Triumphrat

ChazzyB · 07-18-2009, 04:24 PM

I've just got home, sitting in the cab of a recovery truck with my girlie strapped onto the flat bed behind. I was out for a ride this afternoon, and making good progress home after a visit to an glitzy empoprium down near the coast Sussex. I overtook a car (as you do) and as I pulled in again, the bike gave a most uncharacteristic wobble. "Oh yeah" thinks I, and gave the handlebars a quick wobble. The slow, dead response pretty was pretty much confirmed by what I managed to glimpse, looking hard down over my left shoulder, down at the back wheel. I limped on up the road for half a mile until I came to a large lay-by, where I'd be safely off the road. A phone call to the AA (Automobile Association, in case you were wondering) with me confirming tubed tyres, so no roadside fix. After 1 hour 15 minutes getting bored watching cars go by, the truck pulled in for me.

I'd decided to go out on my Guzzi Cali this afternoon. I pushed it out of the garage, put it up on the centre stand, turned the petrol on and went to put my earplugs in and helmet on. When I returned, I saw a stream of petrol puking out form under the bike onto my asphalt drive. I quickly shut the taps but it seemed like an age before the petrol finally stopped dripping. I pushed it back into the garage and went out on my Tiger instead. Grrr

Oh, the emporium: I blagged a ride on an Buell Ulysses XB12XT! Now then how can I broach the subject with the management? (The Tiger's staying, BTW...)

iansoady · 07-20-2009, 07:04 AM

Chazzy,

Go tubeless as I suggested elsewhere. Never looked back since I did it......

crowtherstephen · 07-21-2009, 09:27 AM

the worry about this is - it might happen to me.. i have read posts on here about making spoke wheels tubeless using aircraft grade rubber compound, but that all seems to much for me personally.... i do have the option of dropping a set of cast wheels on my 2003 spoke tigger...... woudl they fit straight on????

would i need to fit new spacers, will teh sprockets and rear disc fit??? QUESTIONS QUESTIONS.. Ian, think it was your posts i read about the spoke wheels??

iansoady · 07-22-2009, 07:55 AM

Stephen,

Probably was the thread I started that you saw - I don't think many here have gone down that route but a lot on the Yahoo groups seem to have done. Although many of them have used ordinary silicone.

crowtherstephen · 07-22-2009, 08:44 AM

i might just leave it in the lap of the gods... i actually had a dream that i had a tyre deflate on me at speed last night.... scary stuff..... thats how much i worry about it actually happening!

iansoady · 07-22-2009, 12:57 PM

I was prompted to do it after I had a huge roofing screw go through the back tyre of my Norton Commando a few years ago, ripping a great big hole in the tube. I was doing 60 or so at the time and I really struggled to keep the bike upright and between the grass verges. In fact it put me off riding for a while.

My thinking with the sealed spoke nipples is that the worst that could happen would be a slow leak. And of course the rims do have the ledges to keep the tyre on if the worst happened.