Topic: Lester rims - tubes or tubless

[Scott]

Hi there

Are Lester rims OK to run with out tubes.

When I get a flat tyre on my spoke wheels it's a bit of a hassle getting the tyre off the rim to patch or replace the tube.

On a ride last year a had punctures in both front and rear.

Thanks
Scott

[Bankerdanny]

Scans of brochures from way back when another member posted months back specifically state that they are tubeless.

In the case of the Lesters on my 550 they are specifically labeled TL for tubeless.

So you should be able to go tubeless on yours.

[Whaleman]

I have Lesters that I bought in 1977 and the papers with them said it had to have a tube. Maybe they changed the bead design later. Dan

[MoMo]

My recollection is the Lesters from the 70's required a tube.

[slikwilli420]

I run tubes in mine and have not had an issue.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Technically, the tubeless models are marked TL.  I've heard of people running tubes in Lesters regardless of marks/no marks with no problems. 

[Bankerdanny]

Mine may actually have tubes in them, the stems don't look like the tubeless type. When I put on new tires though I plan to run tubeless. But again, mine are both marked as TL type.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Mine are TL and I run them without tubes:

[Garage_guy_chris]

this is cool because i was gonna start basically the same thread as i am also working on recommissioning a set of Lesters. Interestingly I bought a set of 750 Lesters back in january then about a month ago i found a second  front wheel mis-listed on the local classifieds so i picked it up too. So in total i have 1 rear 750 specific one and 2 fronts.   

here is the interesting thing I found when i got the old #$%*ty tires off them....Now don't mind the naked-ness of my lesters they are awaiting paint. Both wheels are marked the same saying Lester T 19 X 2.15 TL 001. The TL suggesting they are both Tubeless fitment but looking at the bead seats they are different? The one on the left has what i believe what is refereed to as a "safety bead" with the ridge where the inner bead will sit while the other has a more typical smooth bead seen on a factory type tube rim. Doing a little research also suggests that the wheel on the right may not be the proper bead type to safely run tubeless. The other interesting thing is the front rear set was mixed types, The rear has the safety bead ridge and the front is the smooth type.  The other odd front is the front with the safety bead.   For me the other odd front was in better condition too so im gonna switch the fronts so both the front and rear are safety bead type






Oh the other problem I came across was if you wanna run the Lesters Tubeless what valve stems will work, Standard Car / Bike stems are too large. Harley Davidson style are also too large. I ended up going to 3 different shops which scratched there heads and or said it was an old dead standard of a stem. So i went to go visit an older shop where the guy behind the counter is a yoda of all things old motorcycle and he was even a little stumped. He went in the back and grabbed a bin of valve stems and said "here look through this there should be something in here" Sure enough a little rooting through and I turned up these Yamaha Stems that to me look like they will fit the bill quite nicely. they are a little smaller  in diameter than the rim hole but I think they will work just fine

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

My rims were NOS and came with stems so I'm not sure.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Didn't pay THAT much attention to mine. I took them to a Honda shop to mount and they decided to use tubes. They seemed stumped about stems for tubeless so maybe they took the easy road.