Tube or Tubeless? '78 KZ1000 Ltd. mags

For all intents and purposes once the bead is seated it will never come loose during a flat tire, so no need to worry on the road about that as long as the correct tubeless wheel is being used. I'm sure it's possible but more likely on an extremely heavy motorcycle, not a KZ.

May catch some flak for this, but thinking it's okay to "plug" a flat tubeless tire, air it up, and limp to the nearest bike shop for fitment of a new tire.
This may entail professional roadside assistance, which usually have on hand plugs and compressed air.

Or at least limp to some reasonably secure location where the bike may be temporarily stored without having to leave it sitting alongside the road.

With tube wheels and tires, some riders carry spare tubes and tire irons for diy roadside repairs. But not me -- just carry a phone and credit card (have used a portable cb radio for aid in contacting roadside assistance if there's no wireless service).

And often a passing biker or Good Samaritan will stop and offer to help, or make a call, or send assistance from the next town.

Good Fortune!

At least on tubeless tires your chances of getting a flat are much less as generally if a nail does get imbedded air will escape slowly over several days, so plenty of time to see you have a problem without that sudden surprise of a flat tube. I've never actually had a flat tire on a tubeless motorcycle wheel. Tube type is another story and I still generally get 2 or 3 flat tires every year on the KZ650 I wouldn't hesitate to use a plug to fix a tubeless tire. On a KZ unless maybe a huge KZ1300 if you're careful you can ride on a flat tire for quite a few miles in an emergency. No need to abandon the motorcycle in the middle of Slumsville, just ride with care and slowly get to a safer place or hopefully if 5 miles or less from home, just ride home. We don't need no stinkin air.

Well, you guys can say what you like about common sense but I know that my back tire has the inner rim lip. It was a PITA to pop the tire on to the rim completely. I have had soooo many rear flats and always at the speed that you don't want a flat. I can say for certainty that a rear tube is NOT the best idea as everyone else has said. You break the stem you are going flat FAST and no possibility of plugging and limping it. You get a nail and you are off to the side of the road and calling for a ride and a tow.
As for the front tire I don't remember seeing an inner rim lip but there is plenty of shelf area and I know what a PITA it is to bust the front tire off of the rim. I have changed many a tire the old fashioned way just to do it but either way it goes if it goes flat it won't be much fun. I have ridden for 23 years and thank God I haven't gotten a front flat. The rear tire since I have went tubeless has yet to give me any grief and trust me I give that rear tire plenty of reason for giving grief. I will never put a tube in the rear and as for the front tire there is a nice wide step to which I sincerely doubt that tire coming off the lip but inner tube or not if that tube is flat it won't make a difference. I am NOT suggesting any of this to anyone. I am not going to be held responsible for someone else's accident because I said hey do this. But I still don't see how the tire is going to come off the rim unless you are riding it for a long period of time that way in which case you are a crazy guy. I know for fact how hard it was to break the bead on some of the tubed tire rims I have done in the past so Larry or any of you other guys unless you have experienced or have known someone this has happened to I don't know how it equates to bad judgment.

Question on a different note....

Green Goop in a can "Fix a Flat" or what ever it's called.
I realize it makes a mess on the inside but the crap any good in a jam?

Work on both tube and tubeless tires...

OMR

Doesn't work on innertube type; from experience I can tell you that. Why do you think I was so happy when I got rid of my tubes?

Old Man Rock wrote:

Question on a different note....

Green Goop in a can "Fix a Flat" or what ever it's called.
I realize it makes a mess on the inside but the crap any good in a jam?

Work on both tube and tubeless tires...

OMR

It wasn't easy but I was able to use fix-a-flat on my MKII Tube Type rim when I got a flat on an out of state trip. Slowing down and stopping from 80mph with a rear flat wasn't fun, but it went flat slowly while I was riding. It made a real mess and took 2 cans to seal, but I was stranded on the side of the highway very far from home and didn't have too many other choices.

