the Nextie hooked rim. When running lower pressures 40 psi or below - what has your experience been? I cancelled my order prior to shipping due to concerns voiced about blow offs. I ride a 36er and typically I only inflate the tires to max 40 PSI. Thanks for any information that can be provided.
I’ve ridden my 36er (with the hooked Nextie) offroad with no issues. Seems the NR tire is stable at pressures under 35 psi. Have not tried any higher since blowoff occurred at 45psi. Since 36er Muni only requires 20-25psi, at most, it’s not a problem at all. I could also probably take it on the road with 35psi, but I much prefer higher pressures for road riding.
Has anyone had success with the hookless Nextie rim at low pressure? Terry has had success at low pressure but I’m pretty sure that’s with the hooked rim.
Thanks a bunch for the information you provided. The builder of my 36er frame used Coker tires on my wheels and configured front fork and rear seat stay bridge clearance based on that set up. Unfortunately the NR tire is about 1/2" larger in diameter than the Coker so the clearance is way too tight. Not anyones fault - who would think there would be that much difference between tires. Builder was kind enough to send me 2 slightly used T-Monsters. I put Cokers on the wheels and the clearance is fine - thank God as it was an expensive frame. I hope the T-Monsters are a good fit as well since they will be lighter than the Cokers. Thinking about building up some Nexties. I will never ride the 36er for speed. Only ride on paved bike trails and roads. 40 PSI would be plenty of air and I would be satisfied going even lower. Basically the 36er is just for cruising - joy riding. Again, appreciate the information you provided. Happy to hear that you are satisfied with the Nextie for some applications. Maybe when the T-Monsters become available again that they will be able to handle the higher pressures needed for Unicyclists for on-road applications. Fingers crossed!
Since modding my rim (3 wraps of electrical tape across the whole rim bed) I’ve been riding at 35-38PSI on my NR Lite so far without sign of movement.
I’m still going to withhold judgement for now as to whether or not this mod was enough as I’ve only done around 20 miles on it, and not in particularly warm or sunny weather.
I still haven’t ridden in the ramping spring heat, but I’m a few hundred miles into the rim. I mostly ride on the road, but there are sections of grass and rutted pavement to cross. I can’t remember where I started, but 25 psi is where we are now, that can’t be much lower than initial. My best ever ride for time, speed, and ease was at even lower pressure. I don’t currently believe I do prefer higher pressure for road riding. It’s been great, I’ve leaned it over to ride in circles, gone off curbs, gone to top speed… I trust this good, hope-to-be-great setup.