I assume the answer is no on both fronts but is there a noticeable difference? I’m going to be buying some new tyres with an Alps trip in mind for the summer which will go on Stans Flow rims on a 150mm travel machine and trying to decide if dual ply with tubes, UST/tubeless ready or normal tyres would be the best option for a mainly gravity week.

Surely it’s less important? Part of the need for tractor tyres on dh bikes is avoiding pinch flats, and they’re (nearly) impossible on tubeless.

Also: depends on the tyre. The Specialized tyres (“2Bliss”) are made of paper, Maxxis LUST seem a lot tougher. Generally full UST tyres have thicker sidewalls.

I wasn’t looking at running huge tyres. 2.35’s would suffice I was just wondering wether a dual ply would be better in terms of offering more support and a more robust sidewall or whether a UST tyre or a tyre with a tougher casing option souch as Maxxis offer would be as good

Don’t go down the line of thinking LUST types won’t pinch, they will and do quite often on hard edged rock surfaces ( I have 4 on my shed roof and more at the shop) but they are a lot better than single ply and if its thorny they are a must – tubeless that is. Dual ply dh tyres are much more robust, but a lot heavier.

In short, LUST tyres are like wet noodles compared to a dual ply. You should be able to run a set of dual ply tyres tubeless on the Stan’s anyway.

If its gravity based then just lob a set of dual ply’s on there. There is nothing more annoying than pinching a skinny tyre you’re running tubless up by the rim bed/bead where the sealant doesn’t get to.

No. I have pinch flats from using tubeless LUST UST tyres all the time. Seems to be just as easy as doing it to a tubes. Think it is when the pressure is below say 35. I can’t really understand how people can claim that they do anything to stop pinch flats as in my experience they are just as prone as tubes. The ride feels nice with tubeless though.

No. I have pinch flats from using tubeless LUST UST tyres all the time. Seems to be just as easy as doing it to a tubes. Think it is when the pressure is below say 35. I can’t really understand how people can claim that they do anything to stop pinch flats as in my experience they are just as prone as tubes. The ride feels nice with tubeless though.

Not pinch-flatted any of mine, though I admit I’m not the hardest of hardcore riders 🙂 Still, if you are pinch-flatting them, don’t even think of going with 2Bliss!

When you say your pinch flatting Lust/UST tyres you mean pinching the tire walls or are you running them with tubes and pinching those?

Pinching the tyre, no tubes. I must be heavy on my rear though only 12st and I am always getting pinch flats. Actually got a 2Bliss tyre on the front and had no issues. Wondering if some wider Flows on the rear instead of the 819s I have at the moment would make any difference.

I’ve got 2.35″ Eskars (2bliss) F+R on my DH bike at the minute run without tubes on a 729 at the back so a pretty wide profile rim, I like them because they’re sort of like a lightweight version of a Highroller (I know fitted to a rim heavier than the moon) – no pinch flats here varies about 28-35 psi at the back 25ish on the front…

I guess what your after is the most solid reliable tire you gat have so that you just won’t have to deal with flats while your away, so I take it weight is less of a concern.

Are you certain you are pinching and not slashing them? I can see them getting cut pretty easily if you ride lots of rocks or slate, if you want to try a stupidly thick walled tire, I think I have an old IRC tamashi (Barely used) still in the Garage doing nowt, from what I can remember it weighs something like 1600g but is about as close to a runflat tire for an MTB as I’ve ever seen – you can have it for postage cost if you like… I’ll have a quick poke about in the garage tonight if you want…

The other thing to look about for are some of the older model intense tires, not sure if they still do them but they used to do some of their tread patterns in 4 ply casings, again not light, but probably quite robust…

I’ve managed to pinch a fari few UST tyres, to the point of not being able to seal them any more as the hole is too close to the bead.

If it’s for a gravity holiday I’d say just put up with the weight of dual ply…

+1 for old Intense DH tyres, I have a couple, used for trials and DH and I have never ever punctured one, even running 10psi in the back one on my DH bike and clattering through rocks, only other tyre that has come close to that level of protection has been IRC Kujos, next to impossible to pinch (foam inserts in the sidewalls) but suffered from penetrations by spiky things on the tread (and pants in the gloop)

Yep still got that Tamashi in the Garage, looks OK tread is barely touched it’s a 2.35 and noticeable heavier than the 2.35 dual ply swamp donkey I picked up as a comparison, looking at the construction its got a series of internal ridges around the inside of the carcass, dunno if that is for reinforcement or just from the tooling they used but it’s a pretty substantial lump of rubber…

If you could kill one of these then I reckon there’s pretty much no hope for you…

why not try the 2.5 Maxxis LUST tyres?