I’ve just converted both my road bikes this weekend (posh bike + winter trainer/audax/do it all bike) so a bit early to tell.
Those who have never punctured and don’t see the point, you’ve just been lucky. I’ve been for thousands of miles at a time and then several in one month and it’s always a cacky cold winter ride or commute when you could do without the interruption, but there are also those that ride through urban areas (bike lanes/paths murderous for detritus) and pick up glass etc. regularly, there’s our southern brethren that pick up razor sharp flints and it is actually a good argument for going tubeless – I’ve an audax nutter friend that has done 18,000 miles on tubeless without a single puncture (well, you know, one that hasn’t just been sealed up with the latex fluid!).
Lower pressure tyres etc. I’m less convinced is a major argument – it can be done with clinchers and wider rims anyway, and to be honest, with the exception of ‘clydesdale’ riders, most people probably keep road tyre pressures too high anyway (so many just look at min/max inflation and whack it somewhere in the middle or at max!). Pinch punctures again unusual, normally the result of just completely failing to keep pressures high enough – a sort of ‘begginner’ problem that’s not likely to happen to those serious enough to spunk the extra cash on going tubeless.
Technical anecdote stuff:
I’ve just put schwalbe ultremo zx tubeless on the posh bike (Velocity A23 rims, stans rim tape and valves) and they are very, very good right out of the box, proper ‘glued to the road’ type feeling in the dry, not ridden in wet yet. Second bike is same rims, but went with hutchinson intensives which were scary on their maiden voyage as it was soaking wet and they hadn’t gone throught that horrible chemical outer coating.
All tyres inflated just fine with a vigorous track pumping, they all struggled to seal around the valve without fluid in but were fine once it was added. I’m just keeping an eye on pressures now to get a feel for rates of deflation. Must get used to pumping them up with the valve upright (i.e. at the bottom of the wheel) so that it doesn’t have fluid sitting in it waiting to spurt out onto the pump head.