Mixed riding advice: tubes or tubeless?

[p nut]

Originally Posted by Lionel

The question is for how long. It is quite typical for me not to ride my MTB for months at a time. While a bit of Orange seal works to seal the tire once it dries the tire leaks quickly overnight and you need to put more sealant and repeat the cycle until that becomes ugly in there.

I'm unsure about Orange Seal. I use Stans, which after the initial set up early this season, has not failed. Plugs up where it needs to and seals it up nicely. Still holding air. May be the tire as well. I used to use Racing Ralphs that seeped air/sealant like crazy. I'm currently on Ikon/Ardent Race.

[Idris Icabod]

I use TruckerCo latex and I'm terrible at adding more so I'm sure it is bone dry in the tyre. If I get a flat out on the trail, my first course of action is to remove the valve core squirt some sealant out of the tiny bottle that I carry. The majority of the time it seals the hole. A small bottle of Stan's and a valve core tool aren't very big.

[DRZRM]

I ride RH Steilacooms tubeless on my Chebacco with sealant and would never go back to tubes. I do ride it regularly enough that it does not dry out--I've had that happen to my full squish MTB when it sits a while but the benefits of tubeless still make a periodic scrape and refill worth it to me. So many small punctures are repaired without you ever noticing, just a wet spot or a blob of dried sealant. Sure, catastrophic failures are messy with sealant blowing all over you and your bike, but that is very rare.

The Steilacooms are 38s as well, and I've been riding at around 37-40 psi (I weight 220ish at 6'3"). This is a great pressure for gravelly dirt roads, some fast doubletrack, and a paved descent.