Punctures are a common occurrence on the road while commuting or touring. If you've ever had one, you know how annoying it can be. First of all, you have to choose a tire size that matches the rim size of your motorcycle, but if the tire size you want to install does not have a tubeless version, you are out of luck. Furthermore, I sometimes think, because it's a spoke motorcycle in the first place. However, if you are planning to install wide aluminum rims, you have a chance to choose tubeless tires.
One thing that rally motorcycle and long touring enthusiasts are secretly enjoying is the "tubeless" conversion of their spoked wheel motorcycles. Not all spoke wheel motorcycles can be modified, but it's worth a try.
Aluminum wide rims in good condition are best.
There are many cases where you need to change from cast wheels to wide aluminum rims, or to change the tire diameter or tire inches because of tire choice. In such cases, you can modify a wheel to be tubeless if the tires are tubeless, even if they are spoked wheels. The first step is to degrease and clean the inside of the rim and the spoke nipples with parts cleaner or acetone after assembly is complete.
A round cut-out of butyl-based tape is applied over the spoke nipples. This tubeless tape is an original product from face, a specialty spoke wheel shop. The round tape is firmly applied around the nipples.
Thorough prevention of air leakage
After attaching the air leak prevention tape to the nipple, press the seal tape into the uneven areas and grooves along the nipple's outer diameter. It is best to use a flat-blade screwdriver to press the adhesive part into the nipple.
If you put a special tape around the nipple to prevent air leaks, it will look like this. There are a lot of users who are trying their hand at a tubeless set up by using a tubeless kit on the market. Especially for the supermotard machines with wide rims, tubeless kits are the most common choice. This is an example of customization at your own risk.
Reinforced with mesh tape
After applying a special round tape to prevent air leakage from the nipple area, a strong, fiber-filled packing tape was wrapped around the inside of the rim and around the outside of the nipple face for two laps. When applying the tape, the tape was wrapped around the rim while pressing it firmly in with the fingertips to prevent the tape from being broken.
After installing the tubeless tire and driving for a while, I removed the tire and put tape on it to see how the modified part looks like. Please check the photo. As long as there is no corrosion on the rim bead, there is no chance of air leakage, and the motorcycle can be driven as a tubeless motorcycle. If the rim bead is not corroded, it is unlikely to leak air.
Tubeless for wide aluminum rims
This time we had a custom made tubeless Yamaha SDR with an aluminum wide rim and stainless steel spokes made from Dachi blanks with a spoke bender at Faith. The stainless steel spokes are high quality and tough, so you can use them with confidence, and they don't rust.
- Point 1: Tubeless tires are possible if they are based on wide aluminum rims
- Point 2: When going tubeless, it is a basic requirement to install tubeless tires.
- Point 3: You can also use a tubeless kit on the market to make a tubeless motorcycle by DIY
Building a custom machine, new or old, is fun! After that, the customization process is accelerated by replacing the muffler, handlebars, and steps to match the rider's physique and preferred riding position. Once you start working on the suspension, the main concern is the front and rear wheels.
Before the mid-1970s, all Japanese motorcycles had tube tires. This was because almost all the models had spoked wheels. Then, in the late '70s, cast wheels began to appear on export models. At that time, cast wheels had already appeared in the customization scene, both in Europe and Japan. However, at that time, only cast wheels were available, and they hadn't gone tubeless yet.
In the midst of all this, Honda's Comstar-wheeled motorcycles appeared with tubeless tires as standard equipment; the GL400 and GL500, Hawk II, and Hawk III were Comstar-wheeled models, with tubeless tires as standard equipment. Even manufacturers that used cast wheels, for example, Suzuki's star cast-wheel motorcycles, which were introduced in the '80s, still used the tube version. Punctures were still common on the roads at that time. For the riders who rode in those days, "going tubeless" was a big dream.
Here is a Yamaha SDR Custom that was modified from a three-spoke cast wheel version to a wide aluminum rim version. The owner of the machine modified the spoked wheel specs from cast wheels to spoked wheels because he liked the beauty of the spoked wheel specs. In order to give him more options for tires, he decided to go with wider rims on the 17-inch wheels. That's when we realized that we had to go tubeless. We were even more concerned about this since the stock 3 cast wheel Yamaha SDRs were tubeless, so we decided to go tubeless.
At the end of the 20th century, in the 1990s, the supermotard scene attracted worldwide attention, and a staple in the category was the installation of extra-thick 17-inch front and rear radial tires with wide aluminum rims. Rim widths of 3.00 inches at the front and 4.00 inches at the rear are also commonplace, and then the tire choices are often tubeless. In the past, tube-specification was common in the overseas racing scene, but later on, "tubeless" became the trend, and nowadays, tubeless is the STD.
Tubelessness in the super-motard scene has now begun to spread to the road motorcycle spoke wheel scene as well. This time, the spoke wheel specialist, Faith, is willing to make modifications to the tubeless specs upon request from customers. However, not all of their spoke wheels seem to be able to go tubeless. However, if the rim and spokes are not in good condition, or if the steel rim is rusty, tubeless modification is not possible. The world of customization is evolving day by day.
A custom motorcycle reborn with a unique suspension
The Yamaha SDR has been modified from a three-spoke cast wheel to a wide-rimmed aluminum spoked wheel version, and the stainless steel spokes and black anodized aluminum nipples look great on this motorcycle. In the two years, I've been riding this tubeless motorcycle, I've never had an air leak!