One big lesson I learned - you have to get the cans with the hose on them! My friends first returned with the other type and there was no way to get them on a motorcycle valve stem.

larrycavan wrote:

steell wrote:

saxjonz wrote:

By the way, my friend has a 78 or 76? LTD with the old style mags and he has been running tubeless for years now so I don't know if I really buy the whole pothole theory thing. But I guess it is what it is.

No one's saying it will happen every time, it's like anything else, you can do it wrong 100 times and nothing happens, the 101st time it blows up in your face.

Common sense should be added to the endangered species list.....it's getting to be such a rare thing these days

There are things you take a chance with and things you don't. This is one of those items in the DON'T column...

The pothole theory just got laid to rest last night. I was flying down the street and ran in to a HUGE sinkhole. I saw it just before impact and all I could to to prepare for it was to take standing up. My bike got serious air. I don't think I could have hit it any harder or any bigger. My front tire? Did it go flat? Did it pop off the rim? No farging way. So I guess that theory was put to the test and demystified.
The theory that I have no common sense I can't discount however. Yep, it's true. I keep coming back to this site thinking there will be some information that hasn't already been hashed out and rehashed. And new questions about car mufflers being modified to fit in the baffle of some lugnut's bike and thus that or the other. So yes, I'm guilty of having no damned common sense that everyone else here seems to have. But as far as my wheels give me one real instance, not some urban myth, and maybe I might be so inclined to believe you otherwise keep your comments to yourself.

Sorry to bust your bubble but you haven't proved/disproved anything that I've stated

I said that might happen if the tire was low on air and you caught the edge of a pothole. Did you satisfy both of those conditions?
Don't think so.


But please don't drop the air pressure in your front tire to 10 psi and try to catch the edge of a pothole just to prove me wrong. :woohoo:

steell wrote:

Sorry to bust your bubble but you haven't proved/disproved anything that I've stated

I said that might happen if the tire was low on air and you caught the edge of a pothole. Did you satisfy both of those conditions?
Don't think so.

Sorry, my comment wasn't at you. I know why the rims weren't originally marked tubeless. The aluminum is porous thus air will seep if not kept up. I maintain my bike properly I can assure you. My comment was at Larry for his common sense remark.

With tubeless style "ridged" rim, it seems to me that both air pressure and the raised ridge work toward holding the tire bead against the inside edge of rim. As noted, adding a tube may help avoid loss of air pressure through a porous rim casting. Once the tire is seated onto the rim, it is gripped very tightly in position inside the grove formed by the raised ridge. So tightly that air pressure plays a somewhat less important role in helping to hold the tire bead against the inside edge of rim (my theory). Because of the raised ridge, the tire bead is less likely to lose its seat on the rim when striking a pot hole or large bump at speed.

With tube style smooth "unridged" rim, it seems to me that air pressure is largely responsible for holding the tire bead against the inside edge of rim. And that the tube helps maintain air pressure inside the tire even if the tire bead for whatever reason should lose its full seating onto the rim. And with neither tube nor raised ridge, would think the tire bead is more apt to lose its seat on the rim when striking a pot hole or large bump at speed, resulting in an instant flat tire.

Consider that a tubed tire with air pressure may not go flat as quickly as it would without having the tube.
Hopefully, there's at least some probability where using a tubed tire on a smooth "unridged" rim might change a blow-out to a slow-out. And that's important to me, as a slow-out is much easier and safer to handle.

Realizing that some riders have so far ridden without incident after mounting tires -- but no tubes -- on tube style smooth "unridged" rims, and may Lady Luck continue forever smiling upon them.

Good Fortune!

I use to change my own tires before on "tube type" rims. What a bitch it was just to break the bead off of the rim. That alone gives me confidence to run without tubes. I'm not in the least concerned with tires coming off rims. None of my blowouts have ever resulted in tire off rim.