valveless tires
 

I bought a bike not long ago and today I decided to give it a quick tune. When i went to pump up the tires i noticed they have no valve stems. the wheels are stock 27x1.25 so nothing special, the front tire is a trek branded tire and the rear is an LHR ridgeryder. Any idea what these tires are and how i can put air in them?

pics please.

Airless "foam" inner tubes, maybe??

dont think it is foam filled because it feels like there is air in it. took some pictures of the fron and rear wheels.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=266183http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=266184http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=266185http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=266186

Remove one tire and find out.

+10 The answer is right in front of you. Why are you asking the Internet?

I cant get a tire lever in there because it has air in it. iv been try to find out about these tires/tubes but i cant find anything. Thats why i came to bike forums to get a question answered

does that answer your question colonelJLloyd?

So how will you fix a flat on the road**********????

Yes. My advice is to stick something sharp in the valve hole and deflate it. I'm guessing that somehow the valve found it's way inside the rim.

I don't subscribe to "ignorance is bliss"; I'd have to find out what's going on and wouldn't ride it until I did.

+1
The only plausible explanation I can imagine.

Q: If you lost your contact lenses in the living room, why are you searching in the kitchen?
A: Because the light is better in here.

well when you look into the valve hole it looks like fabric is covering the hole. the tires have ~60 psi in them so i cant see the valve getting sucked in like if it were a flat tire. there is no valve so i cant just deflate the tire. looks like my only choice is to pop the tube ans see what i have going on here

Yep, it'll only cost a patch and a little glue to find out. Or cost nothing if it is one of those crazy airless tubes.

Pop that sucker!

If it is flat then there wont be air in it and he can get his tire levers to work. I dont think you could get your tire levers to work on an inflated tire either.

I wouldn't recommend that. Have you checked ebay prices for NOS air lately?

What I really wonder about is how somebody got those things on the rims in the first place, whatever they are!

Do they have tiny inflation valves like, say, a football?

There was a company that would take your wheel and fill it with high pressure silicone foam way back. One way to find out without destructive testing would be to weigh the front wheel and compare it to a similar tubes wheel, I bet these wheels are heavy.

Anyone remember when that tire was last topped up with air, If nobody can remember doing so, then it's not air in there as it would have leaked through the innertube quite a bit by now and that tire should be soft enough to find out that it's air in there.
As for the valve slipping into the rim's valve hole and dissapearing between the tire and tube, I think it will take quite a bit of force and time to get it to move that far by just riding the wheel on a bike so you do not see any sign of it from the valve hole....highly unlikely that happened then.......Unless that wheel is haunted and cursed or something........ I still vote for some sort of solid foam " flatless inner tube" of some sort.....

Chombi

Looks like it's probably time for new tires anyhow. Pop 'em and ditch 'em.

They don't look very flat. Give it a ride and see?

Curious. (Me, that is)

Bearjew, so did you ever find out what kind of tires those were? Reason for me asking is because I just bought a bike last night and noticed the same thing, the tires do not have any valves. I'm in need of your wisdom.

Gah! Why did you bump this? Now I'm curious and my curiosity will never be sated!

I've got the same thing going on with a MTB tire I was given in a pile of junk parts almost 2 year ago. It feels like it has about 50psi in it, and has since day one. In the interest of science I will now proceed to slice off a section on my bandsaw and show the results. The rubber is all cracked and dried out, anyway. I postulate that it has some sort of foam rubber filling in it, as repechge suggested. The wheel weighs about 6.5 lbs, as compared to a nearly identical one I've got tipping the scale at 4lbs.
http://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif


http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d.../photo-125.jpghttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gifhttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

Sho' nuf: it's regular bike tire, filled with some kind black foam, I'd say about the same density as the stuff they make those interlocking shop floor mats out of, or maybe just a little stiffer.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d.../photo-126.jpg

The wheel rides a little lumpy now, however :P