Who's gone over to tubeless, and are you happy with it?

[reuben]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

What's a tube?

It's the thing that displays the picture in your TV. Oh, wait...

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

What's a tube?

In England they call them 'valves'.

[djg21]

Originally Posted by EPOJoe

I know I'm slow to change and usually have to be dragged into more modern cycling developments, but I'm curious about your experiences going tubeless. See a speed increase? Comfort increase? Advantages/disadvantages?
Thanks much in advance,
Joe

I would never go back. No snakebites, ever, and only one flat in 3 years, which was a result of operator failure after I ran over something. 28c Conti GP 5000TL tires are sublime on my Belgium Plus rims and my Allied Alpha.

[Coffee Rider]

Yesterday, I ended up calling for a ride home because of tubeless issues. I bought the wheels from a friend with some other things and can't remember whether I put in new sealant. I got a flat, but the valve had become sort of glued in with the sealant and after several minutes of being unable to get it to move, I decided to call for a ride home. After that, I was eventually able to get it out. That sucked and sort of ruined my mojo, though I got a lot of work done after I got home.

The above is one of the issues you can have with tubeless.

Cut to today and a different bike and I hit something in the road, which resulted in a lot of sealant everywhere but it sealed and everything was good after that. It may take more time to clean up all the sealant than to change a flat, but I can do that on my schedule versus changing a flat on the side of the road. Plus, it will provide me a reason to clean the bike before I ride again.

I don't anticipate getting any more wheels that can't be run tubeless and I've found that overall, I prefer it, especially since I can run lower tire pressures and it feels better.

[robt57]

Clogged valve less likely to happen if you make sure your valve is at 2:00 or 10:00 o'clock when touching up pressures. So leave the bike sitting after rides with the valves in one of these positions so when you go to air up the lowest chance of sealant escaping and clogging is likely to occur.. FYI

I am past my tubeless phase on the road personally. Gravel and MTB still use. Back to latex in clinchers on the road mostly.

Except my new indulgence. Tubeless Tubular tires, 30mm Challenge Strada on Carbon XTR CX wheels so far. And so far I am verklempt...

[fried bake]

Pros: Wider tires and lower pressures without fear of pinch flats and self sealing small holes.

Cons: more maintenance. A little more fussy to setup.

Overall: Three months in and I’m not going back to using tubes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hilltopperny]

I have my fat bike and road bike set up tubeless and like it quite a bit. Ironically I went back to tubes on my allroad/gravel bike, but only because the tires I purchased are not tubeless ready. I have not had a flat since moving to tubeless on the road bike nor the fat bike and it shaved lbs off of the fat bike.

For the road bike it has given it a very smooth and stable ride, but the wheels also have a much larger inner and outer diameter. The Schwalbe pro ones in 25mm are closer to 27-28mm and I have been running them at a bit lower psi than I typically would with tubes. No complaints so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bshell]

...Touch up your air pressure (or store your bike if you're really disciplined) with your valves in the 6 o'clock position if you really don't want sealant gumming things up....

Gravity, and such.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

In England they call them 'valves'.

In amps anyway...

[robt57]

Originally Posted by bshell

...Touch up your air pressure (or store your bike if you're really disciplined) with your valves in the 6 o'clock position if you really don't want sealant gumming things up....

Gravity, and such.

Problem with 6'oclock is if the bike gets rolled the pool is directly over the valve and can come directly onto it in a lot of rotational positions. Thus the 10:00/2:00 I sited, IMO anyway...

[Steve in SLO]

What about Those of you who rotate through several road bikes?
One of the things that hold me back from tubeless is that I tend to ride a bike for a couple of weeks, and then rotate to different one and don’t get back on some of them for a month or more. I’m worried about constantly having to keep track of what sealant in which tires is at what stage of it’s lifespan. Thoughts?

[54ny77]

On tubeless, are you supposed to maintain it? Doing what? I have an MTB with it and haven't ridden it for at least several months. Tires have gone flat, bike hangs on rack.

[spoonrobot]

Generally, yes.

Only disappointment was the advertised immunity to pinch flats turned out not to be the case. I've pinch flatted each of my tubeless wheelsets (gravel, road, mtb) with only MTB being able to seal the punctures without a plug. I never ran more than 22% sag - wide rims are much more prone to pinch flatting.

Otherwise, I've had something like 12-15 punctures in the past 2.5 years that have all sealed fine. Most without losing more than 1-2 psi. I've also had at least as many that did not result in sealant loss but would have flatted a tube - glass shards, Michelin thorns, real thorns, small nail, staples - all found inside the tire after I took it off at the end of it's life.

I keep a notepad with a page for each bike noting when I added sealant, generally add every 2 months during summer and 3 months the rest of the year. The extra work and effort required for tubeless is ok because it's done at home and not on the side of the road like changing a flat tube.

[NickJ]

I think it depends on the size of tire, where you ride, and the perceived benefits. If you don’t flat all that often on tubes, then the same trend will continue without them.

Example, my brother on a tri bike just switched to tubeless 25mm GP5k from tubed 23mm GP4k. His impression “what’s the big deal?” He lives in FL with nice let manicured roads

I’m on 25mm gavia tires on Giant wheels. Been tubeless since the day I got it last year. I have not flatted once. But I noticed pinholes twice when checking pressures before the “next“ ride. Pumped them, wasn’t confident they would hold air so I put tubes in. Didn’t notice one bit of difference in ride quality.

I think if you are on 28mm tires and run around 70psi, then you’ll notice a significant difference. Especially if you run tough roads where flats are common.

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by Steve in SLO

What about Those of you who rotate through several road bikes?
One of the things that hold me back from tubeless is that I tend to ride a bike for a couple of weeks, and then rotate to different one and don’t get back on some of them for a month or more. I’m worried about constantly having to keep track of what sealant in which tires is at what stage of it’s lifespan. Thoughts?

I only top my bikes off once a year. It may depend on what the environment you live in is like though. I live in a NYS so change of seasons can be extreme, but keeping track of sealant is not really an issue.