Tubliss tire conversion

I just switched both front and rear tires to the Tubliss system (www.tubliss.com). The site shows you the install procedure. Anyway, I just put the bike through a tough 700 mile ride. It works as advertised. The only challenge is: 1. Rim lock is large, so it will require almost double the tire weights to balance. 2. The inner high-pressure tire bladder requires 100 psi, so small electric pumps may not be able to fill it on the trail. The best pump is the high-pressure tire pumps used for ten speed bikes.The benefits is during a puncture, you can plug and go in about 5 minutes. You can also run the tire pressure really low and not worry about pinch flats. As an added layer of safety, you can used Ride One or Slime in the tire to increase the sealing protection factor.

It's apparently not DOT rated, and not supposed to be ridden on the pavement. Have you been able to do any distance pavement riding with it at all?

They are not DOT rated because having that disclaimer is why his liability attorney told him to so. I have done several hundred miles of 75-80 mph days with excellent performance. Several power users on the http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=555195&highlight=Tubliss have used them on really grueling African rides with not one failed inner tube. Adding the Ride On tire sealant is even an better idea. You also lose a little sprung weight from having an inner tube, so that is another benefit. I use the Tubliss system with Continental TKC80s tires.

I am never going to tubed tire again.

As I mentioned in another thread, they are going to come out with a DOT rated version later this year. Or not. Hopefully the new version will balance easier.

I put the Tubliss system on my dirt set and had the first real off road test today... fantastic! I love them and they will stay on the dirt set. I am not going to run slime as I have read that it prevents plugging a puncture by somehow skinning the plug preventing it from sealing. I have plugges tires on other bokes with tubeless tires and they have always held up just fine. Also, swapping tires is a breeze as the system stays on the rim.

As far as a DOT rating... tubes are not rated either so it dosen't bother me. I must balance mine though as on pavement above 50 they rattle my teeth out... just like a rim lock will do. A small price to pay in my opinion. YMMV, do what you are comfortable with. Mine are staying.

After several months of delay, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a pair of Tubliss tires for the Yamaha WR250. The installation was easy and the video at the company web site has an excellent video tutorial on the procedure.

Like many successful inventions, the purpose is simple. Eliminate the need to use a motorcycle tire tubes.

Instead of trying to seal the rim to keep air in the tire, the inventor at Tubliss sealed the gap between the two tire beads with a special rubber inner liner or in laymen terms a simple rubber bicycle high-pressure tube. By putting a one-off bicycle tire in the center of the rim and inflating it, the gap at the bottom of the tire is sealed,
making the tire an airtight chamber and eliminating the need for the dreaded motorcycle tubes. It turns the outer tire into the motocross equivalent of a bicycle’s tubular tire into sew-up tire often seen on high-end racing bicycles.

Once installed on both the front and back, I developed a slow leak on the rear high-pressure bladder. I checked the web site and the solution was simple...empty the tire pressure in both chambers and squirt soapy water around the tire bead to increase the sealing factor by eliminating friction between the metal and the tire carcass. Presto, the soapy water suggestion worked! If you don't have soapy water, Armor All works fine.

Then it came time for a bike shop to balance the tire. The Tubliss tire system comes with a beefy metal rim lock and the result is in order to balance the tire, you will use almost double the amount of balancing weights to offset the internal rim lock mass (see gold rim lock below).



After the balancing, it is recommended to use your favorite tire sealant to help increase the puncture resistance qualities of the tire. I prefer Ride On, so I poured via the valve stem the correct amount based on the tire sizes.
Then it came time for the test ride....

The Tubliss tire system has disclaimers stating that it's technology is only for off-road riding. I don't know why this matters but I think the liability attorney for Tubliss suggested inserting this to reduce legal risk. Anyway, eager to ride the bike on side streets and eventually move into the high-speed mode, I was curious to see how handling would be impacted.

After spending a few hours on the various local routes including high-speed bursts up to 85 mph, the Tubliss tire system worked well. I did not detect any vibration or wobbling due to the extra balancing weights or the added tire sealant liquid. Eventually, a few days later I was afforded the chance to take a quick 800 mile weekend trip
consisting of both on and offload tracks. The Tubliss system again worked very well. I checked the pressure on several occasion and no leaks were detected. A word of caution about tire pressure...

