Stick with tubeless?

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lane

Veteran
If the sealent fails I would try a worm. If that failed put a tube in. Had someone recently with no experience of tubeless saying how rubish it is and how good his marathon plus tyres are.
 

MrGrumpy

Huge Member
Location
Fly Fifer
I used finishline sealant for a while and it was a disaster, touchwood Joes/Stans are working better.
Stans orange sealant stuff seems to work according to reliable source who was into tubeless early days. He has tried a few but that one gets the thumbs up ! The Decathlon stuff works initially just seems very ineffective with punctures .
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
It is in the industry's interests to push the use of tubeless tyres in the pro peloton. They are in racing to generate sales to the rest of us, and tubulars are a dead duck in that respect because only the pros and top amateurs use them now, the days when even the lowliest club racer considered sprints and tubs as essential equipment have long gone.

Tubeless will improve to the point where the current problems people complain about have gone and they will be used as a matter of course, but they ain't close enough yet to tempt me.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
It is in the industry's interests to push the use of tubeless tyres in the pro peloton. They are in racing to generate sales to the rest of us, and tubulars are a dead duck in that respect because only the pros and top amateurs use them now, the days when even the lowliest club racer considered sprints and tubs as essential equipment have long gone.

Tubeless will improve to the point where the current problems people complain about have gone and they will be used as a matter of course, but they ain't close enough yet to tempt me.
Where will the sales come from though? It's not like disk brakes where you buy some lovely shiny expensive kit. All you need are some rims (which you're likely to need anyway) and substitute one type of tyre for another, plus some bits and bobs like sealant.

I can't see how it would be a massive money spinner for them. But I suppose anything that keeps people buying stuff, even if it is relatively cheap stuff, keeps the business going.

My next set of rims will be tubeless ready, to give me the opportunity to experiment if I want to.
 

bladesman73

Über Member
Whereas of course if when I get a puncture with ordinary clinchers and don't have a spare tube with me, I'm absolutely fine.
Well if you have a tubed set up and dont take a spare or at least a repair kit with you then of course thats stupid. However im stating that i have seen a few guys with tubeless tyres who have been stuck at the side of the road cos the sealant has failed and they dont carry spare tubes, cos they think the sealant is faultless
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
Well if you have a tubed set up and dont take a spare or at least a repair kit with you then of course thats stupid. However im stating that i have seen a few guys with tubeless tyres who have been stuck at the side of the road cos the sealant has failed and they dont carry spare tubes, cos they think the sealant is faultless

That is not a reason to ditch tubeless, it is a reason to be a bit prepared.
 

DRHysted

Guru
Location
New Forest
Mixed results here. Tubeless didn’t work on the cyclocross bike. Tubeless faultless on the MTB.
Yes I carry a spare tube and tyre boot on the MTB to cover sidewall damage, same as I do the cyclocross. I carry worms for when I have a puncture that the sealant can’t cope with on the MTB, haven’t used them yet.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
I just can't see tubeless ever becoming reliable enough to be able to trust it on high pressure road tyres, without carrying tubes and repair kit as back-up, which rather defeats the object of going tubeless. The problem seems to be that the sealant won't coagulate because there is enough air pressure behind it to force it through the hole whilst still liquid.
MTB users tend to report better results because their tyres only run at half the pressure and have two or three times more air volume, so the leak will seal faster and a small loss of pressure won't risk unseating the tyre off the rim.
The industry will push tubeless for the same reason they push 11 speed and disc brakes - because they are constantly fighting a battle to make cyclists update and replace serviceable equipment that doesn't actually need to be updated. The industry don't like cyclists like me who will buy something just the once then keep running it for years and years without replacing it with something different and putting more money in their pockets.
Bicycles are a mature technology and had already reached a level of development which gave mechanical durability and reliability decades ago, at which point many riders will just stick with what they have. Rigid steel frames don't wear out, so once the market is saturated with rim-braked rigid Road, Hybrid, and MTB's, sales are pretty much limited to maintenance parts. All the recent industry trends are aimed at displacing the low-revenue type of bikes with ones that offer a more frequent replacement/upgrade cycle, and more expensive maintenance parts pricing. Tubeless is part of this strategy.
 

Mo1959

Legendary Member
If the sealent fails I would try a worm. If that failed put a tube in.
One problem is some of the rim/tyre combinations are so bleeding tight I couldn't put a tube in! My new Ribble has Mavic Ksyrium Elite's with the UST rim and came with Mavic tyres which I didn't particularly want so first thing I wanted to do was put Rubino Pros on. I couldn't get the tyres off! I ended up cutting one off and nearly damaging the wheel so had to take the other to a bike shop. Never had to do that in my life. My hands were still red and blistered the next day and the bead was so tight I couldn't even get a tyre lever under it. God knows how the bike shop managed reasonably quickly. No doubt they have better levers for awkward tyres.
 

screenman

Legendary Member
Well if you have a tubed set up and dont take a spare or at least a repair kit with you then of course thats stupid. However im stating that i have seen a few guys with tubeless tyres who have been stuck at the side of the road cos the sealant has failed and they dont carry spare tubes, cos they think the sealant is faultless

That is not the tool but the tool using the tool being the problem.
 
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