Just realized the irony of disc brakes on an aero bike.

[ergott]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

I think you mean A tubeless tire is at the top of the list. This particular tire is also very lightweight and notorious for being delicate and flatting easily. (It's also not a true tubeless tire - instead it is Tubeless Ready.) There is no standard tubed version of the Vittoria Corsa Speed TLR to compare it to, so we can't know if it would be even better in a standard tubed version. But if you did a careful comparison of otherwise similar tires (i.e., similar size, tread thickness and casing toughness), I believe you'd see that tubeless tires show no clear advantage over standard tubed tires.

Another comment on the www.bicyclerollingresistance.com tests: These tests are a bit biased against standard clinchers, as their test procedure uses a relatively thick and lossy tube, not a low rolling resistance tube. Another test on this site show that latex tubes or thin butyl tubes will lower rolling resistance substantially, but they have chosen not to do tire tests with these tubes. Other testing groups that that do use latex tubes have shown that with these tubes, tubeless tires generally do not have lower rolling resistance.

Top 2 tires are tubeless. Next in line is tubular. The top clincher isn't an everyday tire either. When factoring in a latex tube as they suggest in more detail in the reviews the clincher would perform along side the tubeless tires. Keep in mind people with carbon clinchers and rim brakes are advised not to use latex tubes. This segment of the market (the ones that care most about these details) is more likely to own carbon wheels so you can assume they can use latex tubes.

Bottom line, like the brake arguments here you can't say one is a clear winner and you should just buy what works for you. To say that tubeless tires are at a distinct disadvantage to clinchers hasn't been the case for quite some time now and there have been great improvements in tubeless tires especially in the last 2-3 years.