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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Tires - tubeless?
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Message started by Toroso on 07/24/13 at 06:30:37

Title: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Toroso on 07/24/13 at 06:30:37

Looking to put a new set of tires on my bike. Are tubes required or can they be tubeless? :-?

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Dave on 07/24/13 at 06:34:12

On the Savage you have to use tubes.....as without the tube the air would leak past all the holes in the rim where the spokes go.

You can use tires that are listed as tubeless tires.....but you still have to use tubes in them.

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Toroso on 07/24/13 at 06:45:40

5C676A7D6C607B7D666E637C0F0 wrote:

Gotcha. Thanks

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Gyrobob on 07/24/13 at 07:13:23

How about this?

take off the wheel/tire
take the old tire/tube off the rim
take off all the spoke nipples one at a time and reinstall using silicone seal on the threads
quickly true the wheel before the sil seal sets
seal every nipple to the rim with more sil seal
install a tubeless tire valve stem with sil seal
let it cure for an hour or so
glue on a rim strip with sil seal
let the whole shebang cure for three days
mount the tubeless tire
dump in a can of ride-on sealant http://www.ride-on.com/
put the tire-wheel back on
go for a ride

Another option for sealant is to use T-88 aircraft epoxy,.. it never does get brittle, and if you used a 4:3 ratio of epoxy to hardener, it would take hours to set up, giving more time to true the wheel

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Dave on 07/24/13 at 07:25:56

The nipples can be sealed without removing each spoke - you just need to apply a sealant that is not brittle and fills gaps. Here is a link to an article from a dual sport/adventure tourer type that sealed his rims.

http://adventure-motorcyclingh.com/2012/02/14/converting-spoked-rims-for-tubeless-tyres/

The author comments on how the lack of the safety lip on the rims did cause him some leakage problems at the bead. A street tire may have this same issue on potholes.....not sure.

The rear tire on modern trials motorcycles are spoked and tubeless - they have a deep groove in the middle of the rim and a very soft pliable rubber strip lays in this groove and seales the spoke nipples. The valve assembly passes through this rubber strip to put all of the 4 psi into the tires. They do not use tubes as the tires are often compressed down onto the rim edges while riding and it would pinch the tubes and put holes in it.

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Gyrobob on 07/24/13 at 07:29:39

7C474A5D4C405B5D464E435C2F0 wrote:

You beat me to it by four minutes! :P

BTW, I didn't say to remove the spokes, just the nipples. Besides, if you use the Alpina system, you'll have to remove and replace each nipple anyway. I wonder how much a set of those costs? I'll bet it is $hundreds.

Title: Re: Tires - tubeless?
Post by Digger on 08/15/13 at 21:02:34

0D3338252825284A0 wrote:

Seems like that would suck if you ever later needed to tighten a spoke or two..... ;)