This is some serious food for thought. Maybe fulcrum 3 and stick to tubes. Thanks for your wisdom.
I think I have given tubeless too negative review. 25mm is the utopia but in 25mm the tubeless tyres are mainly aimed at the performance end of the market as per 23mm. The Fulcrum two way fits must have a different rim set up because even some 23mm clinchers can be pretty tight to get on. Unfortunately the bike that the Zero's were on could only run 23mm max due to brake and chainstay restrictions. My main advice was to avoid the Zero's. Type in to Google Fulcrum Zero wheel wobble or bearings and see the forum posts. They are a performance wheel and the bearing need tweaking pretty regularly, which I didn't do.
Hard wearing and good puncture protection the best I had was the Schwable S-One 30mm and very slight nobble but made the bike feel a bit dull, The Hutchinson Sectors 28mm were ok as well. Everything else I tried I was getting 1200-1800 miles out of before they got to cut up or multiple slow punctures worst for wear were the Schwalbe ones but rode fantastic! But those miles were only 2-3 months riding hence the costs were getting out of hand.
Tubeless I found quite a steep learning curve, from getting them on and sealed up to what to do with slow leaking punctures. But I did run for the 15k miles with only two ride stopping punctures, plenty of slow leakers or ones that only held air at 40-50psi but with tubeless these I was still able to ride. They feel great as you can run lower pressures etc. They take a bit more maintence but are very reliable overall.
Shimano do some nice road wheels that can take tubeless, or search Google for handbuilt wheels.
Things to look out for on most factory built wheels is the spokes and hubs for maintence bladed spokes and sealed rims were beyond my ability and the bike shops I took them too mostly turned their nose up at working on them. With a Handbuilt you can pick a really nice and easy to maintain cartridge hub and pick your spokes and rim a lot of rims have the option of two way fit it just means change the rim tape. When the rim wears out they are only about £40-90 to replace and you can keep the hubs and maybe the spokes. Plus most bike shops would be happy to work on them and service the hubs. IMO factories are great but most of them are pretty much throw away once the rim has gone and Fulcrum only sell them in wheelsets. So if only the front or back has gone then you are buying an extra wheel every time.
I have DT Swiss 240s Hubs - Standard Spokes and ZTR Grails rims on my disc brake winter bike. When I look at braking the summer one out I will look around for some nice handbuilts!!
