you dont have to carry tubes when riding therefore saving weight on a ride- i just have a co2 canister nothing more….

I predict a long walk home looming

Had far far too many punctures in the past, I’m quite belt and braces about this sort of thing, carry a proper pump, a patch kit, a tubeless repair kit, duck tape (as a tyre boot) and a spare tube (2 for a long ride).

BB we’ve told you what we think is good about it, you don’t beleive/accept them so don’t bother. No one is trying to twist your arm.

So actually far from being a weight benefit as claimed by thisisnota spoon, its would appear by his own numbers to be a 50g penalty when the idiots tube is taken into account, and I hasten to add that peretty much everyone I speak to admits to an idiots tube, not just the two examples given here.

Errrr, no the wheel is 50g lighter tubeless. The tubes in my backpack would be there whether I had tubeless or not. You’d be unpopular on agroup ride if you punctured with no spare and faffed for 10 minutes patching a tube. The only difference is I’ve not had to use the spare tube in 5 years of tubeless 🙂

As for the rest of the advantages.

Grip, rolling resistance, comfort, are all affected by pressure. Tubeless makes them all a little better, and you’ve got the ability to run lower pressures which maximises grip and comfort even further, whilst rolling resistance is still comparable to a tubed tyre. Or you could run the same high pressure as a tube tyre and still have more grip and less rolling resistance. Or even higher pressure again for the same grip as a tubed tyre but even less rolling resistance.

in the wet its mud so if the lower pressure thing is right in those conditions, why don’t road riders do it??

Why would a road rider ride in mud? CXers do, and ride tubular tyres at lower prssures.

As TJ said thorns are not really an issue with tubeless, I pulled out numerous when my wall split and had to put in a tube to get home, I’ll probably leave the tube in until I want to change tyres. Get the right tyre, wheel and sealant combo and it’s pretty hassle free.

I went tubeless 5years ago after a plague of punctures. However I have gone back to tubes on a purely cost and faff basis. I don’t have a compressor so every tyre change was a faff. On the last change the valve on the rim strip broke and the other one looked dodgy, quite a big outlay when compared to the odd tube.

I don’t have a compressor so every tyre change was a faff.

Good tyre and rim combos seat with a bit of sealant and a track or hand pump – I’ve never used a compressor on any of my tyres / wheels? And old valves cut from inner tubes do the job just fine, saves a few £.

Good tyre and rim combos seat with a bit of sealant and a track or hand pump – I’ve never used a compressor on any of my tyres / wheels? And old valves cut from inner tubes do the job just fine, saves a few £.

+1

I spend some time figuring out what worked best with new rims, some just needed a layer or two of electrical tape, some took 5 or 6 layers, otheres a stans style rim strip. But all my tyres go on with just a mini pump now if nececary. I guess a compressor would mean I could use less tape/strips which might save 50g in the worst case of using stans strips.

I resisted for years,but am now a recent convert to tubeless.

Using proper tubless wheels it was a doddle to get the tyres inflated.I can see tyre changes might be messy,but most of the problems associated with tubeless seem to be imagined/preceived by folk who`ve never actually tried it. I can include myself as not being convinced until I tried it

As for weight I was previosly running Schwalbe lightweight tubes which were 120g,and rim strips which were 20g each.Tubeless strips are the same and Im running 60ml (60g) of Stans in each sealant.So as Im running the same tyres as I was with tubes that`s 120g saving by my reckoning.

There was a very noticeable difference in ride feel straight away,with the tubeless set up being much more supple.And that was before I started experimenting with lower pressures.

I`d carry a spare tube regardless of whether I has tubes or not,unlees I was a racer.

This to me is of as much value as the increased puncture protection.

The smug feeling of changing a tyre after 6/12/18 months of use, and finding a number of thorns embedded in it, but it still stayed up all that time, is worth it alone IMO.

That aside, when I first went tubeless I did so because I was always pinch puncturing. If I ran my tyres hard enough not to pinch (about 45psi or so) they didn’t grip very well, and if I ran them low enough to get the grip I wanted (about 32-35psi) then I just constantly pinch flatted. Tubeless fixed this for me overnight!

Tubeless isn’t for everyone, it’s a bit like the flats vs SPD’s debate. If you’re the kind of person that has a set of different tyres for every day of the week, then probably don’t bother. Likewise if you don’t think you’d benefit at all from being able to run lower pressures without pinch puncturing. But for lots of us, tubeless is worth a lot more than the slight faff of fitting/sealing a difficult tyre/rim combo once in a while.

Oh, and in 8 (or is it 9?) years of running tubeless exclusively on mountain bikes (except for one ride on a new bike, when guess what, I punctured!) I’ve not had a puncture or a single burp.

XT rims and spesh 2bliss work like a dream with track pump, cup of stans, inflate to 60 or until bead pings and deflate to 30 or whatever – done.

Tubeless… can see the handling benefits in theory but not anything on the puncture front compared with running tubes and a tyre liner.

