Is sealant really worth it?

[John H.]

1st- Tubeless works well for me. I barely ever flat and when I do it is a minor event.

That said, some riders can be junk no matter what they are doing.
I have seen riders with tubes with their bike upside down on the hoods and saddle, hands full of chain grease, pinched tubes, unsuccessful CO2 launches, etc.

Know how to use whatever you are using.

[MikeD]

Just an update here. I finally got around to switching my gravel bike (ridden primarily on pavement) from tubeless to tubes. We see how it fares going forward. I can always switch back if I need to. I'm sure I've had less flats with tubeless, but the hassle factor and the mess (as I've written previously) was just too much. I just recently stained another pair of shorts with sealant spray from a puncture in that same tire. I wonder if it was the same puncture where the sealant plug let loose. Another observation is that I check my sealant levels every two months and keep 3 oz. of sealant in the tires. It's been two months now and my front tire was about dry of sealant; not enough left to seal a puncture. It's been a hot summer here, but having to top off sealant monthly is a bit rediculous (OS Regular). The point here is that my front tire was not being protected from flatting anyway. Now, just one more bike left to convert back to tubes and peeling dried sealant from the inside of my tires (ugh), and the great experiment with tubelessness will be at an end.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by MikeD

Just an update here. I finally got around to switching my gravel bike (ridden primarily on pavement) from tubeless to tubes. We see how it fares going forward. I can always switch back if I need to. I'm sure I've had less flats with tubeless, but the hassle factor and the mess (as I've written previously) was just too much. I just recently stained another pair of shorts with sealant spray from a puncture in that same tire. I wonder if it was the same puncture where the sealant plug let loose. Another observation is that I check my sealant levels every two months and keep 3 oz. of sealant in the tires. It's been two months now and my front tire was about dry of sealant; not enough left to seal a puncture. It's been a hot summer here, but having to top off sealant monthly is a bit rediculous (OS Regular). The point here is that my front tire was not being protected from flatting anyway. Now, just one more bike left to convert back to tubes and peeling dried sealant from the inside of my tires (ugh), and the great experiment with tubelessness will be at an end.

I'm definitely not itching to get a tubeless bike..

[gravelreformist]

Well, I've had two 'A' goal races saved by tubeless this season. On a road bike no less which people would have you believe barely works. In both cases I did not lose any noticeable pressure and did not even know I'd had a puncture until cleaning the bike post-race.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by gravelreformist

Well, I've had two 'A' goal races saved by tubeless this season. On a road bike no less which people would have you believe barely works. In both cases I did not lose any noticeable pressure and did not even know I'd had a puncture until cleaning the bike post-race.

for me, I'd probably have a different view if I needed to finish a race for sure.. but I can take 10 minutes on the side of the road as I neither ride that fast or in a group these days.. once I get another gravel bike, I may change my mind though..

[makoti]

Originally Posted by gravelreformist

Well, I've had two 'A' goal races saved by tubeless this season. On a road bike no less which people would have you believe barely works. In both cases I did not lose any noticeable pressure and did not even know I'd had a puncture until cleaning the bike post-race.

Amazing. I finish every road ride stunned that my road tires pumped up to the ungodly psi of 75/85 didn't explode and cover me and my bike with 10X more sealant than I put in them, because that's what I hear happens ALL THE TIME

[hainy]

I don't have degree in chemistry so I will stick with tubes.

[Spdntrxi]

Originally Posted by John H.

1st- Tubeless works well for me. I barely ever flat and when I do it is a minor event.

That said, some riders can be junk no matter what they are doing.
I have seen riders with tubes with their bike upside down on the hoods and saddle, hands full of chain grease, pinched tubes, unsuccessful CO2 launches, etc.

Know how to use whatever you are using.

this exactly... Tubeless is win win

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Spdntrxi

this exactly... Tubeless is win win

I don't see how that's a win-win, but my next experiment will be synthetic sealant in inexpensive RideNow tubes. It should minimize the mess. That would be a win-win.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by MikeD

I don't see how that's a win-win, but my next experiment will be synthetic sealant in inexpensive RideNow tubes. It should minimize the mess. That would be a win-win.

