Need some advice please, I've just bought a couple of Continentals for my 1100GS, gone to put them on only to find that tubeless tyres can't be removed by hand.I had loads of punctures with tubes in Oz so this problem hadn't occured to me. Would you recommend tubed or tubeless for a two up BMW riding through Africa? If it's tubeless is there a method for changing them by hand? If not am I right to assume it's just a matter of changing the tyres when circumstances dictate i.e. when your in a town with a tyre garage.

Thanks for your time,

Adrian Greygoose.

Adrian, tubeless "can" be removed by hand - it's just really really difficult, and it would help a lot to be very good at it with tube-type first.

Have a look at the thread "Flat Tire - Repair Kits" (just moved to this forum) at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000082.html

I think you'll find what you need there.

Also see: http://www.netrox.net/~dali/prod/tirepair.htm

re: "you recommend tubed or tubeless for a two up BMW riding through Africa?" I'd run tubeless until I HAD to put a tube in because the tire is damaged too much to hold air.

Try not to need to replace tires until in a major centre. Even then tires of the appropriate spec may be hard to come by.

For two-up, we run a STREET hard-wearing touring tire on the back, this got us through Africa on the one tire. (Metzeler ME88 Marathon, no longer available, replaced by ME880)

A ContiForce on the back and an Enduro Pro on the front would be a good pairing. At least that's what I'm going to use next.

ymmv.

Remember that you aren't going to be doing any hero stuff in the dirt with a passenger and load of luggage, and the extra weight will probably more than make up for any loss of traction using a street tire.

See the Conti UK website for more info http://www.conti-tyres.co.uk/contibike/

Note that adding a tube to a tubeless tire decreases the speed rating by one.


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I run tubeless tyres on my GS and also carry a spare tube for the rear tyre as it usually wears much faster than the front and therefore seems more prone to damage. I have had to repair the tyre (impact damage as opposed to a puncture) several times in the bush and as you have probably gathered the hardest part is to break the bead. Having struggled for many hours to do this on my own my preferred technique is to remove the wheel then find somewhere shady to sit down and wait until the next vehicle comes along. Beg the use of their jack to remove the tyre from the rim (by placing tyre on ground under the vehicle and putting the jack between the two. This works well. The next difficulty is re-inflating the tyre after the repair. Without a reasonable volume of compressed air the only way I have found to do this is to use the tube to force the tyre back on the rim.
It all sounds a big hassle - and it usually is - but I have found that more often than not punctures in the tubeless tyres can be repaired without dismounting the wheel or removing the tyre anyway.
For what it's worth I also rate long service life as a more valuable tyre attribute than off-road grip for adventure motorcycling.

I would advice on tubed tyres. Getting the tubeless filled with air again (and not with sand and stuff) is a major problem.

There is a way however, but it needs some practice on an old tyre.
Put the tyre on the weel, spray "diesel-quick start" in the tyre and light it. The explosion will force the tyre around the hub and fill it in he same time. We used to do this on out 4X4's. But practice first as to howmuch stuff to spray in. To little and you have to do it again, to much and you don't need to do it again, but go look for an other tyre.
Maybe just stick to tube-tyres?

Maarten

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