Stock mag wheels / Enkie for Kawasaki, made for tubes?

Are the stock mag wheels that came on the KZ1000ltd desinged as tubeless or should they have tubes?
The local bike shop mounted some tires for me and put some valve stems, at 15$ each in instaed of tubes.
They told me the tube installation was wrong, and my response was that they also did the installation of the tires they were currently replacing!
To top this story off, they put the rear tire on in the wrong rotation direction, but I didn't realize it until I mounted it back on the bike.

77-80, tubes, 81+, no tubes.

hope this helps, thats a shitty story.

If a rim is tubeless it will either have "TL" or "Tubeless" cast on it somewhere.

If they can't tell the difference between a tube and tubeless rim just by looking at them, then they have no business changing tires, since they obviously are not qualified to do so.

Thats also true steell. Did all the Kawi tubeless rims back then have that lip in the inside of the bead? Thats another way to tell.

77_650B1 wrote:

Thats also true steell. Did all the Kawi tubeless rims back then have that lip in the inside of the bead? Thats another way to tell.

That inner lip is what I was talking about, that is what makes a rim tubeless, it locks the bead of the tire in place to keep it from slipping off when the tire pressure is really low.

It also makes it a lot tougher to break the bead loose when you want to remove the tire

Ever notice how easy it is to break the bead loose on a tube type rim? Now imagine that you are riding along all fat dumb and happy, and you haven't realized that the front tire is a little low. Then you catch the edge of a pothole that pushes the tire sidewall in, instant immediate deflation. That will be a day you never forget

I suppose that's why all the tire companies have bold print warnings to "always" use a tube in a tube type rim.

Yeah exactly!

I've got a 76(?) 650CSR rim on front, and an 81 KZ550 rim on back, fronts tubeless, back's not, you should see the look on the mechanics face when I ask him to only put a tube in one. They're matched rims as far as he can tell, so he's just plain confused. Luckily, the shop i use is awesome, great service, good mechanics, even if it is at a Honda dealership. Tires is the only thing I get done there, but they're wicked.

Thanks guys, I'll let these geniuses know they need to buy me some new tubes to replace their 'stems' they did me a 'favor' by installing. Glad I didn't put this thing on the road yet.

Iwent and looked again and saw that the rim size cast into the rim has a suffix "TL" on the back rim. The front did not have this suffix on its size of the casting. What do you guys recommend??

Hmm, you have a rear rim that is tubeless, and a front rim that is tube type, that's rather strange.

You can use a tube in a tubeless rim, but not run tubeless in a tube type rim.

On a tube type rim the tire bead sits on a flat ledge, on a tubeless rim the bead sits in a well (the rim has a ridge on the inside of the tire bead).

Put the bike on the centerstand and deflate the front tire, if you can push the bead off after deflating the tire, then it's definitely a tube type rim.

Or take the front wheel off and take it back to the shop that installed the tires, tell the service manager you want them to break it down and prove to you that it's tubeless.

I wouldn't take TL as meaning tubeless. I think back in the Kawasaki line tubeless would definately say tubeless on the wheel. For sure if it's a stock Kawasaki mag wheel before 1981 it is tube type except for the KZ1000ST wheels in 1979-80 which were the only tubeless wheels prior to 81 on Kaws.

Look for the lip inside the bead. You've got to break them down to make sure. If they're supposed to be tube, the tire will break very easily if theres no tube.

RonKZ650 wrote:

I wouldn't take TL as meaning tubeless. I think back in the Kawasaki line tubeless would definately say tubeless on the wheel. For sure if it's a stock Kawasaki mag wheel before 1981 it is tube type except for the KZ1000ST wheels in 1979-80 which were the only tubeless wheels prior to 81 on Kaws.

I have posted pictures here somewhere of a GPz750 tubeless wheel and a KZ650SR tube type wheel so the differences are easy to see.

And the TL is the suffix at the end of the rim size (2.50x18TL for example) I haven't seen an actual Kawasaki wheel that's says "tubeless" but everyone I have seen that was tubeless had the "TL".

My Morris Mags do say "tubeless" however.