About a week back I asked about converting older wire
wheels to use tubeless tires. Wasn't a lot of discussion
here, but I traded a few messages offline. Here's the
summary of what I've learned:
-Several folks challenged the effort with "why bother,
tubes work ok".
-I saw several successes mentioned with silicone or
urethane sealer -- details unclear.
The best input, and best time spent on the effort
was from Allen Hendrix (www.hendrixwirewheel.com)
in Greensboro, NC (wish he were just down the
street from me!). His advice:
-All the do-it-yourself sealants will eventually
leak (as do some of the factory sealants). Especially
if you ever go through a trueing session and have
to turn the spoke nipples.
-The "rubber bands" are no longer used, rather today
they use a PVC tape (I have some on order. Someone else
said they had bought this from British Wire Wheels
and thought it looked like electrical tape. I
asked, and Allen said it was different. Not too
expensive in the scheme of things, even if it is
just fancy electrical tape. We'll see.)
-Don't use duct tape to cover the spokes. Apparantly
the adhesive doesn't do well with the heat, and
you wind up with a gooey mess.
-His bottom line was to simply cover the spokes
properly, and do a tube installation.
He had a few comments about tube selection as
well. For the 205/70x15 I'm using, he suggested
either:
-FR15 "undersize" tube (The "undersize" is apparantly
a standard designation. You don't want a one-size-
fits-all "185 to 290" tube.)
-KR14/15 (also a slightly smaller tube)
And he referenced a "tr13" valve. Whatever that is.
So it looks like I'll stay with tubes in my new tires.
Joe
flake@a3115jmf.atl.hp.com
'72 TR6
ps. Those of you who asked about the Michelin redlines
I'm selling should have received a separate email. If
not, then let me know.
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