TKC 80 Pressure in Sand

[Triton]

Hi All,

Curious on opinions and/or experience on tyre pressures people run in sand?

I'm running TKC80's on an 1150 GSA and it will be loaded for touring. The route we plan to do requires crossing desert sand dunes and areas of soft sand around Lake Eyre Australia.

Around town I'm running the pressures as per the BMW manual recommendations and just got 7000km+ out of the rear - so that seems to work!

I was thinking for the trip of dropping to around 26 psi for the gibber plan roads and perhaps 18psi for sand??? There is absolutely no science behind these numbers I just thought they kinda sound nice

So, I would be really interested of anyone's actual "in-the-dirt" experience (good and bad) and/or recommendations

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mouse]

This may or may not be relevant, but I've used TKCs on an F650GS at 15psi in the dirt, with pretty good results. Those were tubed tyres though, I'm not sure if tubeless would be happy at that pressure.

I also put some massive cable ties around the rims to act as rim locks, although whether this did any good I can't say. The tyres didn't move on the rims though

Thinking about it, for a fully loaded 1150, 18psi is probably about as low as you'd want to go.

 

[Vern]

I've had mine down to 15psi,and the bead broke after a lot of tyre creep. I would have thought you could run that pressure quite happily with a tube fitted,and a rim lock as well.Like you said,it's not an exact science,so suck it and see is the best bet before you leave.

Mouse.I like the idea of the big cable ties,did you get a hint whether it worked or not?

 

[Nin]

I'm just going through the same thought process - why have tubeless when I want to run rim-locks and low pressures (but for mud, not sand in my case). And then pump 'em up again for road work.

Has anyone done an affordable conversion to a tubed rim? the price of Excel rims is a bit shocking!

What are the real-world implications of not using tubeless tyres?

Nin

 

[Mouse]

Vern - hard to say really, I don't really want to possibly shred a set of inner tubes doing a comparison test It did look as though the tyres might have crept a small amount before the ties stopped them - that might just be wishful thinking though. If I carry on using the 650 for off road work I may well drill the rims and for rim locks, but the cable ties do look kinda rufty-tufty

Nin - is there any reason not to put a tube on a tubeless rim? You wouldn't be able to use a rim lock on the BMW tubeless rims due to the shape being wrong but you could try the cable tie idea

You can just see the cable ties on the front wheel in this shot (of me doing my feet up super slow control trials god riding demonstration )

 

[Vern]

Ah,tree roots and polished wet stones,my favorite

Has anyone tried a rim lock on a tubeless Mbw rim at all?

 

[Nin]

yeah baby! I recognise that pose.

I've run tubed tyres on a tubeless rim on my airhead but I couldn't find a rimlock to fit (I didn't try very hard) Mainly cos I didn't want to drill a tubeless rim.

But the rims on my 11 are kncakered so I wos thinking about lacing some tubed rims onto the hubs. Including a 21" front - but I haven;t mesured to check it'll fit yet.

Nin

 

[Mouse]

Has anyone tried a rim lock on a tubeless Mbw rim at all?

I haven't tried but the cross section of the two types of rims is so different I can't see how it would work. The BMW tubeless rims are pretty much flat whereas a standard rim has a "well" where the spokes are attached. And a rim lock is shaped to fit this "well".

Obviously it might be possible to make rim locks shaped for tubeless rims.

 

[Nin]

the cross section of the two types of rims is so different

Like Mouse said - that explains why I couldn't find a rimlock that would fit.

 

[Vern]

There'll be someone somewhere who knows where to find them I bet!

Let the search begin

 

[Nin]

There'll be someone somewhere who knows where to find them I bet!

Let the search begin

You could whittle some from a block of unobtanium for us ...