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Thumbs up for OUTEX ! (tubeless conversion kit)

115K views 160 replies 47 participants last post by  DomNineT 
#1 ·
It’s been 10 days since the conversion using the Outex-Kit. No complaints so far. No pressure drop.

See album for photos: BMW NineT Forum - huntsman's Album: Tubeless Conversion

Trying to take the tire off myself on SuperCheapTireChange table wasn’t the success I’d hoped for. Even though I cracked the bead all around on both sides – still the tire didn’t budge, the bead just didn’t want to slip over the rim. Took it to my friendly bike mechanic. They make it look so easy, no? Luckily, when putting the tire back on he mentioned how tuff/tight it was ... uh, good news for me ... at least not as weak a weakling as I had been telling myself.

So, thanks goes to some of you guys who mentioned their experiences good & bad, helped a bit with looking out for tricky bits. However, no real pity here for people complaining they don’t have the right tools or set-up to make sure the tape runs off the roll in a straight line. Two left hands & ten thumbs? Rushing it a bit? Is that you? Well, don’t blame Outex. Look at my tools, the grinder with flap-wheel is basically the most high tech tool I used. Closer inspection of the rubber liner (between rim/spoke heads & tube) showed it already had cuts & tears from the sharp edged spoke heads. It’s about 3mm (1/8”) thick and solid – where the Outex instructions recommended sanding down the heads ... they really meant it. Reinforced adhesive dots to provide additional wear reduction between spoke heads & double-sided-sticky-tape is a good idea (comes with the kit).

A little thought and care is needed for wheel/rim placement when putting on the sticky tape & top strip. I used a Black & Decker hobby work bench, jaws open wide enough for front rim, and rear rim sits nicely across the opening. You don’t want to have the rim doing its own thing or start rolling away ...

Very important: After sticky tape is put on (mustn’t forget the stickers on the spoke heads!), a screwdriver-handle is enormously helpful to mould the tape into the curve and ensure positive contact for the adhesive. Same procedure again after the top-tape has been installed.

Pumping the tire up to 3 bar o/night (only slightly more than manual’s recommended 36.3 PSI every day pressure) –WITHIN the HOUR – again assists positive contact and bonding of adhesive.

... bolt everything on again, reassemble ... test ride .... re-tighten (torque wrench) bolts ... and woooosh zoooom yaaaaay ...... :laugh: :laugh:

(now I can go and find something worthwhile to spend my approx. $3500 savings on ... wireless tire pressure monitoring system? ...)
:D

P.S.: Someone asked if our's has 'floating brake disk?' YES
P.P.S: the only specialist doohickey-tool I needed was a 22mm-in-hex-socket with 1/2" drive. Hard to get here ... shops must have just sold out when I got there. It'll be here in 2 weeks mate. Yeah right. Couldn't wait. WOULDN'T wait. An imperial bolt head (21.3mm) with a little weld added & sanded to perfect 22mm, welded onto a 1/2"hex socket did the trick for removal of BMW quick-change front axle. (see album)

I have a question for physicists and brainy people: According to Pascals Law, pressure is equal everywhere within a system (e.g. compressed air in a tire). Does that pressure (3 bar to take a round number) experience gravity? e.g: is 3 bar of pressure acting on an inner surface of a rotating wheel/rim - reduced by some factor as speed and centrifugal forces increase? Will the centrifugal force at some time/speed overcome the force of the 3 bar air pressure within the tire (not calculating the adhesive bond of the sticky tape) - and force the sealing tape to come off? What speed would that require?? (I hope the answer is nowhere near 230km/h ... or I'll have to rethink that fast-speed-slow-leak dilemma haha ;)
 
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#46 ·
.... +1, tires and rims are tubeless, it's only the spokes which make the tubes necessary. Outex did the trick for me, didn't lose any significant air pressure since installation (loose more when checking pressure). Nearly 10000km on the the rims now. It you go ahead, might be a good idea to also install those 83 degrees bent valves at the same time. Easy buy via eBay ....
 
