Hitchcocks Forum

I bought my2010 classic 500 two years ago. I noticed on the tire it says tubeless but the parts manual sells tubes for my bike. I am wondering if it is possible to fit a tubeless tire tire on this bike. I am thinking the previous owner may have done so.

If it has a spoked wheel, (with a couple of exceptions with edge-spoked wheels you'd be aware of if you had them) you need an inner tube. Otherwise all the air would escape out of the spoke holes.



You can use a tubeless tyre on a spoked wheel with a tube in it. You need to make sure you use a heavy duty tube because the inside of the tubeless tyres are rougher. This from the former owner of a bike which came with tubeless tyres fitted with tubes in from the factory (which was German and therefore TUV approved as well as having UK type approval). It can be a right pain to get the beads properly seated, use plenty of soap.

C5s come with tubeless tyres fitted with tubes. So do Hinckley Triumph twins and other modern bikes with spoked wheels with the traditional central rim spoke lacing pattern. (ie not BMWs and others like Moto Guzzi that have the spokes in the sides of the rims and can therefore have tubeless tyres). Unless you want to change to old fashioned tyres like Skidmasters etc or Chinese stuff you’ll be hard pressed to find decent tyres that are tubed. There is nothing wrong with fitting a tube to a tubeless tyre (otherwise the factories that do this wouldn’t on account of product liability concerns). The downside is that unless you have a bead breaker or g clamps with you when you get a puncture you cannot do a roadside repair. One option is to convert the rim to be airtight by sealing the central well with sealant and a special rim tape. A tubeless valve is also needed. A lot of Americans do this. I must say that, having just returned from a trip to Ireland on my Thruxton when two of my friends both had rear wheel punctures on their tubeless tyre bikes, I am seriously considering modifying the rims on my Thruxton. If I had got a puncture in the middle of nowhere it would have been a right PITA to have it fixed, whereas with tubeless rims it was easy (as I myself have found on previous bikes owned).

there’s heavy duty and heavy duty, which go from 2,5mm to 4mm wall thickness.



it serves no purpose to put this type of tubes on a road bike, these kind of tube are made for enduro and motorcross.

where very low pressure adds to the risk of pinching and hard terrain heighten the risk of a punctures.



even on my trials and enduro i use standard tubes,



the inside of a tubeless tyre is so because it has to support its self and can’t really on the aid of a tube.

hence that why a tube tyre has a softer wall because the tube adds stiffness.



therefore adding extra stiffness with a heavy duty tube to and already stiff wall tubeless tyre, will make your tyre not work as intended.

it needs to be able to flex like intended.



plus those heavy duty tubes are a bugger to work with, as specially the 4mm one.

Our hosts' accessory item no. 92678 might also be of interest!



A.

Thanks everyone

My 'modern' bikes are 1970s Morinis with spoked wheels, and they both run (as do most Morinis) on Avon Roadriders (designed as tubeless) with tubes. You have the rim tape to protect the inner tube from catching on the end of the spokes. Also, I was told by a tyre fitter NOT to use heavy duty inner tubes. As has been said, these are designed for off-road bikes running much lower tyre pressures, and if you use them with road tyres they are likely to overheat.