Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My experience of XAS tyres was back in the late 60's or early 70's.

On my S3 coupe, I found them fantastic in the dry and utterly useless in the wet, the lack of grip in the wet scared me and I changed them for Dunlop Sports long before the XAS were worn out.

Hi Bill,
i know what you mean, i prefered the Dunlop Aquajet also back in the 60s and 70s.

I understand the XAS FF are softer so it seems the FF is different.

For sure Elans need a soft Tyre
Alan

ps but i did have XAS on my 1964 Austin Cooper S that used to like to destroy Tyres with me at the Wheel

I have been put off by the XAS requiring inner tubes--when I have wire wheels I can understand that but with alloy wheels?

The cost and the weight are not justified!

Why Tubes are needed is because on original Lotus Wheels and that includes the alloy ones there is no safety bead
Alan

Alan, Adverts for XAS say tubes are required-no mention of Lotus wheels.
(As I recall...)

But we're on the lotus forum talking about Lotus cars and fitting XAS FF to them.
Have a look In the Lotus Workshop Manuel it says Tubes are required. Lotus Wheels (alloy or steel) do not have the safety bead to stop the Tyres moving on the Rim which can cause the same effect as a blow out on hard cornering.
Take a look at past archives there's lots about it.
Alan

Alan, I would estimate that since as many as 50% of Elans and Plus 2s are on other than original wheels your point is moot. According to this list of sizes from Michelin all but 14" XAS require tubes--that is unnecessary expense and weight--and stopped me from using them:
https://classic.michelin.com/en/Classic-Tyre-range/XAS

Hi David,
as you like i was just trying to point out why Lotus said fit tubes and why.
It seems to me very high 50% of Elans are running on different Wheels than original. In my 40+ years of working on Elans i've only seen a few running on different wheels than original. Then they they are in general Minilte reproductions which have the safety bead so can run without Tubes. I wonder how the weight of original steel wheels with tubes compare to reproduction miniltes without tubes.

Maybe i'm stuck in a Time Warp running my Sprint on original Wheels with Tubes and a Lotus replacement galvanised Chassis.

Anyway have fun and good driving Alan

I would have thought that the main reason for tubed tyres was that the steel wheels are two-part construction with the rims riveted to the spokes. The rivets would not necessarily be air tight.

billwill wrote:I would have thought that the main reason for tubed tyres was that the steel wheels are two-part construction with the rims riveted to the spokes. The rivets would not necessarily be air tight.

Yes, but Lotus say fit Tubes to the Lotus alloy Wheels also (no rivets)
Alan

That's interesting Alan..

I have tubeless on my Lotus alloys and no problems so far.

The safety Bead is to stop the Tyre moving away from the outside of the Rim and loosing the seal.
Take a look at modern Wheels and you will see they all have a Safety Bead moulded/formed in the Rim. I'm sure it's there for a very good cause.
Have a look at past posts on the forum there's lots on the subject which repeats itself with newbies

Lotus Elan 4 Owners Handbook page 40 Dunlop SP Sport with tubes, Goodyear G800 with tubes, Firestone F100 no tubes

Lotus Elan +2 Workshop Manuel section "G" page 3 line 6 of text Radial ply tyres with inner tubes where applicable
Alan

On the subject of tubeless tyres:

a full profile tyre (eg 155R13 or 155/80R13) weather it says tubeless on it or not you can fit a tube.

Also with a 70% profile tyre (eg 175/70R13 or 185/70R13) you can still fit a tube in it weather it is a tubeless tyre or tube type.

You must always fit a tube in a tube type tyre.

If you don't have the safety hump on your wheel rim, we recommend fitting tubes. So the decision about weather to fit tubes or not can be determined by either the tyre or the rim. We also say, if in doubt stick a tube in it. Michelin are the best https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classi ... tubes.html

i made a bit of a film about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWJ-tWP3iU0&t=16s

Do any of you guys still run 145R13 tyres?

dougal cawley wrote:Do any of you guys still run 145R13 tyres?

On my S3 coupe.. I just switched back to 145R13 from 155R13 because I bought Alloy Wheels which are 5" wide instead of 4.5" wide (steel wheels) I wasn't sure that the 155 tyres would not rub , so switched back to the narrower tyres to be sure.

If all is OK I might revert to 155 on the next tyre change, if I ever use my elan that much now.

No new experience really as I've only done about 30 miles so far.