Morning all,

Really appreciate all the advice in the previous thread and I’ve nearly clicked buy on a set of schwalbe duranos.

However… I’ve since discovered my bontrager rims are tubeless ready.

So considering getting some rim strips and tubeless tyres.

Anyone converted and happy? What are you running?

Anyone converted and found the sealant doesn’t work well with high pressures and low volume tyres?

Any recommendations on tubeless tyres to go for?

several old threads HERE

I bought a set of Ultegra wheels for my winter bike; they don’t need rim tape as the inside is already sealed (the spokes are attached to the rim outer). I then bought a pair of Hutchinson Fusion 5 Tubeless All Season. I had the usual tubeless faff of seating the tyres overnight etc etc but after that they went up pretty well. There is a very definite rim / lip interface between the rim and tyre that creates a really secure bond.
I ride a lot of road miles – circa 150 per week – and have had four punctures in the past three months since I set the tyres up. Each time there has been a loss of air pressure down to about 40psi; sealant generally comes out but after pumping some air back in but after a quick spin of the wheel you’re pretty much ready to ride off again. All of the four punctures have been more like mini-cuts ie 3mm long and quite wide, so I’m certain to have had more that have just sealed without me knowing.
Verdict? Do it, it’s great. I’m not certain if I’d do it without having had the experience of MTB tubeless though; I think there are quite a few potential obstacles to overcome if you don’t understand how it all works.

I would say it depends on the use.

I have them on the commuter as this gets used regularly and keeps the sealant as a fluid. I don’t change tyres until they are worn out.

I use 28mm Hutchinson sectors. they are OK, but i have had about half a dozen punctures in the last 6 months. of those only one required me to go “old school” and fit a tube (split sidewall fixed with a cliff bar wrapper). The rest have either sealed fine OR needed some air top-up. I run them at about 80psi usually. I did get a puncture once that took the pressure down to about 40psi, but i still rode to work and back without topping it up – i work on the premise that if the rim is not bottoming out, then there is enough air in there to get where i am going thus Its great for commuting.

However, in any application where the bike is not used regularly OR you want to change tyres often (a cross bike as an example) I would say the faff and the time taken to change far out weighs the benefits gained (in fact I think it is unsuitable for a cross bike as you need higher pressure than you’d like just to keep the tyre on the rim – thats my experience at least).

HTH

Personally: Flinty roads means not too thin a tyre for me (new Schwalbe pro one too fragile) as they struggle to reseal and won’t hold a repair strip. Currently trying spesh roubaix (the non-tubeless ones) to see what the traction’s like before maybe buying the ded-expensive tubeless ones

IRC formula, Bontrager hardcase, hutchinson secteur all a bit more robust and not overly skiddy (it’s not like I’m ragging the thing round wet hairpin bends though). I’d have any of those again – as I would the OLD schwalbe Ones

I bought some Hunt wheels fitted with tubeless Pro Ones. I’ll be honest and say I’m not a big fan although I’m not entirely sure if its the tyres fault, rather than tubeless as a concept. I’ve had a couple of issues with the rim tape letting go, although Hunt were brilliant about this and sent me new rim tape out FOC.

I think the biggest problem is that there isn’t a huge choice of tubeless tyres available and I personally don’t get on with the Schwalbes. I’ve since converted my Hunts back to tubed and am running GP4000’s on them which seem to roll just as nicely with no noticeable puncture increase.

I know a lot of people rave about them, so it could just be me. However for the time being I’ll be sticking with tubes

Hunt wheels with schwalbe s-ones (now g-one speed) here. I was surprised to get a puncture on my first ride on some canal tow path. However it did seal and I didn’t need to stop and fit a tube. So assuming that would have punctured a tube then it’s working pretty well for me!

I got the s-ones over the pro-ones as I was advised they were much harder wearing. They can still keep up on a Sunday club run though.

