Inner tubes

[Wangler]

I decided to buy some new tyres for my rather nice 4.5 x 14 FPS wheels. After about 15 miles I had a flat! Grrr. Not much fun on a steepish hill but I didn’t want to risk ruining a new tyre by driving it further. There was no sign of penetration of the tyre itself, but the inner tube had a crease in it resulting in a clean 2 inch split.

The people who fitted the tyres and tubes were very good about it but pointed out that the only tubes they would ever recommend are Michelin. (I had supplied the tubes and tyres from a classic car tyre specialist and my local tyre people fitted them).

I then asked a friend I know and respect at a small specialist which restores Alfas, Porsches and Pagodas. The first thing he said was that they would only recommend Michelin inner tubes and that the ones made in the Far East were never worth the risk. They once had their Mercedes 190 sustain 3 punctures on a run to Italy with Chinese inner tubes and learned their lesson the hard way.

Anyway I’ve had all the inner tubes replaced with Michelin today at about double the price and am confident that they’ll do the job well. I got them from Longstone tyres who also strongly recommended Michelin and they arrived the day after I ordered them.

I hope that anyone buying inner tubes will learn from my very irritating experience.

[Waka]

What is the tyre make ?

[Wangler]

165/80R14 DUNLOP SPORT CLASSIC

[lancialulu]

If the tyre is not classed as tubed (ie tubless) the inner wall may have ribbing that interfers with tubes and can cause tubes to fail. This was common 20 years ago. I have never run a tubeless tyre with tubes as a result…

[Wangler]

Fair point, however I am told by the suppliers that these tyres are used a lot on MGBs with wire wheels (obviously with tubes) and although they are stamped "tubeless" they were designed with tubes in mind. They haven't caused any issues apparently and are relatively smooth inside. Indeed it used to be a problem many years ago when the insides of the tubed tyres were often smoother than tubed.

[Mihran]

I run michelins with tubes, very happy with them.
Just replaced my front tyres as I'm worn them through (25'000 miles in he last 8 years!)


https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/michelin-classic-tyres/xas/165r14-michelin-xas.html

[Wangler]

Just confirmed by Goodyear tech guy (Dunlop and Goodyear merged a couple of yeas ago) that they should be fine.

[chriswgawne]

Showing my age, my first holiday job at 14 yrs old was as a tyre fitter - this was 1964 - and I did it every holiday until I was 16 yrs old when I got a better paid job in a factory (which I subsequently bought but that's a separate story).
Back then tubeless tyres had  become much more common but many common tyre sizes were still stocked in tubed and tubeless type
Woe betide if you fitted the wrong type on a customers wheel. Tubed type on a tubeless wheel wouldn't stay inflated and tubeless with a tube on a tubed wheel was a sackable offence!
These days, particularly on wire wheels one fits tubes in a tubeless tyre as a matter of course.
Chris