Replacement Tires

[chief]

You have gotten good advice.

Modern street bike tires are all labeled "tubeless" nowadays. It is really, really hard to find a "tubed" tire. With Drifter spoke wheels you need to use the combination of rim strips, tubes and tubeless tires.

Since are rims are old time spoked rims there are a bunch of holes in the rim making tubes necessary. There are ways to plug up these holes and toss the tubes... but there are problems with that conversion. Some have replaced the spoke rims with other rims to allow for true tubeless operation.

One point to consider... tubed tires are less likely to have catastrophic blow outs. And, you can patch the tire and replace the tube with little reduction in safety, unless tubeless tires.

[Bucko]

And the rims can be modified to run tubeless.  I've never done it but a buddy of mine has done it (with good results) to his stock Yamaha rims and it's on my to-do list.

[tnttoolman]

Thank you.

[Old Drifter]

As a new Drifter owner I am a little confused.  The info on the forums seem to indicate that these bikes use tubes but the websites list tubeless.    Thanks

Yes the Drifter uses tubes. You can use tubeless tires. As CDNRatMan said it's a good idea to replace the rim strips and tubes when replacing the tires. As someone once said..."Tires are your life man".

[CDNRatMan]

If you are running stock rims then it has to be tube tires, my own I change the tires I change the tubes and the rim liners everytime, peace of mind issue for me.

[tnttoolman]

As a new Drifter owner I am a little confused.  The info on the forums seem to indicate that these bikes use tubes but the websites list tubeless.  1999 1500.  Any input to which tire you like best would be appreciated.  Bike currently has 12000 miles and has Bridgestone tires on it which I assume are original.  Thanks