Tube Recommendations

[BPT]

Hello All,
  Are tubes like tires and oil - don't start threads about them?  Just curious if anyone has any recs. or tips on what to shop for, brands to avoid, maybe a good value?  I'm going to be running all Heidenau sidecar tires.

Side question for Marcmax (and anyone else with experience) - you said you had a helluva time with changing the sidecar tires because of the stiff sidewalls. Was that on the Velorex spoked rim as well, or only when you were using the LS wheel?

            Thanks.

[Tony Smith]

Good "name" brands tend to lose air slower than cheap and nasty. I always used to use Continental tubes, but they are no longer available where I live so now I use Dunlop

[marcmax]

I never ran my Velorex with the stock spoked wheel. I swapped it for an LS front wheel during the install and yes they were a pain to install.

[BPT]

Thanks to you both.  I didn't want to automatically assume that the name brands were better but figured that was the case.  I didn't want to spend extra money if it wasn't necessary but also don't want to take a chance on a cheapie since these are kind of a pain to change.

Marcmax - my local shop will install for me at a reasonable price and I'd checked on that after you'd told me how difficult they were.  I knew it was mostly the tires but wasn't sure if the wheel types made a difference.  I wanted to do it for practice.......   I may have them do the bike and then attempt the sidecar wheel and see how it goes.  I can always take it to them if I can't make it work. 

[Justin B.]

From experience over the years natural rubber tubes won't "deflate" as quickly when punctured as synthetic rubber.  Natural rubber tubes let more air "escape" over time than synthetic tubes and I've found natural rubber tubes to be thicker and heavier than synthetic.

I think I'm currently running Pirelli's in my R100...

[BPT]

So do you mean you prefer the natural rubber ones then?  I'm guessing that when you say thicker and heavier that's a good thing (strength/durability) and not that they are too thick or too heavy?      Thanks.

[wilcom]

do tubes have date codes?

[BPT]

I was wondering the same thing Wilcom.  I did some Googling about it and didn't find anything about dates.

I have a Continental that I aquired as part of a grab bag on ebay and I was wondering about it. There are a couple of letters, a number and a circle divided up into quarters like the BMW logo, but three of the slices have dots in them.  I'm guessing it means something but what?

[Justin B.]

I suppose the thicker/heavier tube increases unsprung weight, which affects handling to an extent.  I try to use natural so I have a more controlled "flat" than a rapid decompression.

I don't think durability is the issue with the natural rather it's ability to not tear/split when punctured like some thin synthetic tubes do.

[BPT]

The controlled flat part made sense, I was just making sure I was getting what you were saying there.

From what I've read online, most say to stay away from the "light"tubes.  And also to avoid the designated Heavy Duty ones, unless you're specifically using them for off-road.  In addition to what you mentioned about the weight, they say that there is an increase of heat at higher road speeds that can cause them to fail.  I guess some people get the Heavy Duty ones thinking they're tougher, more puncture resistant, etc. but they're not as good for straight highway riding.

So I think I'll see about a name-brand, natural, heavy-ish tube and see how that goes.  Makes sense to me, thanks for the tips.

[BPT]

Looks like Continentals aren't in the US anymore either now?

Hard to find in searches and then the few that do list then don't actually have them in stock.  Strange......

[Bob_Roller]

It's probably a fact that most modern motorcycles have tubeless tires .

Most of our R65's are 33-38 years old !!!

I checked an online parts site BikeBandit and their selection of tubes, numbers 5 or 6 .

Inner tubes will probably become special order parts in the future !!

[BPT]

I guess I wasn't thinking of it as an old bike thing.  I'd looked at Bike Bandit along with a few other sites a while back and noticed the majority seemed to be non-tire company brands.  That's why I came here asking about the difference since it looked like the name brands weren't as prominent.  This is my first time shopping for them but now I know........

Now it's a matter of finding the right sizes but I think I've found a few options that will work after digging around online today.

[Tony Smith]

I just checked - my local bike shop still has Dunlop tubes - sadly they are no longer being supplied with rubber tubes from Japan and are receiving non-rubber ones from Indonesia.

According to the Australian Metzler importer, Metzler tubes are still available although the numbers ordered in the sizes relevant to an R65 show minimal traffic.

[BPT]

I did find several listings for Metzlers during my earlier searching but hadn't checked sizes yet.  I think I found the Pirelli's Justin mentioned.  And for other big names I saw Dunlop, Bridgestone, Kenda, and Michelin.

That was all during a casual search before I'd gotten the info here.  Now I'll look more closely and get the details about sizes and compounds available.

Seems like I saw some genrics at my local place last time I was there (Bikemaster?) but i didn't ask them about getting others.  We also have a Ural shop in the area.  Nice guy to talk to but when I asked him about tires a while back, he didn't keep R65 sizes. 

    Thanks again for the info.