Replacing tubes when fitting new tyres

**Crasherfromwayback** · 10th February 2014, 17:51

Originally Posted by pritch

Crasher,

What sort of percentage of bikes are now sold with tubed tyres?

A lot of the dual purpose bikes other than Beemers which often use tubeless wheels even with spokes. All HD's that run spokes (and they're hard on tyres/tubes...but what the fuck would I know) and can't recall if retro Ducati's with spokes are tubed or tubeless sorry. Bound to be heaps more.

**Crasherfromwayback** · 10th February 2014, 17:53

Originally Posted by FJRider

Nothing mentioned about needing to change laws ... more of Policy/Practice of the tyre industry that needs change ...

How many times does it need to happen before you decide some change is needed .. ???
Until a family member ... or a friend of yours .. suffers the same fate ... for the same reason .. maybe ...

They'd be the same wankers coming on here having a bitch about the shop that didn't put new tubes in the bike when they should've known better and now xyz is dead and we're gonna drag their name through the mud and sue them etc etc etc. Can't fucking win either way.

**Motu** · 10th February 2014, 18:07

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

But how many of your vehicles have you run tubes in that do and have done 150mph?

How fast was the bike in question going ? Pretty slow by the sounds of it...a car pulled out to pass him. The BMW is the first bike I've had with tubeless tyres....but have another set of wheels with tubed tyres on. New tubes and new valve stems for tubeless are a good idea if they look suspect and old, if they look fit for service, they go back in.

**awa355** · 10th February 2014, 18:07

So maybe a slow leak from the tube?, Could the same scenario occur with some of the ' anti leak ' puncture additives that can be added to road tyres?.

I run some gunk in my scooter tyres as an added guard against a punture.

**Crasherfromwayback** · 10th February 2014, 18:15

Originally Posted by Motu

How fast was the bike in question going ? Pretty slow by the sounds of it...a car pulled out to pass him. The BMW is the first bike I've had with tubeless tyres....but have another set of wheels with tubed tyres on. New tubes and new valve stems for tubeless are a good idea if they look suspect and old, if they look fit for service, they go back in.

Much better post than your first one.

**Conquiztador** · 10th February 2014, 18:23

Probably not directly relevant, but here:
- I have found that on my son's MX bike the main (only?) cause of flat tyre is when the valve in the tube gets ripped fully or partly out of the tube. This used to happen even if we used rim locks. By changing this to self tapping screws that are screwed in through a hole drilled in the side of the rim (and then in to the side if the tyre without going through in to the tube) I have managed to stop the tyre turning on the rim and ripping the valve.
- We always replace tubes with new ones when replacing tyre.

By doing these two simple things we have managed to eliminate flat tyres. And there is no need to use "heavy duty" tubes. This way reducing the un-sprung weight (desirable!).

**gammaguy** · 10th February 2014, 18:24

I have two bikes with tubed tyres the TDR runs heavy duty ones.

They both get new ones at Tyre change time and the spokes get checked too

when I had a workshop I applied the same principles and it was not unheard of for me to suggest a punter go elsewhere if he thought the price of a new tube was unacceptable

The liability laws in NZ are pretty clear in matters mechanical and I would rather have a live complaint than a dead lawsuit

**F5 Dave** · 10th February 2014, 20:08

People don't bother heavy duty tubes on mx but super good idea on trail bike where percussion punctures on rocks are likely. Leak shouldn't be common.

**buggerit** · 10th February 2014, 20:12

Originally Posted by FJRider

Nothing mentioned about needing to change laws ... more of Policy/Practice of the tyre industry that needs change ...

How many times does it need to happen before you decide some change is needed .. ???
Until a family member ... or a friend of yours .. suffers the same fate ... for the same reason .. maybe ...

Would he have been better off hitting the car ... would that have been easier/softer option for him .. ??

The car mentioned was travelling the same direction as him.
I would far rather hit a concrete barrier than a wire rope barrier, think about it.

**FJRider** · 10th February 2014, 20:27

Originally Posted by buggerit

The car mentioned was travelling the same direction as him.
I would far rather hit a concrete barrier than a wire rope barrier, think about it.

It was overtaking him actually ... and I was being sarcastic ...

Falling onto/under an overtaking car will hurt a bit ... and personally ... would not have a preference for either/any of those options ...

**Gremlin** · 10th February 2014, 21:47

Even without the tubes, having a tyre quickly deflate on you isn't too fun. I had an oddity with one front tyre where under enough pressure (cornering at 110, maybe overtaking at 120 (straight line), sudden loss of pressure occurred. Seemed to happen every 40km ish.

Last one before I got it back to Auckland, 1psi left in the tyre as I got it to a stop on the side of the road doing my best to avoid a truck bearing down on me...

**Kickaha** · 10th February 2014, 22:02

Originally Posted by merv

Then a question, when I last replaced the tube on the front of my XR250L, Motomart convinced me to buy a "heavy duty" tube but I have found it seems to lose air with time faster than I'm used to - is this normal for the heavy rubber type as its not something I've had so badly with "normal" tubes?

Some heavy duty tubes are natural rubber which tends to "leak down" more than synthetic

Any bike I've had that had tubes I always replaced them anytime the tyres where changed, they age and wear out just like everything else

**Crasherfromwayback** · 10th February 2014, 22:31

Originally Posted by Motu

Omigod - that was a scary read....44 years on the road with tubed tyres, it must be a miracle that I'm still alive! I need a little lie down after that, I'm all in a cold sweat wondering how close I've come to losing my life. Not only my own life, but there are possibly hundreds of people who've died without me knowing when I changed car and bike tyres using old tubes.

Originally Posted by Kickaha

Some heavy duty tubes are natural rubber which tends to "leak down" more than synthetic

Any bike I've had that had tubes I always replaced them anytime the tyres where changed, they age and wear out just like everything else

Interesting.