Do I need special wheels and tyres? Or can it just be bodged like on a mtb? How do they cope with 100-120psi?

Tubular or tubeless? 2 entirely different entities.

Well I did say tubeless. If tubular, you would obviously need special tyres – tubs.

I've been looking at road tubeless. I've converted some 32 mm Specialized Borough with stans and they've been running fine over a year at 60 psi. I'm tempted to try ther Hutchinson Intensive 25mm tyres.

Not really as doable on an MTB with rims and tyres not designed for it – though I have heard of people having success. Definitely use at least tubeless specific tyres, preferably rims as well IMO. BJ, from the nature of the question I assume he is asking about tubeless.

from the nature of the question I assume he is asking about tubeless.

I thought the "Tell me about tubeless road tyres" would've done it..

Sam, you make it sound like it might not be worth the effort?

I was under the impression that due to the tyre design, you could use a normal rim with tape and the specific tyre.

(However, I've got a set of Arch rims waiting in the wings for this project).

Converted all my non tubeless road wheels to Tubeless using Stans valves and 21mm tape – you must use two wraps of tape to get the bead tight enough but apart from that no problem at all. Have only used with Hutchinson tubeless tyres as I'm a little unconvinced about ghetto ing a non tubeless road tyre due to the pressures involved.

A syringe makes life loads easier as you can mount up and inflate the tyre first before adding the sealant through the valve.

As far as ride goes they are excellent – not quite as good as tubs but better than some very expensive Clinchers I have ridden. They grip well in the wet (although that is more a function of the tyre than its contents).

The only thing I wonder is whether the Cafe latex stuff would be better than Stans as the one puncture I have suffered (for reffrernece the "tear was 8mm long and 1.5 mm wide at its widest point) caused me to get sprayed with Stans for a few wheel revolutions before it sealed – it then held on for another 30 odd miles at about 80 psi before I decidied to arese about with it and try to get more pressure in to the tyre.

Yes, but tell anybody your road bike's got tubulars they always ask "tubeless?".

They're very rare, supposed to require special rims that Campag & Shimano do at £300 a wheel and I think you can only get hold of mediocre Hutchinson tyres. If you puncture on a road, make sure you have a phone with you (or your chauffeur is following you round)

Now there's a post filled with misconceptions !

Maybe, but even misconceptions can be correct 8)

For road tubeless definitely use tubeless specific road tyres. From Duc's success and others I have heard it may well work for you on standard rims. From my experience (in mtb tyres) Stans does a better job of sealing larger holes than caffelatex.

Most tubulars have tubes, some (like Tufo) do not have a tube inside them. Replacing them on the road is quite doable. Wheels can cost a heck of a lot more than £300.

I got a hutch tubeless tyre working on an open pro. Long story but it failed and I've not got round to re-doing it. One thing I would say i drill a smaller hole for the valve.

I posted up here about it at the time and it seemed that std tyres would not work, too porous.

A friend of mine put a couple of turns of electrical tape on some DT RR1.1s, put some Stan's goo in GP4000s and inflated, they held air fine and he's still riding on them. I personally wouldn't, don't much fancy having one blow off the front at 110psi!

Gee uses Hutchinson Fusion 2s with Ksyriums, the full pukka set up, and has said good things. I like Fusion 2s, so I'm tempted to try a Stan's kit, or more likely some of the new NoTubes road rims, which look very good indeed.

Yes, but tell anybody your road bike's got tubulars they always ask "tubeless?

What? No they don't, unless they're morons, I fear you may fall into this category judging by your contributions to this thread!

I'm running tubeless on converted CXP22 rims with no problems. I'm using 2 layers of stans tape and hutchinson intensive tires with stans juice in them. According to stans you can convert any road rim using their tape, just use tubeless rated tires.

http://www.notubes.com/movie_road.php

Cool. Is there much in the way of choice of tubeless road tyres, or is it only hutchinson that do them?

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/race-tech-road-tubeless-makes-appearance-at-the-tour-de-france-26989

But sadly not even remotely close even in this case.

Puntures – just put an inner tube in – the sealant makes it messy but actually makes it easier to get the tyre bead out of the rim well than normal so I can do all of mine if I need to without tyre levers.

Yes the tyres are reasonably rare but Spesh certainly and I believe Bonty are launching some next year so they are getting better in the same way that MTB tyres have got better.

The tyres thesleves seam to perform very well to me and most other poeple who have tried them getting very good press on forums and in magazines a like.

I have converted three sets of rims from standard format, Reynolds, Spinergy and a set of Pianni (Pete Mathews) Roubaixs.
Alledgedly the only ones that are really difficult are open Pro's as they are just too deep channeled whihc makes the tyre very difficult to seal (I've not tried that myself on them but it would make sense from what I have seen)

So I'd say from a reasonable practical base of experinece that all of your misconceptions are exactly that.

Also for what its worth the 25mm Hutch tyres are slow as S*** but they are pretty bullet proof. Fusion 3's are better again tha Fusion 2's and are more "tub like" in ride quality. Don't know what the swanky ones are like

BigJohn – Member
Maybe, but even misconceptions can be correct

😆 No, that's actually a misconception…

Misconception: a mistaken belief, a wrong idea

I'd like to have a go, but I struggle to see the advantages for road. Don't want/need lower pressure, punctures (for me at least) are a rare enough event so that changing them with a co2 can is hardly a chore. and as njee has already suggested having one "let go" at 120psi won't do anything for the state of my shorts…

My thinking was increased comfort with a light sprinkle of fewer punctures. Tubeless tyres always feel more compliant but with less rolling resistance. That's what I was after. However, I might lose both of those by going from 32mm converted tyre to a 25mm tubeless specific one. Wish someone (maybe Hutchinson) would make a tubeless touring/commuting tyre.

I'd like to have a go, but I struggle to see the advantages for road

Less rolling resistance.

Is that true though?

Any evidence for it? Or just perception

Rolling resistance is always a perception thing – for me its ride quality and puncture resistance.
I used to ride TUBS all the time (and yes I used to carry a spare tyre) for a number of reasons, namely that I'm a lard arse and so need clinchers at very high pressure to avoid punctures and 2 I have had a clincher puncture going down a hill in a corner and they go down F'ing quickly and roll off the rim pretty smartly too. Tubeless survive better than both tubs of Clinchers and ride nearly as well as Tubs from my highly non scientific experiments actually riding them !

Had some Mich Muds on Bontrager Selects working really well with Eclipse kits a while back. Think it makes a lot of sense for 'cross where you want the grip that comes with low pressures, without flatting on descents.

Would like to give it a go on the road but, like others, see less advantage.

I was going to ask the same question about tubless mtb tyres!

Popped into a bike shop to buy a couple of inner tubes, and the young guy serving me said 'oh everyone's going tubeless these days' . I asked what happens if you get a puncture, and his colleague said 'you take a spare inner tube'.

I am still none the wiser!