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That is my experience huckersneck - with sealant in both tubulars and tubeless road I occasionally got small punctures that would seal at low pressure, but would blow out at higher. Not often by any means, but enough to be noticeable.
This isn't really a problem for me as my main road miles are a shortish commute plus the occasional sportive. If you're bashing out serious road miles though it's more of a consideration.
It should be solved by better sealants but I don't think we're quite there yet - new ones get launched with claims of great performance, but I don't know of any that are a serious advance over stuff like Stans or cafelatex that have been around for ages.
My reservation with tubeless on the road is the pressures I’d probably use with whizzy size tyres and the ability of the tubeless setup to seal at those pressures.
This does seem to be the crux of it. Many suggest it is fine once you get into the wider gravel riding, casual fatty road riding tyre. Less so on 28mm and under.
I was swaying back to tubeless, feeling adventurous and all, but you've put me off a bit again. Finding it hard to get my head past the potential hassle.
Tubeless is great, Schwalbe Pro One work brilliantly, never had a puncture that has failed to seal. I have had one that went down quite a lot - down to 20PSI, but the goo had dried up a lot..
I'm also having a great deal of success avoiding punctures with Latex tubes and Conti GP4S. Not had a single puncture over 2 winters with this set up.
I will stick with Tubeless in summer, mainly down to the rolling resistance gains.
I am always amazed on these threads by how many punctures you lot get. I haven't had a puncture on a road bike (tubed) for approx. 8 years!
had schwalbe pro ones tubeless in 28mm guise for about 1500 miles, in that time i had 3 punctures that would not seal... maybe i was running too low a pressure? 60psi fwiw, i'm 85kg, bike is 8kg
i switched them to hutchinson sectors (28mm again), so far so good, but run them at 80 psi, fingers remain firmly crossed!....
when i took the pro ones off, the front one had punctured twice without me even knowing (there were the tell tale signs on the inside of the tyre) i'd only had punctures on the rear tyre
Just converted my road bike to tubeless.
Shimano wheelset and Hutchinson Fusion 5 all season's. The tyres go on and off as easily as normal tyres (maybe even easier than the schwalbe's that came off!). The only faff was the valves, Shimano wheels need shimano valves apparently and I must have binned them. New ones are £30 a pair! No other valves will fit/work in those rims (I tried everything from hutchinson, uberbike, mavic, stans and some chinese ones which got closest).
So far no problems.
The only time I can see them leaving me stranded would be if I got puncture, couldn't patch/plug it and for some reason couldn't get all the old thorns out so a tube wouldn't seal. But that's a problem on a problem on a problem. Probably getting on for more likely to get more punctures than you have patches with normal tubes.
No need for CO2, it went up 1st time with a mini-pump, although I tend to carry it anyway as it's convenient on group rides.
have to say, I've found Pro One to be flimsy too (the original ONE was heavier but more robust)
Can’t believe that people would chose tubes over tubeless these days. For me the reasons are obvious, higher volume tyre = reduced rolling resistance, improved grip and comfort. Rolling around on a pair of 23mm tyres @ 100psi+ just feels harsh and uncomfortable.
I mostly rolled around on 28mm tyres and tubes at 70 psi last year. Fast and comfortable. The tubeless tyres I tried were 30mm, also fast and comfortable.
I don't think there was a huge amount to choose between the two options for me. Tubeless will give better puncture protection, but as someone pointed out above, punctures are so rare with modern tyres that even that is not a killer reason to change.
, but as someone pointed out above, punctures are so rare with modern tyres that even that is not a killer reason to change
Err not, I’ve seen plenty of peaple with punctures the last couple of weeks.
All depends where your riding, if there’s a lot of trees an wind this ends up a puncturefest.
have to say, I’ve found Pro One to be flimsy too (the original ONE was heavier but more robust)
I agree but tbh I do really like them and apparentltly Josh Ibbett’s running them tubeless.
He sorta rides er a bit further than most of us.
All depends where your riding, if there’s a lot of trees an wind this ends up a puncturefest.
I haven't done much riding that didn't feature trees and wind in the past 40 years. My daily commute involves potholes, dirt track, hedge lined roads, urban tarmac. I must be very lucky, because puncturing is a rare inconvenience!