I think it's all about where you ride, what you ride, who you ride with/race, and what your general tolerance for an unscheduled stop is..

if I was always riding with a fast(er) group ride, doing a race, or riding where I was getting a flat/multiple flats per ride, I'd probably be a lot more interested in tubeless.. but I don't currently have any of those restrictions, so tubeless is certainly not a "win-win" for me.. the only advantage I would see is the occasional ability to not have to replace a tube at the side of the road, which, as I've indicated, is not an issue for me.. I usually ride alone (maybe one other person) and am not in a time crunch hurry..

for many, I'm sure tubeless is a godsend, and that's awesome for them.. I'm just not there yet, esp for road..

[litcrazy]

This is my viewpoint. Living in the land of goatheads and broken glass, tubes in gravel even with sealant was a failure. After a three flat ride, I went tubeless and I haven't looked back.

I have hesitation about road tubeless and too many tubed tires and rims to want to switch, so I run sealant in tubes with reasonable success. I can imagine switching tubeless at some point but tubed road tires plus sealant works much better than with gravel, so it's workable.

In I still lived in Chicago, I wouldn't bother with tubeless because I hardly got flats and it really feels like it would be more trouble than it's worth. Road tires handle glass well enough that flats felt pretty uncommon.

I'm not sure why I would need to believe tubed or tubeless is better for everyone when there's so many different riding situations. I try to fight my natural tendency to universalize my opinions (with limitted success).

One bummer here in Albuqiuerque is the flat situation is so that you can't have a once in a while bike that you just ride every couple of months. You need to think about the freshness of your sealant whether tubed or tubeless. I makes getting my kids bikes ready after a semester away at college a bit more complicated.

Originally Posted by fourflys

I think it's all about where you ride, what you ride, who you ride with/race, and what your general tolerance for an unscheduled stop is..

if I was always riding with a fast(er) group ride, doing a race, or riding where I was getting a flat/multiple flats per ride, I'd probably be a lot more interested in tubeless.. but I don't currently have any of those restrictions, so tubeless is certainly not a "win-win" for me.. the only advantage I would see is the occasional ability to not have to replace a tube at the side of the road, which, as I've indicated, is not an issue for me.. I usually ride alone (maybe one other person) and am not in a time crunch hurry..

for many, I'm sure tubeless is a godsend, and that's awesome for them.. I'm just not there yet, esp for road..

[NateFrentz]

I now have 12 wheels set up tubeless and I find it barely worth it, but still worth it nonetheless. The biggest downside is maintaining air pressure in less frequently used wheels. I actually don't mind adding more sealant because it's only every few months -- Pumping them all at least once a week, however, is significantly more effort than using tubes, but the upsides in terms of sealing punctures and not fussing with tubes is narrowly worth it.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by NateFrentz

I now have 12 wheels set up tubeless and I find it barely worth it, but still worth it nonetheless. The biggest downside is maintaining air pressure in less frequently used wheels. I actually don't mind adding more sealant because it's only every few months -- Pumping them all at least once a week, however, is significantly more effort than using tubes, but the upsides in terms of sealing punctures and not fussing with tubes is narrowly worth it.

Why do you care if you aren't riding them? I have 4 bikes, all tubeless, and if they don't get ridden for a month, they don't get air for a month. I don't have an issue. If I have one that's been sitting and I know I'll be riding it, I might think to pump up the tires sometime the day before, just to be sure they haven't been sitting TOO long and the sealant dried out.

[9tubes]

Anyone seen a rolling resistance test on old wheels with old sealant? You know, a set of nice tires for fast riding, but after a year of replenishing sealant. How much do they weigh, and how well do they roll?

[marciero]

In many years on tubeless with my gravel/camper/touring bike, I never once had a flat. One time I did have a wire puncture self seal. Yet, I went with TPU tubes so far on my new gravel bike. If I'm being honest, the reason was that I was being precious with my fancy new carbon wheels, not wanting to muck them up. But in fact I hardly ever get flats on these wide tire bikes, and so far no flats on the new bike. Sealant seems like a poor design also. Overly messy, with not a bunch of liquid sloshing around that hardens on the inside of your tire, then needs to be topped off, etc. And what a mess if you do have to replace with a tube in the field. Why cant they work like car tires with a coating of some sort on the bead? Of course then you wont get the self sealing functionality. Maybe if we had lots of goat heads where I ride tubeless would have more of a value proposition.