Tubeless Rims

Hi All; I did a search and couldn't find anything. My question is who makes tubeless rims? I've seen them on a couple of BMW's. The spokes don't go into the center of the rim. I thought it would be good to have my hubs relaced with rims that fit modern tires. Call me crazy. I looked at Wheel Works and Buchanan Spoke online and didn't see anything. Sure would like to do it if the rims are available. Thanks and ride safe, Steve

Are you looking for this type rim because they won't leak air around spokes or what? If you just want to run wire wheels with a tubeless tire, that isn't that big of a deal. All you have to do is lace your rim of choice up to your hub and then fill in the area over the spokes with silicone. Takes some time to do obviously, but it will seal the rim so you can run tubeless tires on spoke rims. I have them on my turbo bike and have no problems. Done more then you think. Some will balance the wheel afterwards...some don't. I've never had a problem with my unbalanced wheel and it's been near 150 mph and runs smooth. Just lay in silicone to fill the valley where the spoke/nipple are. How much you want to put in there is up to you. As long as you have the spoke ends covered is enough but a tad more for insurance won't hurt anything. Does put some weight on rim, but not enough to worry about. Just put the silicone in there, smooth it out and let it set up.

racer54 wrote:

Are you looking for this type rim because they won't leak air around spokes or what? If you just want to run wire wheels with a tubeless tire, that isn't that big of a deal. All you have to do is lace your rim of choice up to your hub and then fill in the area over the spokes with silicone. Takes some time to do obviously, but it will seal the rim so you can run tubeless tires on spoke rims. I have them on my turbo bike and have no problems. Done more then you think. Some will balance the wheel afterwards...some don't. I've never had a problem with my unbalanced wheel and it's been near 150 mph and runs smooth. Just lay in silicone to fill the valley where the spoke/nipple are. How much you want to put in there is up to you. As long as you have the spoke ends covered is enough but a tad more for insurance won't hurt anything. Does put some weight on rim, but not enough to worry about. Just put the silicone in there, smooth it out and let it set up.

What type? just regular rtv black? is there a life to the leak proofness?(made up that word i think)

Just providing some info. I don't know how safe it is to go tubeless on a tube-type spoked rim.

Gadget's Fixit page has a how-to for sealing a spoked rim. Scroll down to the Tubeless Wire Wheels link in the Bolt Ons & Mods section.

Silicone on my bike is the clear. I didn't do it myself, but it has held air for a couple years that I've had it. I have a rim I plan on doing soon though. Not up on all the different types of silicone but as long as it sets up semi-solid it should work. Maybe someone with more knowledge of different silicon types out there can tell. I see this all the time so I know it works as it has for me.

One of our members (WABBMW) has a 650 with DID rims...he has done exactly what has been described with silicone and is running his bike tubeless.

Why not just use a tube? They make tubes that fit tubeless tires and there is no mess or wondering if you did it right.

Running a tire tubeless on a tubeless wheel like the new BMWs do with the spokes to the outside of the wheel would be pretty cool on a KZ. Running tubeless on a tube wheel though is not recommended. Not only unsafe, it's really much more than that, it's really almost suicide. Very little bead area to hold air. Even hitting a pothole could cause a sudden loss of air and with no shoulder to hold the tire on the wheel the tire would not stick to the wheel at all and it would be an accident waiting to happen. This is coming from a guy who runs 30 yr old tires as the norm, so I'm no safetycrat to say the least, but using silicon to seal the spoke area of a tube type wheel to run tubeless. NO, DON'T EVEN GO THERE. Maybe I misunderstand the story, but for goodness sake, never run tubeless on a tube wheel for sure. There are probably suitable wheels that the spokes could be sealed, but be sure they have the tubeless lip for the tire.

mid usa sells 18-6" spoked tubeless rims and i think you can get other sizes as well they cater to the chopper crowd but i'm sure you can make one of there wheels fit easy enough.

x2 with what Ron said. The tube rims do not have the safety lip to hold the bead on in case of a blowout.
Funny if someone asks about running a five-year-old tire around here people go ape-crap and guarantee a trip to death city, but at the same time entertain the idea of gluing up spokes?

the wheels from mid- usa are actuall tubeless rims they have the safty bead unlike a tube type rim. i definitly would not even try that with stock rims that are designed for tube use.

Do most rims have "tubeless" stamped on them? Anyone have pictures they can post to show the difference between a tube rim bead and a tubeless rim bead?