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MG MGA - Tubeless tyres

I have been told that I should not be running tubeless tyres with tubes in. Is this correct and if so why? Turning the question round, has anybody fitted tubeless tyres to original MGA wheels?

Thanks for your time, John
tables1

I have run tubes in tubeless tyres since 1989 with no problems whatsoever. The tyres have been changed every 8 years or thereabouts, tubes as well.

Tyre brands I have used: Michelin, Firestone, Vredstein. Tubes were always no name.
dominic clancy

I have no experience but what I have heard a long time ago is that tube tires are smooth inside,tubeless tires have small ridges on their inside which chafe the tube leading to a leak
gary starr

Much the same as Dominic, but since 1998.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Me too, since 2001 and back in the early 70s as well.
Shane
Shanerj

Yep
Tubes in my Elan since mid 70s
Had a few sets of tyres since, but if memory serves me correctly most if not all the tubes would be the originals from then and still going well
Never had a problem
I can remember when I first bought the tubes there were different tubes for conventional or radial tyres
The radial tubes (I got Pirelli as they were King at the time)were lower profile and were patterned on the outside - The guy said they should last forever, I think he might have been right
willy

I think the most important thing to remember is to have a good tube protector to cover the ends of the spokes on wire wheels A couple of laps around the rim with some good fibreglass reinforced tape does the job nicely

Off subject a bit but, On my son's racing bike he runs 180/200psi in the tyres and we found with this high pressure on his tube type tyres the tube pushes the tube protector down in the spoke holes causing little cherries to form on the tube and then bang--but by using the fibreglass tape everything stays in place and the tube lives on
Useless piece of info but interesting---
willy
William Revit

Tyres and Tubes on spoke wheels.
It has nearly all been said in the above--BUT--- no mention is made of the adhesive metal I.D. tags that will be adhered to the inside of the new tyres.
Be sure to remove these---The Tyre Guy will be too lazy to remove them.
You will have a puncture after 1,500 miles, if you ignore this.
Experience counts.
Cheers from Sunny Queensland. Australia. The place to be.
I.W. Cowen.

There are tubes for bias ply and tubes for radials. The radial tubes are what you want for use in modern tubeless tires. They are tougher, and the seams are constructed differently to deal with the higher heat caused by tire/tube friction in radial tires.
Steve Simmons

I ran tubeless tires with tubes in my MGB in the 70s and my MGA today. You need tubes for wire wheels, and tube-type tires are almost impossible to find. Can you even get tube-type radials?
David Breneman

The NEW wire wheels from MWS (and maybe other manufacturers) have a recommendation that tubes not be used! They actually come with tubeless valves, and the insides of the rims are smooth sealed with some sort of sealant.
Gary Lock

In the later days of tubed tyres being reasonably available I was told they only made tubeless tyres, economy of manufacturing, and they roughened the edges on the ones they would then sell cheaper as tubed tyres. This may be folklore but ...

Paul
Paul Dean

You can still buy tube-type tires, but not from "normal" tire stores. You have to go to a specialty tire seller. I'm not sure I would actively seek them out, as there is no real advantage.
Steve Simmons

Tubeless tires work fine. As other had already said just use the correct type of tube with them and if you are running wire wheels make sure that you have the rubber ban that fits inside the flat of the rim in place.
Keith Lowman

This thread was discussed between 03/10/2016 and 10/11/2016

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