Hiya all, just bought some TKC's for my 800GS and looking at the new rear tyre, it says Tubeless, the front says Tubed. The guy in the shop says it makes no difference and anyway, they only make the 17" in Tubeless form.

He says just put a tube in it and it will be fine.

I thought the tyre beads were different and although something you can do in an emergency, its not really reccommended.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly apreciated.

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Will

Some day so soon....

Have just done some research off another site (which i probably should have done first!) Yes, it is fine to use tubes on tubeless TKC's as long as the tube is the correct size. Problem solved. Thanks

__________________
Will

Some day so soon....

Also, the sealants can often times slow air loss

Yes i agree, I always use heavy duty tubes with Ultraseal (similar to Slime) inside, any assistance is usually welcome when things go pear shaped eh! thanks.

__________________
Will

Some day so soon....

No problem using tubes in tubeless tires, you may have to if it is a spoked rim, or other non tubeless rim that won't seal without a tube.
However, if you do not have to use a tube, you shouldn't for the following reasons,
Tubes add unsprung weight (ok so it ain't much)
The friction of the tube within the tire creates more heat, causing tires to run hotter (again this is slight under normal conditions)

The number one reason to not use tubes is that tubeless tires without tubes rarely blow out or lose air rapidly. The usual scenario is they get punctured by a nail or thorn and you get a slow leak that will hold air for days or weeks. When a tube is punctured it loses air pretty much instantly. A tubeless tire is way less trouble than a tubed tire.

Keeping in mind that it is OK to use tubes when they are not needed, it is just better not to.
Using a tube for a damaged tubeless tire is a very bad idea, but I suppose if it gets you out of a jam it is OK temporarily.

The rims of my R80 GS Basic is tubeless type and I have tube type tyres without tubes on my bike (Metzeler Sahara).

Result is permanent air leaks especially at front tyre. Sealed them, tried most of things which some helped ... no way.

Will change them with tubeless tyres in March.
Tubeless tyres has some kind of special corner/interior side for better holding to rim...

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"where the traveller goes, nobody knows ! "

AFAIK there are three types: Tube type (T/T), T/L and Tubeless. Tubed tyres which must be used with a tube are rare these days (except trials, enduro and motocross tyres) as the T/L can be fitted to all rims.

I agree regarding the sudden loss of pressure on a tube tyre being the main danger. However, some tyres (T/L and Tubeless) are really tight on the rim making it very hard to break the bead at the side of the road and equally difficult to re-seat the tyre without an airline. This coupled with the fact that some rims have a small retaining bead on the inside to help hold the tyre in place makes getting the tyre off virtually impossible without special tools. Of course, in normal use you shouldn't have to take the tyre off - you just remove the nail and fit a plug but we've had a couple of cuts where the only get you home measure is to fit a tube. I quite like TKCs as they do seem to be easier to get off the rim. I run them tubeless (on bikes with tubeless rims) because small punctures are a 5 minute fix but also carry tubes, three good long tyre levers and an electric compressor and patches for the inside of the tyre. You can use the centrestand to break the bead but there are also portable bead breakers available.

The trick of riding the bike on the flat tyre to break the bead doesn't seem to work with T/L tyres as it does on enduro tyres.

Keep pressure above 1.5 bar for road type tyres (TKC, MT21 etc.)

Getting back to the bike in question here:

On my 1985 r80rt the front leaks in the seal between rim and wheel. Aftertryingtwo different make sof tyre I ended up putting atube in it. result no leak. I would not recommend fitting tubed tyre to tubeless rims, you may want to fit tubes there.
I might add since 1961 I have twice had tyre sealing problems. both cases were tubeless tyres on aluminium rims. These wre the only times I have run tubeless tyres on alloy rims. So I have a 100% record of failure with that combination. ( other instance was ford with alloy rims, cured by fitting steel rims). Oddly the rear on my BMW is fine, so it can work