Login

I forgot my password? Create account
Shop Wheels
Inner Tubes and Rim Chafing Strips

Inner Tubes and Rim Chafing Strips

Inner Tubes with Metal Valve on Side
Inner Tubes with Metal Valve on Side
Especially with wide tires, it is an advantage if the tire valves are accessible from the side. The rims for this are usually drilled in such a way that the valve holes are located in the rim center near the spoke nipples, but the valve holes exit to the side.
more …
Inner Tubes with Metal Valve in Center
Inner Tubes with Metal Valve in Center
The commonmost place for tire tube valves is in the center of the rim, just between two groups of four nipples each. As the valves stick out straight towards the spoke crossing points, it may be difficult to place a standard gas station filler head. On the other hand, wheels with this type of valve location are easy to balance.
more …
Inner Tubes with Rubberised Valve on Side
Inner Tubes with Rubberised Valve on Side
If you have one of the classic 16” drop center rims with this awful big valve hole showing to the side, here's you inner tube. The valve stem has conical shape and is held in its hole only by air pressure. A big advantage of these tubes is that the valve stem hardly will be ripped off by tire movements. Unlike with metal valve stems that are held by shallow nuts any unwanted movement of the tire on the rim will be indicated by a slanted valve stem. Then check your tire pressure and praise rubber valve stem.
more …
Inner Tubes with Rubberised Valve in Center
Inner Tubes with Rubberised Valve in Center
There are also inner tubes for 19” rims with a 10.5 mm valve hole that make a nut on the tire valve unnecessary. The slim valve stem with 10 mm diameter is held in the rim hole by air pressure. This system without a nut shows when the inner tube is moved by the tire carcass (which regularly happens if the tire pressure is too low).
more …
Rim Chafing Strips
Rim Chafing Strips
The inner tubes of the widely used clincher tires up until the late 1920s were protected by the tire itself, whose side beads were placed between the tube and the rim.
When Harley-Davidson introduced the tires with wires in their beads that are still in use today, the balloon tires as they were called at the time, a solution was needed to protect the tube against friction and damage from the spoke nipple heads: a wide rubber strip was laid inside the rim. A nipple may be perfectly deburred, but even the slot and the threaded hole alone can render a tube useless.
Chafing strips are available in various diameters and widths, and for different valve hole positions.
more …

Tubes

The patent for the pneumatic tire was registered in 1888 by the well-known Mr Dunlop. However, his invention only really became practical with a development by a certain Édouard Michelin in 1889, i.e. one year later. He designed Dunlop's pneumatic tire in two parts, with a tread (we say tire today) and a tube inside as the actual air reservoir. This made the cover and tube independent of each other and separately repairable and replaceable: an immense service advantage.

What's the job of the air in the tire

The tire has to be flexible and at the same time guide the wheel. It also needs to absorb shocks, but without bouncing uncontrollably on the road surface. That’s why the suspension has to be slightly damped. The compressed air inside the tube allows the tire to perform all three of these jobs at once. Since a tire on a wire-spoked rim cannot hold the air by itself, the air is “trapped” inside a rubber tube. The tube is inflated through a valve, and the main differences between individual tubes are found in the position and design of this valve — and of course in the size.

New motorcycle tire = new inner tube

Inner tubes age just like tires. And when the tire is replaced after a few thousand kilometers, it's time for the inner tube, too. Because with an old inner tube, the likelihood of a flat tire increases significantly. And in relation to the effort and possible damage, the price of a new inner tube really does not matter. W&W Cycles' range of replacement inner tubes for Harley-Davidson motorcycles includes all versions for the W&W tire range, with metal valves and rubber-covered ones, for different positions in the rim bed.

Rim tapes

These are the inserts that keep the tube from contacting the spoke nipples on tubular tires. Nipples have a slot to allow them to be fitted more quickly. Despite all the care taken by the wheel tensioner, the inner tube can rub against the head of the nipple and injure it. To prevent this from happening, take rim tapes. In addition, good rim tapes also seal the area around the nipple heads, so that less moisture can penetrate. Suitable rim tapes are available at W&W Cycles for center and side valves in the common diameters 16", 18" and 19" in various widths.

Have any questions?

Our service team will be glad to help out: Mondays - Thursdays 08:00-17:00 CET, Fridays 08:00-16:00 CET, Phone: +49 / 931 250 61 16, eMail: service@wwag.com