#48 ·
OUTEX inspection at 9620km

Got a chance today to check how my OUTEX conversion is keeping up with everything (new Conti at front wheel).

- The OUTEX strip supplied for the front wheel is not too generous in width, meaning it's probably best to take good care when lining up the sticky tape in a straight line during application. One of my photo shows ONE tiny little crease which developed where air pressure pushed the tape closer to a spoke-head-recess, but not close to an area from where air could seep out. In any case - there was only that one, which is pretty good imo

- Replacement valve / 83 degree: I had ordered 2 from Ebay (standard size), but found that OEM rims need a long stemmed valve, because of the protruding lumpy spoke recesses on the outside of the rim. A standard valve can't fit in between and wont seal. So back to square one on that one. hmm

very happy with OUTEX, neat & clean finish. Good-oh
:)
 
#49 ·
Old thread but was recently referenced. You want the equations? :)


A=V^2/r


F=M*A


F=P/Area


So if you know radius, mass of tape, tire pressure, surface area of tape, and force to remove it, you are good.


LOL. I'm a physics geek. You need something like warp speed to fail. I think the tire would go first.
 
#51 ·
Outed works great and holds up. For me I decided on my own conversion kit using seal-all and 3M industrial tape. Over two months and only loss of air has been from 100-40 degree temperature changes.

PM me for info.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#52 ·
"Some guys on this forum talk about the vast difference of tire-deflation behaviour when punctured. I haven't experienced that myself ... can't comment on it."

Well I have experienced punctures on Tubeless bikes and this summer was unfortunate to experience a puncture on the NineT :( Their was NO difference in the deflation speed and the bike behaved as I have experienced in the past. It was the inconvenience of waiting for the recovery truck that did me. Tubeless are easy to repair roadside and I have given a lot of thought to going the Outex route. After reading this I think I will go for it over this winter:D
 
#55 ·
i had sealed wire wheels from american wire wheel for several years, even when hitting a bad offset in road construction + bending the chromed steel lip in a bit they still held air! pounded out the lip later + rode on, heavy but durable are quality chromed steel wire wheels
 
#56 ·
Fitting my kit tomorrow, looks like the spoke nipples needs some serious grinding to stand any chance of the tape sealing? Was also thinking of using the original rim tapes over the Outex to hold it well in place until I get the tyres back on. I am sceptical at the moment about Outex being able to perform consistently but I hope I am wrong.

Grinding head and flap wheel at the ready :)
 
#62 ·
Those valves included with the Outex kit fit fine, no problems with mine since installation. Agree on the shock factor, when discovering just how far those spoke heads protrude. But - can't be pretty without pain, get the grinder out, it's ok ...
 
#70 ·
Like billywhizzz, I too bought an Outex kit from Japan via Ebay and got stung with duties/taxes and additional postage.

I paid £86.04 for the kit, £19.85 post and packing, and then got shafted an extra £32.76 in import duties and handling, making a total of £138.65....which makes the kit that Kenko has seen for sale in a UK bike shop for £125 look like a good deal.

My kit didn't get to me quickly either.........it took about 3 days to get from Japan to the UK, but then spent TWO WEEKS stuck in a Swansea import depot before they finally could be bothered to inform me they were holding it, and payment was required to release it......and that was only after me chasing them to find out where the bloody **** it was!!!!! Grrrrrrrrr.
 
#71 ·
Like billywhizzz, I too bought an Outex kit from Japan via Ebay and got stung with duties/taxes and additional postage.

I paid £86.04 for the kit, £19.85 post and packing, and then got shafted an extra £32.76 in import duties and handling, making a total of £138.65....which makes the kit that Kenko has seen for sale in a UK bike shop for £125 look like a good deal.

Grrrrrrrrr.


Just checked, I paid £74 for the kit, £20 for the international postage (forgot about this...drrr) and £32 in duties, so based on my corrected numbers yes I would buy in the UK.
 
