tires and tubes

R

rgk

New Member
Just bought a new set of Bridgestone Trailwings for a CT70 K3 I am putting together but i also need tubes. Can you tell me should the tubes have the angled stem or straight stem? My bike had straight stem tubes and I am sure they are original however I read on some parts suppliers sights that the angled stems are "just like originals"
Which do I want?

Thanks
 
cjpayne

cjpayne

Well-Known Member
The straight stems. Usually I can salvage the originals, but they take alot of careful cleaning and have to be tested. I will often inflate them some to get the rest of the embedded rust off. If inflated too far with embedded rust, it will tear the tube.
The angled stems most often will hit the rear hub stabilizer and sheer off part of the cap. IMO, I dont like the way they look either.
I guess, if you had to use them, you could try having them stick out on the chain side, but I've never tried that and dont know if it would hit anything.
 
Gary

Gary

Well-Known Member
Angle threaded stem tubes were used on the 50's for sure I'm guessing because of the wheel to brake clearance on the 8" wheels. The 70's not having that problem. I got a 8" tube from kirrbby that had a fair amount of rust on it. I put it in my bead blast cabinet to clean the stem and found that it removed the stuck on rust easily,they look almost new.
 
6

69ST

Well-Known Member
Never have the stem on the chain side, that's asking for problems. I've had some angled stem clearance issues but, they've been limited to the cap lightly clipping the brake stay. That's addressable, with a little tweakage to the stay assembly and cap. Mostly, there's minimal clearance but clearance nonetheless.

With old tubes, be mindful of the aging. Geriatric tubes become weak & crunchy, just much more slowly and less obviously than tires. Many of them should be okay, personally I'm uncomfortable with the thought of 40-50 year old tubes keeping the bike upright. IMHO, if you really must have straight stems and want to ride, mo`better to bite the bullet on fresh new tubes...they should last just as many decades as the originals.
 
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