The bicycle high-pressure tube portion has to be kept at 100-110 psi, so if you're running a small air-pressure pump off the bike's electrical current, most portable pumps may NOT be able to fill a bicycle tube to 100 psi, which might require a CO2 cartridge system or a high-pressure bike pump. I even encountered some gasoline stations air pump not having sufficient pressure to fill the high-pressure tube.

Nevertheless, the Tubliss tire system delivered on it's promise. As a matter of fact, I can't imagine ever using tubes tires again! The other benefits is you can run the tire pressure very low and not have to worry about a pinch flat often associated with tubed tires. Additionally, should you get a puncture than cannot be repaired with a plug kit, you simply remove the tire and leave the Tubliss tire in place. It is so easy.

So, I would give Tubliss tire system a five of five stars. It is an excellent product. Please check the company web site, to see if they have a pair of Tubliss tires to match your bikes tire size.

Still loving my Tubliss setup

I was loosing air in the rear wheel. I finally removed the wheel and did what the troubleshooting video showed on the web site. deflated the tire, pushed it off the bead, wetted the tire and wheel with soapy water and re-inflated it. Haven't lost air again since

I used an old desert racing trick to balance out the wheels by wrapping lead around the spokes. It helpped a lot but there si still noteable vibration above 60 mph. Not that big of a deal as I run my SUMO set for comutarding and save the knobs for off road riding. At least it isn't loosining my fillings anymore

On my bike, they are keepers

You should balance the tire AFTER you have installed the tire with the rim lock. If possible, have a professional shop do it. Then after I balance the tire, I squirt in a liquid called Ride On. The Ride-On Tire Protection System (“Ride-On TPS”) is a revolutionary line of tire sealants (tyre sealants) formulated to prevent flats caused by punctures from nails, thorns, screws and other debris. The other benefit of Ride On is that is balances the tire as you ride. The liquid acts like a stabilizing weight inside the tire. I was skeptical but it works great!

The stuff can be ordered at:

http://www.ride-on.com/

Safe Travels,

Fred

Thanks rider1a - FRED,
I went and got some of the Ride-on and put it in with the Tubliss. It seems to have sealed the tire nicely and balanced it too. I will have to keep an eye on the tire pressure - I haven't taken the Tubliss off road and I plan to do it this weekend. I will just need to remember to bring a pump before and after my rides - until I can really trust the Tubliss system (I had too many slow leaks in the beginning with the rear tire -- front was perfect).

Surprised you got it balance with just the ride-on. I may have to try that next time I swap tires. As it is now, I had to put 4 good sized spoke weights on to get it balanced.

RattTongue wrote:

Surprised you got it balance with just the ride-on. I may have to try that next time I swap tires. As it is now, I had to put 4 good sized spoke weights on to get it balanced.

RattTongue -- I have the weights on there but it was still a little off and the Ride-on finished it off.... Ride-on is like $14.95 a bottle and I used two bottles one for front and rear (Made sure to use the right number of OZ on each wheel). I really can't wait to get it off road and see how she runs.

Tubliss rear IS NOT lighter than the stock Dunlop that came on my CRF 250X or a brand new Bike Master cheapo tube. I weighed it all at installation on a food scale. Including rim strap and rim lock. The Dunlop even had some Slime in it that I couldn't squeeze completely out for the Weigh In. Tubliss was at 33OZ - 5 OZ heavier than Dunlop. The Dunlop tube was the original from 2005 and had been in 3 tires with a patch after tire 2 until 4/15/2012

Forgot to mention i also weighed the Tubliss single wrap of spoke tape (they used to say 2 wraps). PLEASE how much rRide - ON!? in the tire. I know - different tires different amount. But tell us the tire size and amount or this thread just turns into a hen session. Then it can be compared to Slime as an alternative.
Thanks

I did the tubliss install a couple of days ago on my R. For those that balance the wheels just wondering if you could give me some insight into how much weight it took for you to get a reasonable balance. Thanks

It took me about 2 and 1/2 oz. to balance each wheel (front and rear). Berwyn

Berwyn Henderson wrote:

It took me about 2 and 1/2 oz. to balance each wheel (front and rear). Berwyn

Thanks

I've been running the Tubliss system for over two years, mostly off road. Two things I found were that putting Slime or other sealant in slows down air escaping through the carcass of the tube type tires which don't have the butyl liner that tubeless tires do. Second using a metal valve cap on the high pressure tube slows down air leakage out of high pressure tube. With the small volume of the high pressure tube it doesn't take many molecules slipping past the schrader valve to drop the pressure.

