New tires for 750 SF

TeddyG

TeddyG

Hero member
Location
Portland Oregon
I need to replace the 6 yr old tires that came w my 74 750SF and I plan on keeping the 100/110/90 sizes. It currently has tubeless Shinkos so I,m wondering if I need tubes and possibly tape/ rubber bands to cover the spoke nipples. I,m considering Bridgestones but welcome other input. Any concerns about those nice Borianni alloy rims prone to damage from tire change machines?
Thank you
 
TeddyG said:
I need to replace the 6 yr old tires that came w my 74 750SF and I plan on keeping the 100/110/90 sizes. It currently has tubeless Shinkos so I,m wondering if I need tubes and possibly tape/ rubber bands to cover the spoke nipples. I,m considering Bridgestones but welcome other input. Any concerns about those nice Borianni alloy rims prone to damage from tire change machines?
Thank you
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Any tyre change machine can fuck any rim, spoked or cast, if the operator is a klutz…. ask me how I fucken know.

“But I’ve changed hundreds of tyres before without damage” isn’t an excuse. “I’ll have them repainted for you” isn’t a fix when it’s nothing like the original colour! Grrrr…

A good operator won’t fuck your rims.
 
TeddyG said:
I need to replace the 6 yr old tires that came w my 74 750SF and I plan on keeping the 100/110/90 sizes. It currently has tubeless Shinkos so I,m wondering if I need tubes and possibly tape/ rubber bands to cover the spoke nipples. I,m considering Bridgestones but welcome other input. Any concerns about those nice Borianni alloy rims prone to damage from tire change machines?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Are tubes fitted currently or have the wheels been sealed to accept tubeless?
If your spoked rims have been sealed to accept tubeless and have run like that for 6 years then presume it would be ok to run again without tubes, otherwise obviously new tubes best.
Martymoose (member here) sealed his rims to accept tubeless and reported them a success although sounds like it was very meticulous work.
If concerned about tyre changers, best to change them yourself. The spoked wheels are easy enough with levers, totally unlike the later cast wheels which on many examples are nigh on impossible without proper gear.
Brand!?!? personal preference and usually opens up pages of discussion.......................
 
The tyres probably do say tubeless, but I would be surprised if they don't have tubes. Running without tubes on spoked wheels can be done but it's a pretty recent mod mainly coming from the recent trend for Adventure Bikes. It's so much easier to plug a flat on the side of the road with a heavy bike than patching a tube. Less unsprung weight as well. You will get resistance as lots of older rims are not technically suitable as they don't have the best lip to hold a flat tyre on so bike shops shy away from this. Yes replace the rubber rim tape, I had a sudden front deflation at speed recently that was put down to age-hardened rim rubber tape that rubbed and cut a tube, not fun. BTW you can go to a 120 rear with no handling issues and heaps more tyres being available. Any of the major brands will be fine. I won't talk up my oddball tyre types as I have a bigger rear rim than standard. Its been hard after the pandemic to get some models so check availability.
 
chrisk said:
A good operator won’t fuck your rims.
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Unless they’re reeeeally sexy

Shajota said:
Are tubes fitted currently or have the wheels been sealed to accept tubeless?
Click to expand...

Vince said:
The tyres probably do say tubeless, but I would be surprised if they don't have tubes
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Good points. Do we know?
Tubeless is fantastic, easy (temporary) fix on the side of the road, but only if it’s a puncture, no good if the rim’s leaking…
Personally I run tubes, and trust luck.
Shinkos on the other hand, are perfectly adequate. Old Yokohama technology apparently, I’ve used them, after a mate told me “cheap practice tyres, only cost me a second a lap”. Although I got a bit sus after they were more than half worn 👍
 
Easiest to just use tubes unless you are going for race wins, it isn't going to transform the bike into an R1. It is quite a job to modify the original Borrani to get it to seal around the bead but easy to just bog over all the spoke nipples but a pox job when you want to remove it. Virtually all modern tyres are good. I used to use 120 rear 110 front when I had 18" on the road (got 17" now), others prefer a 100 front for personal preference, and tyres with the same size rating can have quite different shapes.
 
