Tubed or tubeless?

Is there Slime or such like for motorbikes? This will help me choose to either buy an old tiger 955 with spoked wheels, or spend some more, to get an alloy wheeled tubeless version. Are tubes that scary? Is there truth in the fact that tubeless deflate slower, and safer? Not so for MTB tyre I find.

Your help and views will obviously be great!

I've got spoked wheels and tubes on my harley. Dont think I can tell much, if any, difference to bikes I've owned in the past. If you prefer the look of spoked wheels, or want to save yourself some money, I'd say go for it.

On the bottle I had, Slime was recommended only for dirt bikes, which may *actually* mean tubed tyres.

I'm not sure how it affects wheel balance when travelling at speed.

wheel balance is a good point! I wonder if there any high speed versions?

You get various liquid puncture sealants for motorcycles. It will not affect wheel balance as its a liquid thus distributes around the wheel. Some claim to improve wheel balance. I used som on my BMW – fine up to 130mph

tubeless does deflate slower than tubed when its a nail or similar in the tyre. A tube can split once punctured, tubeless the air slowly leaks out.

Modern motorcycle tyres rarely get punctures – you can actually get puncture proof guarantees now

Thanks TJ

ooh
are the spoked rims on a Tiger 955 fitted with tubes?
My Beemer is spoked but is tubeless…

The worst (quickest) puncture I had was on the rear of an XT500 20 yrs ago, when a spoke broke and when through the rubber band and into the tube more or less instantly deflating it! 😯

Ultraseal is a popular one. It's quite like Stans etc except with much bigger lumpy bits. I used to use it, had a couple of minor punctures which it saved and one big one which it possibly made less horrible. But I didn't like the feeling of extra weight, and it was a pain when tyre changing time came. (nb, this was on proper solid wheels not overgrown bicycle wheels, I used it only for the puncture protection)

Not really sure if it was worthwhile or not, punctures aren't common after all. I carry patches and CO2 cans now instead, only ever had to use one.

Used ultraseal on my ducati, saved me once or twice, definately recomend it if you don't mind the mess when it comes to changing tyres.