2021 Guzzi V7 Special

[Ollie]

Dirt bikes, dual sports and adventure bikes that see dirt - riders seem to prefer tubes so they can air down without fear of loosing the bead like you would with a a tubeless tire.

So it seems to me you're complaining about a feature - not a bug. And there is a fix, convert to tubeless (notice I didn't say it was a cheap fix....).

If one considers an inner tube to be that much of a feature on their V7 street bike (or GS) they can always use one inside their tubeless tires. Not many feel this way though and unfortunately it doesn't work the other way around.

Honestly, I had tubes in my 2003 Triumph Bonneville. I put 40,000 miles on it and never had a problem. I believe my brother also has them on his 2016 Bonneville and he has ridden his on our out of state Men's Fall Trips for the last 6 years and it has never been an issue, but I can see where it possibly could. I'd rather have tubeless but I could live with tubes. I live with a chain (2 actually) when I'd rather have a shaft.

And I hope you never do, but if/when you do it will be much more involved to get going again. Also consider the implication of a blow-out while riding 70 mph in 5-6 lanes of wall to wall beltway traffic.

Here's my last three flats, two of them were unfortunately on tube tired bikes, a KLR down in Dolly Sods and my 2016 Africa twin where I could not have been more fortunate. On the Africa Twin I was just pulling out from gassing up when I noticed the front scoot around and thought I must have run over spilled oil or coolant. When it continued for a few more feet I knew it was a deflated front tire and pulled off. I had no luggage on the bike on this day ride so no tools or spare inner tube. BUT two business down the road was the Honda dealer and they were still open for another hour, so I pushed the bike there. The service manager said everyone was tied up and all the lifts were occupied but if my bike had a center stand (it did) he'd fix it for me himself.
When he got it done I asked to see the nail or whatever punctured the tube. He said there was no puncture and showed me where the tube had just worn through from roughness against the inner tire. The bike had just over 3,000 miles and I never ran low PSI, they were the original tires that came on it with at least 1/2 tread remaining. He said he's seen this a few times where tube type tires that are supposed to be polished inside were not (or not very well) and left rough, which slowly abrades the tube. He said it's usually on street and larger dual sport / adventure bikes that are capable of higher speed because the manufacturers often spec thin tubes for them as not to generate as much extra heat. He said the heavy duty tube he used should be ok for the rest of the life of that tire.

The tubeless flat occurred on the rear of my 2020 KTM Duke. I noticed the rear tire was flat when the bike was in my garage. It almost had to have picked up the screw on the last time I had it out which was in November but leaked down so slowly it wasn't even noticed until over a month later.