#72 ·
Took me about 30 mins to do both wheels this morning, the rear is easy, the front a little more difficult, that said I think without grinding domes off the nipples it would be far more difficult and sealing the front a real challenge.

The double sided tape is definitely best applied once as it really has a very strong adhesive on it that goes off quickly, I think the key is to apply the outer tape under a decent amount of tension and then go around the tapes several times making sure edges are sealed and again just before the tyres are fitted, I found the most difficult part cutting the stuff, I think the 'starting ends' are best cut at an angle with a sharp pair of scissors.

Future repairs or spoke access is questionable as the amount of spare tape supplied is very limited.

Why BMW fitted inner tubes is beyond me when they have a wire wheel design that runs tubeless (I guess many have puzzled over this one), probably came from the same dept that came up with run flat tyres :eek:
 
#73 ·
Took me about 30 mins to do both wheels this morning, the rear is easy, the front a little more difficult
I haven't fitted mine yet, as I'll probably wait until each of the boots need changing in turn, and do it then, which means the rear will be first.

Which is handy, as going on experience, the rear tyre of a roadgoing motorcycle is MUCH more likely to get a puncture than the front. That's because any sharp objects lying flat on the road surface get lifted and flicked-up by the front tyre and up into the path of the following rear tyre....hence why rear punctures are something like 20 times more common than fronts.

Also, the likelihood of punctures is increased when riding in wet weather, as the water acts as a lubricant which helps foreign bodies to penetrate the rubber more easily. Ohh errr missus.
 
#78 ·
True....just need to convince myself that it's worth doing, I've been running my bike with sealant in for the last3 months without any noticeable air loss.:)
 
#79 ·
I can appreciate your hesitancy Mr Kenko, but if you ended up stranded on the side of the road, with at worst with a ruptured inner tube, you'll probably wish you had spent £135 on the Outex kit.

But to my mind, the prime reason for going fully tubeless is safety........a tubed tyre will deflate almost instantly when punctured , meaning a loss of bike control is very highly likely (I speak from experience), whereas a puncture in a tubeless tyre will deflate slowly and so is much less likely cause a crash, and (if the foreign object has remained in the tyre) will probably stay inflated long enough to allow you to get home. If not, a tubeless 'plug' type repair is much quicker and easier to do on the roadside than having to remove the wheel/tyre to patch or replace a tube.

For those reasons, £135 is IMHO a small price to pay to lessen the risk of personal injury, or damage to my bike. ;)
 
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#80 ·
Can anybody tell me what 90deg valves they have purchased that fit the Oem wheels, I have just purchased a roll of tape that I think is exactly the same as the outex tape so will do a diy job and post it up. 16.5 metre roll = $65.00AU
Cheers.
 
#81 ·
... haven't found a suitable 90 or 47 deg valve yet. I bought a pair of valves from eBay, only to find (during tire change) that our R9T's rims require a longer valve stem to get past the nobbly bits where the spoke-heads recess into the rim internally. Tried to fit them, they were only a few smidgens too short ... haven't been seriously looking since, but got myself a tire-inflator-ball-chuck instead. Fitted to the inflator tip - works well to get into tricky tight spots.
NEW 1 4 Inch Ball Chuck Brass Tire Inflator AIR Line Compressor Tank Valve | eBay

btw, this Tire Plugger I ordered from Sierra BMW a few years back works amazingly well. Even fixed my 4WD tire yesterday.... makes me happier than the idea of roadside-pulling-off-of-wheels-&-tires-to-get-a-tube-repair-happening ever could .... just sayin' hehe
;) >:)
>>> 8 minute roadside repair: 4wd punctured (picked up a timber screw), jacked up to take weight off, removed valve to completely deflate tire, remove screw>ream out puncture hole>insert rubber plug into tool>plug hole>inflate tire>remove jack>done <<< great stuff, they make it sooooo easy!

1075- BMW R1150GS- Sierra BMW Online- Stop & Go The Tire Plugger - Tubeless Motorcycle Tire Repair Kit
 
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