Tubless

[Iainj837]

Hi I am thinking of changing both of my bikes to tubless.
1 is a touring bike and a hardtail.
What is everyone think?

 

[13 rider]

People either love tubeless or hate it . It's personal
Me I run tubeless on my newish TCR 9500 miles and no road side stops . Have had punctures but all have sealed . Yes more of a faff to set up change tyres etc
My other road bike the Defy I run with tubes roughly a puncture every 3500 miles so tubeless for me .
The key to getting tubeless to work properly is the tyre and rim interface which can be a bit hit and miss . My TCR came set up with giants own wheels and tyres which work so when I changed the tyre I stuck with giants own knowing it would work

 

[Ajax Bay]

Here's a friend's blog article about 'tubeless':
https://audaxing.wordpress.com/2016/12/24/whats-so-great-about-tubeless-tyres/
and he offers this link too: https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/blogs/news/living-with-tubeless-tyres

 

[boydj]

It's not that simple. First you need your wheels to have rims that are tubeless compatible, then you need tyres that are tubeless compatible. If you don't have these, then you're in for a lot of expense. If you have both of these already, then you'll need a lot of patience to do the setup.

I have a pair of Hunt wheels which I bought c/w tyres already set up tubeless. They've been great and I have managed to replace the rear tyre myself when it wore out.

Last year I bought a pair of tubeless Mavic rims and had them built onto hubs where the rims had worn out. I then set these up tubeless myself with tubeless Continental 5000 tyres. One wheel was good after the first go, the other had to be re-done. There's a bit of a learning curve involved as well as care and patience to get everything just right. I even had to get the lbs to mount the tyres as they were incredibly tight on the tubeless rims - and this was after running them with tubes on normal rims for a couple of weeks.

I've not had a puncture on the tubeless tyres. Then again I've only had one puncture on my good bike with clinchers and latex tubes in the last two years.

 

[CXRAndy]

Here are my comments re 'Tubeless'

I have never needed to stop and repair the tyre after setting up my wheels with tubeless.

It requires a bit more effort to set up, if done correctly will provide almost 100% protection against flint, glass, thorn punctures. Large cuts will deflate slower than a blowout, affording a degree of control when coming to a stop.

Tubeless is super comfy, when run at lower pressure- no chance of pinch flats.



Finally a half way setup is put Orange endurance sealant inside your inner tubes (75 millilitres) for 25 mm tyres. Thid will afford all the pinhole protection without the lower rolling resistance of tubeless

 

[fossyant]

Word of advice, don't set them up in the house, or anywhere you don't want coating in a sticky mess. There are a number of stories where folk have cocked up the set up, and the tyre has popped off the rim, exploding sealant over everything. Also like someone who hadn't rebuilt his front suspension properly, and when fiddling with the forks walking through the house, the seal popped off spraying the house with oil.

Personally, I haven't bothered as my wheels aren't tubeless ready (although running tubeless ready tyres) and I'm yet to get enough 'issues' to bother with going tubeless.

 

[Venod]

I have 4 sets of wheels set up tubeless and have been running them for a few years with no problems, they have punctured but sealed, never had to stop to repair them or put a tube in, I hadn't been out on the bike for over a week until today and when I took it down from its hanger the rear tyre was completely flat, so I pumped up the tyre and could hear hissing, I upended the bike spun the wheel up and liquid was spaying out of an hole in the centre of the tyre, it got less and less and eventually stopped, but there was a bit of metal sticking out of the tyre, I decided to pull it out.
It left a small hole and the tyre went down, I have had some plugs since going tubeless so I put one in and trimmed it of flush, pumped the tyre up and went for a 32 mile ride with no further problems, its the first plug I have used since going tubeless and was a lot easier than removing the wheel and tyre mending a puncture or fitting a new tube, of course I did this in the comfort of a warm garage, it could be a different story on a cold wet day outdoors.