TKC80's Heavy duty Tubes or not?
 

Hi, I have just got a quote for some TKC80's for ny Tenere �115 unfitted or �130 fitted to loose wheels. Sounds like a good price?
Should I get heavy duty tubes while I am on or just regular and what type should I get? The guy at the Tyre shop said you need to be careful you can't put these on road bikes!
I do a fair bit of off roading mainly greenlanes but I am wanting to go on a trip to the Pyrenees next year so wanted less punctures!
Thanks

Load of Bo****ks They are the favorites for BWM 1200 guys. I would fit normal tubes, when you lower the pressure in heavy duty tubes you have more chance of getting a pinched puncture with the tube folding on its self.

The heavy duty tubes are thicker and heavier.

Just my opinion from experince

Think he means the heavy duty tubes ! Yes i would definetly recommend heavy duty tubes ,the bike weighs 200kg and dont lower the pressure below 18psi ,if you get the ultra heavy duty which i always use they are not for road use ,something to do with heat if your travelling at aconstant 80mph+ for miles and miles,i have used them for years and done quite a bit of road miles and many many offroad miles and never had any problems ,everyone around here uses the UHD tubes or mooses

Ok , thanks guys, think I will go for heavy duty ones then.

Having difficulty in tracking down a source for heavy duty inner tube for thre 130/80-17 rear. Dirtdikebitz, wemoto and others only seem to stock the 90/90-21 front. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Tim

These chaps might help.

http://www.sticky-stuff.co.uk/

That said,

- the OE tubes in mine are doing ok. I hit a rock on the Lakes weekend at 'enthusiastic' speeds - hard enough that I was worried I'd dinged the rim, let alone pinched the tube.

- similarly, I was wondering at the start of the year if I should put mousses or tubliss inserts in the tyres on my Enduro DRZ. In the end I didn't bother, and left the old tubes which were on it when I bought it. Dunno if they are normal or HD. Despite being run at (slow - but considerably faster than I ride trails) enduro pace at 10-15psi I haven't had a puncture in about 18 hours of racing this year.


Basically, I wouldn't bother. I'm more worried about picking up screws and other crap on the road than punctures from trail riding, and HD tubes won't help you with that.

If I start getting a lot of punctures I might change my mind :D

Mine survived 800+ miles or so hard riding in Portugal, as did 4 others, without any special treatment from HD tubes or fiddling with the pressure.

For the Pyrenees, normal tubes, at normal pressures will be fine.

The sidewall of the TKC was goosed by the end but not a single pinch puncture in 4000 miles (thats 5 bikes covering 800 miles), and we were riding some of the rocky stuff very fast...... I think I recal 70mph indicated during one 'spirited' section of track..... and a 40mph climb on large rocks (the size of footballs some of them).

I do run HD tubes in the TTR but then it does have to contend with some very muddy/boggy environments at times, so reducing the pressure does help. But I never suffered any issues with normal tubes either.

After 125,000 trouble-free miles on tubeless TKC80s on beemers I've had three punctures on tubed TKCs with the Tenere in 9500 miles in Morocco, two front and one rear.

The latest was in 40c shade temperatures, except there was no shade and I was 20 miles from tarmac. The sun was so strong I couldn't handle my tools without gloves.

So it's really important to me to find a better solution.

Have you had a look at these...

http://www.tubliss.co.uk/

Not cheap, but give you a rimlock and allow you to run without a tube...which means you can use a tubeless plug kit which you can do without taking the wheel out/breaking the bead.

What sort of punctures are you getting Tim

i've been told h/duty tubes can overheat with a lot of m/way work is this also correct.?

Apparently not, I couldn't see any inner tubes on their site.

Tubliss is not available for 17-inch rear.

1 thorn and 1 pinch on the front. The rear was unknown--I couldn't break the bead and after spending a very cold night sleeping rough in the open some kind guy drove off with the whole wheel and came back with it fixed.

I'd forgotten that...when I was looking it was with my DR-Z in mind, which is an 18" rear...17" version "on the way" apparently, whatever that means.

I run HD innertubes for over a year now and no problems whatsoever: no overheating ridin' highways(mostly 120/130kmh) and no punctures.
Greetz, Hans.

Well are the TKC80's any good and do they wear alright? I am riding out to Cameron's Corner in Oct and have bitten the bullet and ordered a rear TCK80 for the trip. (about 3000kms, desert sand, rock, hard pack and a little bitumen) I was using Dunlop 606's but cant seem to get more then 3500kms out of a rear.


TB650

I used 2 pairs of TKC's and they lasted around 5000 km, with most of the knobs gone at around 3000-3500 km. I heard people get almost 10000 km out of them but thats on the 150 rear tyre the big GS's use, and that is a much stronger tyre. If you don't mind the middle of the tyre being worn flat, you can probably drive it another 1000 km.

Depends how hard you ride. I did 6750 miles on my first set on a Tenere.

And 9000 miles on a 1200GSA around the UK, then to Senegal and back.