Anyone ride tubeless? What's it like?

[betty swollocks]

Ride quality?
Frequency of visitations from the fairy.?
How difficult to get tyres on and off?

Your experiences please.
Am thinking my next bike will be tubeless.

 

[Globalti]

Never been tempted; I get such a superbly smooth ride from my lovely Veloflex Open Corsas with latex inners and an acceptable number of flats.

 

[benb]

I've just fitted tubeless to my Planet X London Road.
I sometimes go down some offroad paths, so I opted for the Schwalbe g-one "gravel" tyre.

I bought some valves with removable cores, so that I could fit the tyre, do a test inflate, then remove the core and use a syringe to inject the sealant.
Alternatively, you can pour the sealant in when you still have a bit of the tyre overhanging the rim.
My tyres went on fine. Didn't seem any more difficult to get over the rim than normal clinchers.

Ride quality is good. You can run them at lower pressure, so a bit more comfort, which is good for my commuter bike.
I've only been running them a couple of weeks, so can't accurately comment on their puncture protection. My previous solution was Marathon+ tyres which served me very well, so I hope they last at least as long.

 

[Andrew_P]

Ride quality?
Frequency of visitations from the fairy.?
How difficult to get tyres on and off?

Your experiences please.
Am thinking my next bike will be tubeless.

I love them. Keep in mind the main reason I converted was due to a massive blow out in a fast corner..

Personally I would only use tubeless on a tubeless ready wheel/rim. You have to train yourself to run lower pressures as that's where they come in to their own. I reckon I have done around 6000+ miles on them. I have had one ride stopping puncture which I just about rectified with a tube but it was a battle. Since this I have repaired tyres with patches and now I would do this at the roadside, last one took me 10 minutes to repair at home without even removing the wheel. This tyre was showing problems in that it would go down from 65psi to 40psi in a day. BUT it would still be rideable and hold pressure at 40psi. But the hole was too big for sealant to hold at 60-70psi.

Tyres wear quicker - the lighter the tyre the quicker they start to cut up at around 1200-1500 miles and give a problems.

Tyres are expensive especially the best Schwalbe Ones, and can be hard to source. You get better prices form German websites. Quite like Hutchinson Fusion 3's but preferred the 25mm Schwalbe One's. Hutchinson are launching Fusion 5's and looking forward to trying them too!

In the summer I ride my Supersix on 25 or 23mm Schwalbe Ones and winter on the Grade 30mm Schwalbe S-One gravel tyres. The latter have been superb this winter.

Difficulty getting them on or sealed is very much down to Wheel and Tyre combo. Most difficult was Fulcrum Zero two way wheels and the old Scwalbe One 23mm. Easiest S-One and Stans ZTR Grail wide rims..

 

[Levo-Lon]

I run tubeless on my mtb's..i had a puncture at sherwood in the rear..i heard it and stopped to put my finger over the leak ..it was a good stab..
i got covered in sealant..and it wont wash out of my very expensive Alpine Stars top..so beware of that.

the mtb tyre pressure is very low with tubeless ie 24psi range.
im not sure 100psi will be a easy leak to seal? But after going down id think it will seal up and just re-inflate..saves removing a tube.

personally id go with slime tubes for road use as it stays fluid for yrs unlike sealant which has a 6 mth + shelf life..it goes off so not a fit and forget like slime tubes are..i also think the slime offers a better chance of keeping you rolling due to it sealing inside the tyre as apose to just the tyre to seal.

as regards the feel etc you wont notice it much unless you use tubeless on Mtb for very low pressure..
its a lot better in this respect as the tyre can deform and allows it to grip far better and eliminates pinch flats..

 

[Funkweasel]

I also run tubeless on my MTB, well one of them. Similar pressure to meta Ion.
I use Stan's sealant and it seems to work well... at least I didn't get any punctures (that I know of) until I put a sharp rock through the sidewall and realised that my sealant had gone off and was no longer liquid - I'd top it up every 3 months from now on - it was 5 months old when it failed on me.
I had to put a tube in, and got a puncture about 10 mins later. Fortunately I had 2 tubes with me. Just in case.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I'm very happy with tubeless, to the point where, if I was somehow forced to ride a bike with tubes, I'd feel far less confident and worry about punctures, I'd imagine.

10,000km and no deflation issues. A little over 8,000km of that was on the first set of Hutchinson Sector 28s. Comfort-wise, they're much better than the tyres my bike came with, probably due to slightly lower pressure (as I'm new to cycling, I have nothing else to compare to). On the basis of that longevity, I don't think they're expensive tyres, per distance travelled.

All four I've fitted were easy to get on. I wouldn't use them other than on tubeless rims though - Stan's Notubes Grail in my case - and the two I've taken off were easy to remove too.

In summary: a strong endorsement with no reservations.

 

[betty swollocks]

Thank you all.
I am having (lucky me) a custom-made bike built for road and occasional off-road use, a gravel, go anywhere type bike, sort of and am very tempted to go tubeless. The rims the builder is recommending are Pacenti SL25 with compatible tyres, 28's or 32's.

 

[Andrew_P]

Thank you all.
I am having (lucky me) a custom-made bike built for road and occasional off-road use, a gravel, go anywhere type bike, sort of and am very tempted to go tubeless. The rims the builder is recommending are Pacenti SL25 with compatible tyres, 28's or 32's.

Take a read here, I think they are the ones people say are tight. I have Stans ZTR Grails on DT Swiss 240s hubs and would recommend them.

Massive thread on BR http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=13015799

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Glad to see the opinions too. I'm going to try tubeless in the near future.
I've run slime tubes for years, in fact one was in for so long it only failed when the rubber round the valve perished and blew it off!

The new bike has tubeless ready wheels, and I'm going to try it with the standard Vittoria Barzo tyres.

The Stan's kits seem to be most popular so I'll probably try one of those.

 

[Andrew_P]

Glad to see the opinions too. I'm going to try tubeless in the near future.
I've run slime tubes for years, in fact one was in for so long it only failed when the rubber round the valve perished and blew it off!

The new bike has tubeless ready wheels, and I'm going to try it with the standard Vittoria Barzo tyres.

The Stan's kits seem to be most popular so I'll probably try one of those.

Are they tubeless tyres? I think the MTB version might be but not the road versions?

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Are they tubeless tyres? I think the MTB version might be but not the road versions?

Sorry, didn't mention it's an MTB I'm playing with.
I've not examined the tyres too closely yet, but they come in rigid and folding (mine are folders according to the Evans advert), and some of the Barzos are tubeless ready. I need to check in mine are.

Can I assume I have to have tubeless ready tyres as well as the wheels?

 

[Andrew_P]

Sorry, didn't mention it's an MTB I'm playing with.
I've not examined the tyres too closely yet, but they come in rigid and folding (mine are folders according to the Evans advert), and some of the Barzos are tubeless ready. I need to check in mine are.

Can I assume I have to have tubeless ready tyres as well as the wheels?

I would say yes for road so assume the same for MTB. I think it is to do with the bead being much stronger and air tight rubber. The bead snaps in to a ridge on the wheel that's why I feel it is important to have tubeless ready rims although quite a few internet sites people have used normal rims with a stans conversion. Tubeless will be great on MTB

 

[Funkweasel]

One thing you may want to invest in/borrow/make is a device to get the bead seated on the rim properly. I use an airshot because my homemade effort was terrible and fell apart.