Tubeless and UST are just more of a marketing thing to con MTBers out of money as per usual

not anything on the puncture front compared with running tubes and a tyre liner.

How does a tyre liner protect against pinch flats? What if the liner slides round?

IME they make tyre changes far more awkward than tubeless tyres!

Marketing con? You must ride lopsided with that giant chip on your shoulder 🙄

Low pressure so more grip with no pinch punctures is how it works for me. Total convert.

The smug feeling of changing a tyre after 6/12/18 months of use, and finding a number of thorns embedded in it, but it still stayed up all that time, is worth it alone IMO.

Need to get out more?

I have tubeless on one bike and tyre liners on the other…Tubeless was a right bloody faff to get dialled but now I’ve got the setup sorted it’s dead easy to remount tyres and it does ride nicer. I really like it actually, though I live in fear of the old sidewall slice as I’m on Rons…they’re great but I will probably go to Snakeskin Ralphs for peace of mind at some point. (when it’s too late, probably!)

The tyre liners are good if you want a no fuss basic solution. I have the Panaracer flataways which stick to the inside of the tyre so you can’t swap them over (not an issue for me). Adds about 30g per wheel. I reckon good for a 2nd bike / winter bike where you don’t want any hassle.

For XC and especially for racing or riding fast, I think you’re missing out a bit if you’re on tubes. It’s just not *quite* as nice.

Q: What about changing tyres?
A: Why do you need to change tyres all the time?

Q: So whats the benefit of tubeless?
A: It’s better

Tubeless and UST are just more of a marketing thing to con MTBers out of money as per usual

Just like disc brakes right? 😉

There are old guys in my local road club swear by their lugged steel frame bikes, with 8 speed campag setups complete with downtube shifters, 1″ threaded headsets etc. And they’d not change if you paid them to…

Doesn’t mean they’re right though, it’s just what they’re used to and they get a kind of ironic pleasure out of being retro or stuck in their ways.

It still amazes me people use these tube thingies

Berm Bandit – Member

So actually far from being a weight benefit as claimed by thisisnota spoon, its would appear by his own numbers to be a 50g penalty when the idiots tube is taken into account,

Ah- are you that feller I met in Wales that had gone out riding with no spare tube and got a flat? If so, I’d like my “idiots tube” back 😉

don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. it’s like going commando, for your bike.

njee20 – Member

not anything on the puncture front compared with running tubes and a tyre liner.

How does a tyre liner protect against pinch flats? What if the liner slides round?On a tyre sidewall it says inflate to xx psi/bar minimum. I just do that and I don’t get pinch flats. Liners don’t slide around when tube is inflated.

njee20 – Member

Marketing con? You must ride lopsided with that giant chip on your shoulderNo, because I have a piece of fish to go with it on the other one 😀

Fair enough, because I’m on tubeless I can run far lower than manufacturers specify to get more grip, rather than being governed by the risk of a pinch flat. Prefer to choose my pressures based on conditions and what I like, not what a manufacturer says I need to run YMMV.

The pad wear argument is stupid too, I’ve trashed disc pads, but you can still stop. When you wear out rim brake pads (which can still happen in 5 miles) you have no power at all, and there’s a good likelihood you’ll take your rims out in the process!

I also change tyres all the time and it’s no more hassle than with tubes. Just need to use tyres that work!

Both my boys race on tubeless set ups. They carry a spare Co2 cannister as a back up. Anything else(ripped sidewall) and they would take it as game over.
There is a real danger of pinch flats(in particular) and sometimes punctures in a race and too much time is lost trying to change a tube.

It is lighter, they have more choice over tyre pressures and it is faster.

Changing tyres can be a faff. Some of the tubeless rims(american Classics) are dead easy, some OK and some a bit of a pain.

Its a bit like for the cross- anyone wanting to do well rund tubs even though they involve more prep and are more expensive

In over 7 years of having UST on my fs I’ve only had 1 puncture. This was due to me not refreshing the fluid in over 12 months.
Before I went UST on this bike I was puncturing all the time. Thorns are a big problem around here

On my cx, ss and ht have countless punctures and can’t wait to go UST/tubeless on these

Changing tyres is no faff at all

I run tubeless on all three bikes, and have done for 8 years. I that time I’ve had 1 puncture. On tubes it was usually 6 to 8 a year. After removing winter tyres on my local (East Angila) hack, had 6 thorns in one tyre and hadn’t even noticed it. The one puncture I had was fixed trail side with out even needing to remove wheel or tyre from the bike. The only down side I can think of is getting an initial seal with some combinations of tyre and rim.

I don’t get the tyre pressure thing. I run tubes and when I’m out I start lowering the pressure to get grip and then when I’ve gone too far and it rides like a dog I up to the best level for me. Many here say you can run less pressure. But less pressure for me, well, it rides like a dog. [scratches head]

My interest has perked up over the self sealing ability which does away with thorn issues.