Started with S Ones on Pacenti CL25 rims. No complaints. Those tyres have been moved to some SL 25 rims and are still fine. They get mostly back lane use on club runs and 5 miles of gravel every other week.
The CLs now have CX tyres tubeless. Not given them a lot of grief yet sub 30 psi.

Thanks for responses so far.

I’m wandering about the rim strips, are you guys running stans tapes or?

I haven’t actually looked to see what is lurking under my tyre as I wasn’t looking at eyelets etc when I sorted punctures the other day.

Pretty sure the bontrager ones need rim strips though or some tape?

I’ve set loads of mtb tubeless wheels up and have a compressor so not too worried about the set up, just more peoples experiences.

Thanks again for your input folks

tubeless on both roadies; commuter and ‘best’

commuter is currently on 35mm Schwable G-ones (taped-up Archetype rims)

best is currently on 25mm Schwalbe Pro Ones (LB carbon rims)

Haven’t used tubes for over three years.

I’ve run original Schwalbe One Tubeless in 25C on Mavic Ksyrium rims without any issues. The rear suffered a terminal slice and was beyond repair. The front has never had a puncture of note. Rim strips are not needed for the Ksyrium rims, but the rim is not “tubeless”. I don’t see this as an issue, because the bead of the tyre is tubeless. They were the easiest tyres I have ever mounted.

I like Schwalbe Ones and have used the non tubeless for some time.

Gorilla tape with insulation tape. I’m tight.

Having just built a bike with bontrager affinity comp rims and bontrager R2 tyres, I’m finding them OK.
The front sealed fine, but the rear took a bit more sealant before it stayed up (think I nicked the rim strip slightly)

Running at about 80 psi and they’re nice and comfy on rough roads, but have only been out in frosty conditions so far, so will have to wait for drier days to really be able to comment.
(I could put winter tyres on, but I’m not a fan of road riding in dodgy weather)

As I have bontrager tubeless rims and tyres on my mountain bike, I’m hoping that they give the same performance – which is, frankly, superb.

Well I priced it up. At about £50 a tyre, then £12 for a pair of valves and then my rims needed strips at £7.50 each it came in at the best part of £150 to go tubeless…

So I went the other way and on the way home bought a cheap set of wire beaded conti gator skins.

Hopefully have more success on the commute on Friday!

About two years on road tubeless now here and Strava says that’s over 14,000km. In that time I have used the following tubeless tyres…

– Hutchinson Atom Galactik 23mm (the first ones I tried, were good but a bit narrow – all the others are 25mm)
– Hutchinson Fusion 5 Galactik (not ridden these much)
– Hutchinson Fusion 3 (for a bit, sold them with some wheels)
– IRC Roadlite (3500km on these – a bit industrial sounding, feel a bit heavy on the road but OK – had a sidewall split on one – see below)
– Schwalbe One (lovely lovely and light, but fragile – got 2400km out of them)
– Hutchinson Intensive (have had two pairs of these now, first set lasted 4000km – many don’t like these for grip but I’ve found them “OK”, not great but good as a winter tyre YMMV)

I am a total convert to tubeless and can’t see me going back. The biggest thing about switching over is the faff of fitting them and getting used to the battle you can have getting them seated. Tight doesn’t begin to describe some of the tyre/rim combos even if the experts maintain you should be able to get them on with thumbs and a track pump 😉

In the time I’ve been on tubeless I’ve only had one ride-ending flat and that was on the IRCs and I’m not convinced it wasn’t a defect in the tyre but hard to say. I’ve had maybe 2 or 3 “hissers” where I’ve obviously had a puncture and the sealant has done its job. On all those occasions I got home (30km to get back was the furthest I think) with no real pressure loss. Maybe I’ve been lucky! HTH 🙂

Edit: ha! In the time it took me write all that – the OP has gone off the idea! Typical 😉

Thanks munster. It’s still useful for myself and others to read. May still go tubeless after the winter when my wife is back at work (she’s on maternity at the min so money is a bit tighter).