It took me 4 ounces to balance each wheel. I used stick on lead auto weights that I squished slightly in a vice so they fit on the center of the wheel and in between the spokes.

I run down to 6.5 psi in the rear MT 43. I won't go back to tubes.

Jim

Hated it, piched it in the bin. It's a bicth to work with on the front, to much weight. I have better luck with a good tube.
Some love it but it's not for me. I will sell mine for $50.

Re-opening this thread almost two years later.

So, i had a shop install the Tubliss with fresh tires. Put in Ride-on for balancing. They did not use any lead weights to balance. Well, this morning took it out for a long ride and noticed that above 40mph, i started noticing a pretty bad vibration from the front. Some white stuff seemed to have spun off the rim as well. And, when i checked the tire pressure, i'd lost around 15psi! I wonder if the loss of air pressure allowed the Ride-on to leak out (white streaks on tire sidewalls that were not there earlier) and that changed my tire balance leading to the bad vibrations?

Am not sure how many OZ of Ride-on the mechanics put into the tire- maybe too many leading to bad vibrations? The root cause might be the failure to seal the rim off though...

Not sure how to procede? Open up the tire again and get rid of all the tire sealant and start afresh and this time use lead weights to balance the tire and forget about the Ride-on?

shridhar

miniceptor86 wrote:

I've been running the Tubliss system for over two years, mostly off road.  Two things I found were that putting Slime or other sealant in slows down air escaping through the carcass of the tube type tires which don't have the butyl liner that tubeless tires do.  Second using a metal valve cap on the high pressure tube slows down air leakage out of high pressure tube.  With the small volume of the high pressure tube it doesn't take many molecules slipping past the schrader valve to drop the pressure.

It took me 4 ounces to balance each wheel.  I used stick on lead auto weights that I squished slightly in a vice so they fit on the center of the wheel and in between the spokes.

I run down to 6.5 psi in the rear MT 43.  I won't go back to tubes.

Jim

I had to balance my tires and used lead weight. Not familiar with Ride On but self balancing beads/liquids have been evaluated by Motorcycle Consumer News and don't get very good marks. I use Slime in the tires and Pirelli trials tires that are tube or tubeless rated. I don't have any problems with the tires losing pressure. The Tubliss system will lose pressure as any high pressure low volume tube will. I also use a high quality metal valve cap on the Tubliss inner.. They provide a more air tight seal for the stem as a back up for the Schrader valve. I don't find that changing tires is any more difficult with the Tubliss system and have been through three front tires. I have not had a single problem with the Tubliss system and have been running it for almost 5 years with tire pressures as low as 6 psi in the rear in a variety of conditions from northern WI forests and rocky moraines to Ozark's Moccasin Gap and Brock Creek. Granted I'm old and slow but not overly intimated by rough terrain. And I have no connection with Tubliss.

Hi folks... just a quick question. What is the riding situation for your tubliss set up?. ie.. are you more off road than dual sport?Trailer your bike to the trails?? I thought i read that the tubliss system was not recommended for the pavement,,, but that doesn't mean it won't perform ok when used on the slab...
what is your take on this ?

signed.. curious george

rarepartbuilder wrote:

Hi folks... just a quick question. What is the riding situation for your tubliss set up?. ie.. are you more off road than dual sport?Trailer your bike to the trails??  I thought i read that the tubliss system was not recommended for the pavement,,, but that doesn't mean it won't perform ok when used on the slab...
what is your take on this ?

signed.. curious george

Just installed Tubliss and rode about 200 miles around Death Valley at highway speeds (another 250 offroad). No issues at 60mph, running approx 15psi. Did balance my wheels with weights.

My question - is there a portable pump that works well to get the bladder to 110psi? I can do it no problem with a bicycle floor pump, but that won't always be close at hand.

I have a Crank Brothers portable bicycle hand pump. It has a high pressure/low volume setting, as well as a low pressure/high volume setting. It will achieve 100+ psi in my Tubliss D606 inner bladder, but you wouldn't want to do it regularly. Emergency only....

Dave

After years of using Tubliss on the WR, there have been no negative issues with them. I have done 450 miles on the highway on some days and the wheels are super smooth on the pavement.

My set-up requires you always keep 120 PSI for the inner bladder, utilize almost 20 grams of wheel weights per tire (to counter the large rim lock that is part of the Tubliss tire set-up) and add the appropriate amount of Ride On tire sealant for extra protection on the trails.