Something odd happened to me yesterday, I went to get a new tyre put on one of wheels from my series 1 75 Sprint auto it'd had a tyre fitted without a tube previously that had a damaged bead seal and wouldn't hold air.
So I just dropped off the bare wheel and new tyre and the guy said he'd call me when it was done, fair enough.
So imagine my surprise when he calls me back a bit later and say's this isn't a tubeless rim. Of course it is, I scoff, all Sprint rims are tubeless. But he insists, so I go down for a peek and he's right, there's no sign of the ridges at the inner sides of the bead sealing flats that denote a tubeless rim. Moreover the hole for the valve doesn't look right either. Embarrassing! I have got him to get an appropriate tube and fit it.
Now i've not long had a set of new tyres fitted tubelessly without comment to a late Sprint's wheels and many others over the years and never noticed anything amiss about running tubeless, the couple of odd Sprint wheels I have lurking about both have ridges, 75 and 77 DOM respectively.
So i check the date on this abberation and its not clear but appears to be either 0 73 or 6 73, so a very early one regardless and when I look at all the other wheels on the car they all have tubes fitted (haven't checked their dates yet though i'm assuming they are equally early)
So is this a thing? I've had limited dealings with early cars, did they really enter production with tubed tyres fitted? Anyone else got any early rims without tyres on they can check? It seems to me to be a bit odd, but then Triumph were experimenting with the Sprint on alloys and did several other thing oddly, like the nut design, alloy nuts and no steel inserts in this early wheel either. Maybe they had limited faith in the wheel's ability to hold air when tubeless?
In all my years on this forum i've never noticed it mentioned, is it known by anyone?
Confused of Highley
_________________ '73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!
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