Well I priced it up. At about £50 a tyre, then £12 for a pair of valves and then my rims needed strips at £7.50 each it came in at the best part of £150 to go tubeless…

bike24 have tyres at eu35, valves are £10, and tape is pence.

I’ve been running 38mm Compass tyres on Crosslights V3, ghetto, for a couple of years very successfully.

But I’ve recently read about tyres stretching and just popping off on ghetto which scared the life out of me tbh. So I’ve just put tubes back in (Conti Slim Tour, with some stans put in).

I’ll only go tubeless again when I upgrade to full TLR rims and tyres for road riding. MTB I’ll stick to ghetto as I’m not doing 50mph mountain road descents on those.

Stans Grail rims, stans valves, two wraps of stans tape, continental sealant, Schwalbe Pro One 25c tyres. Usually seals with the cores removed and a track pump, though I had to use a CO2 cartridge last time. Tyres fit without levers.

Overall, I like the set up. Very smooth to ride and feels quick. I’ve had a couple of punctures which have sealed with some air loss, one puncture didn’t seal but the sealant had dried out so my fault. I’ve replaced one tyre due to a slashed sidewall. The Pro Ones are a touch fragile – the rear is squaring off at less than 2000 km, and wet grip doesn’t inspire confidence (I much preferred my Michelin Pro 4s in the wet).

Very happy with tubeless!

Has nobody tried to make Gp4000’s tubeless?
Would be best of both worlds imo!
I have Stan’s grailrims, so they’ll hoook right up, no?
Can’t believe nobody has tried this yet?????

you must use proper tubeless tyres ducman. So no.

I tried a set of 28mm GP4Seasons, just for fun, but they took ages to seal due to the porous sidewalls and I only felt safe at low pressures. For road tubeless you need the right tyres, basically.

Hutchinson Sector tubeless on Mavic Ksyrium disks – easy to fit, need pumping up every 2-3 days to maintain pressure, great feeling tyres, bit scary in the wet. Couple of puntures have sealed without interruption to ride.

Schwalbe S-One Evo tubeless on Mavix Ksyrium Allroads – bastards to fit (Tubeless Easy my arse), but once fitted hold air. Put air in every fortnight.
No punctures, feel great, great grip. Love em.

Rggiegasket, so you tried 4season’s, so no reason Gp4000’s wouldn’t work, gonna try some 28’s! What’s difference between lightweight latex inner tube & tubeless!? So no reason It would come off the rim!

let us know how you get on.

Hope he’s alright 😯

I’ve run tubeless on my MTBs for years & recently took up road cycling. Bought schwalbe tubes (with removable cores) & use Stans fluid in them. Possibly a few grams heavier – but belt & braces – self sealing tubes!

😆

Ok, tyres are on the bike for 3 days now.
They keep pressure reasonbly wel.
First ride this afternoon.

I’ve run tubeless on my MTBs for years & recently took up road cycling. Bought schwalbe tubes (with removable cores) & use Stans fluid in them. Possibly a few grams heavier – but belt & braces – self sealing tubes!

Out of interest have you had any success with this, as in, have you experienced the sealant actually seal an inner tube? My gut feeling is that the inner tube would be too thin and flexible for a plug to form? Might get you home maybe? Would be interested either way.

Using Schwalbe S Ones on Aksium wheels taped with Gorilla tape. Easy to fit, needed the ghetto coke bottle to inflate. Only had one puncture, 4mm cut which sealant wouldn’t seal. Stuck an anchovie in it. Still going strong. Used for commuting and winter bike duties, nice rolling tyres with a tub like ride.

On the road bike have Schwalbe Pro Ones 25mm on Chinese carbon rims. Barsteward to fit (Pedro’s tyre levers did the trick). Ride very close to a tub.

The ride quality is better on tubeless compared to normal tubes (latex tubes might be less of a difference). Puncture protection worth the added installation hassle. Using anchovies makes fixing the few punctures you do get a doddle. You don’t even need to take the wheel off.

All my wheels are now tubeless, wouldn’t go back.