Use tubes.
Change them as a matter of course when changing tyres.
Modern rubber tends to be rubbish and that goes for tubes. I now use heavy duty thick enduro tubes since I had a valve pull out on a nearly new tube a couple of years back.
Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
Use tubes.
Change them as a matter of course when changing tyres.
Modern rubber tends to be rubbish and that goes for tubes. I now use heavy duty thick enduro tubes since I had a valve pull out on a nearly new tube a couple of years back.
Paul
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Valves pull out of tubes due to tyre creep, which is usually caused by under-inflation.

Unnecessarily adding almost a kilogram of unsprung weight is pretty silly, especially at the outer circumference of a wheel. It seems to be a french thing though... a couple of french Lavs pasing through the OCT workshop had thick heavy-duty MX-type tubes fitted front and rear. Fucked up the handling and some were simply non-balancable due to the extreme differences in wall thickness of the tube. These would have required over 300gr. to balance half-decently, I start looking for alternatives once more than 30gr. is required. What's more, the owners were not even aware of the wallowing, shimmy and shake!

What's next, endurance-type mousse tubes?

piet
 
Valve ripping wasn't due to under inflation. The rubber in far eastern tubes is crap. The subject has been dealt with elsewhere concerning the rubber of battery or tank straps which doesn't last.

The only downside with enduro tubes is that they would heat up under prolonged high speed running which isn't a concern on a touring motorcycle in Europe. My motorway cruising speed is 120 km/h when I have to.
I haven't noticed any new handling quirks since switching to heavy duty tubes.

Paul
 
Paul Marx said:
Valve ripping wasn't due to under inflation. The rubber in far eastern tubes is crap. The subject has been dealt with elsewhere concerning the rubber of battery or tank straps which doesn't last.

The only downside with enduro tubes is that they would heat up under prolonged high speed running which isn't a concern on a touring motorcycle in Europe. My motorway cruising speed is 120 km/h when I have to.
I haven't noticed any new handling quirks since switching to heavy duty tubes.

Paul
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Pretty sure you won't, plonking along at a sedate 70mph. ;)

I'm also pretty sure not all far-eastern rubber products are crap. After all, most rubber raw materials comes from there. Most indonesian or malayan stuff can hold its own against Dunlop or Michelin products. Rubbery stuff from India otoh, rarely lasts as long as it takes to arrive here...

piet
 
Thanks- I won't know if there's currently tubes inside until the tires are removed, but I'm guessing there are. Can I go w/ radials or stay w/ bias ply? I'll definitely run some rim tape and I'll probably go w/ Bridgestones. I'll first ask if the tire changer has experience w/ alloy rims.
 
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No problem with radials. Very few run tubeless with those rims. The original Borranis were very easily damaged with tyre levers, not wrecked but clear signs where the levers were in contact with the alloy. Any competent tyre fitter with a machine will be able to do them with no marks at all. There are also plastic rim protectors available that go over the edge of the rim to avoid lever marks, I use them and they work fine.
 
TeddyG said:
I won't know if there's currently tubes inside until the tires are removed, but I'm guessing there are.
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If there's only one nut on the valve stem, loosen it and push on the valve cap. If it moves inward, you've got a tube in there.

Paul Marx said:
The rubber in far eastern tubes is crap. The subject has been dealt with elsewhere concerning the rubber of battery or tank straps which doesn't last.
Paul
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Experience has taught me otherwise. Japanese rubber parts are far superior, lifewise, to almost all other points of origin.
 
The Sock said:
If there's only one nut on the valve stem, loosen it and push on the valve cap. If it moves inward, you've got a tube in there.


Experience has taught me otherwise. Japanese rubber parts are far superior, lifewise, to almost all other points of origin.
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Processed in Japan, but not grown in Japan.

If you’ve ever visited Malaysia, there are rubber plantations almost everywhere.

To my knowledge, rubber trees worldwide are the same species. Rubber trees and the quality of the rubber milked from them are universal in quality.

The next stages in manufacture is where the quality varies.

1710803470135.jpeg
 
It's very hard to find a Radial under 140 rear, but I vaguely remember hearing recently someone makes a Radial 120 but I don't remember what company does that. The std rear rim is a 2.5 so that limits you to a 120 or smaller tyre.
 
Sock- thanks for the tip on testing for a tube which I'll try. One tire installer claimed that radials don't fit tubes that well (not sure if true or not). For now I'm thinking keeping standard 100/110/90 and a bias ply Bridgestone BT 46. Would like to get tubes w/ angled valve stem if possible. Main goal is to replace these hard 8 yr old Shinkos that have no wear since the bike wasn't ridden by the seller-
 
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