What’s the difference between a tubed and a tubeless tyre?

The difference is down to the tyre’s construction.

Motorcycles evolved from bicycles and a lot of the bicycle technology mades its way over too. Back in the day, on motorbikes and bicycles, all you could run were tyres with tubes everything predominantly had spoked rims and no-one had developed the technology to seal off the spoke heads so that air couldn’t escape.

Inner tubes were the solution.

In the motorcycle world this also had an added benefit, as the manufacturers could make a harder compound for the inner tube, that would be better at retaining air and then focus on a softer, grippy compound for the actual tyre, to provide the best blend of mileage, grip and road-holding.

The big issue with a tube always was – and still is to an extent – a puncture. The rapid deflation of the tyre when the tube is punctured can be dangerous, especially if it’s on your front wheel (fortunately, motorcycle front wheel punctures are fairly rare).

That’s the main reason the tubeless tyre was developed and rapidly gained popularity. The early tubeless tyres were essentially a standard tyre but with the inner tube material stuck to the inside wall of the tyre in a single airtight layer. Yes, spokes would still be an issue but this tubeless innovation meant that spoked wheels could be ditched in favour of one-piece cast wheels which were far more airtight.

Tubeless tyres can still get punctured by a nail or screw or other sharp object but unlike a tube, a tubeless tyre doesn’t tend to deflate as quickly, as the object either stays stuck in the tyre’s carcass or the tyre squashes around the hole and slows the loss of pressure, so that a puncture doesn’t become a ‘blow-out’.

So, even today, the main difference between a tubed and tubeless tyre is an additional layer of rubber material on the inside of the tyre’s carcass. If a tyre is a ‘tube type’ then it won’t have a tubeless liner, so it won’t properly hold air on its own – you’ll need a tube. The vast majority of tyres are tubeless but you can run tubes in most tubeless tyres if you so desire.