[Closed] Looking at going road tubeless...

Probably. I've seen more punctures fail to seal on road tyres, probably due to the pressures. But if you are running 28s at 70ish psi you're likely to be ok. I'm using 28mm Conti GP5000 TL and they are grippy, comfy and fast rolling - and I haven't had a puncture yet.

Ta. Even though I've never once had a problem with fitting tubeless I'm thinking of letting hunt supply them prefitted.

Do you puncture often?

I'm tempted but added faffing, run 28 Conti GP4000 and when they die will likely change to something tubeless compatible (wheels already tubeless ready) but only punctured 3 times this year and two were 2cm slices in both front/back so no amount of sealant would of helped.

It's a no brainier on the MTB.

I've had a set of Aero Light Disc for ~18 months, but so far not tried tubeless. They don't appear to be a prefit option, but the Hutchinson Fusion 5 All Season 11 Storm TLR (such a mouthful I copied/pasted!) are supposed to be a good compromise between performance and durability, £34 each currently at Merlin (don't know if that's best deal around).

GP4000S IIs bought summer 2018 lasted me ~6 months of outdoor use (~60-80 miles per week?) before I found a sidewall split on the front and the rear starting to look a bit squared off and worn...

I need a new nice set of something for the outdoor 2020 season.

As soemone else interested, can worms be used as per MTB tubeless? Would've saved me 10 mins this morning...

Over-rated for road. I've run Schwalbe Ones, G-One speeds and Vittoria Corsa Speeds for TT and circuit racing. they don't hold road pressure when/if they seal, so you have to remove them and patch. They are a LOT harder to mount, and by implication dismount on the side of the road. They weigh more than the same tyre with a latex tube and don't roll as well.

I'm not a fan any more. Buy a pair of non-tubeless GP5000s in 25c, add two latex tubes and thank me later for the best ride you've ever had. Magnificent tyres.

What sort of commute do you have? Definitely worth it for me on a surburban / urban run, used to get quite a few punctures.

They weigh more than the same tyre with a latex tube and don’t roll as well.

I disagree. Mounting tyres seems no more difficult and I noticed a definite improvement in rolling resistance and comfort when switching to tubeless.

As others have said, it works but it’s not as good as mtb tubeless because punctures don’t seal as easily (the ones you notice anyway- tiny ones will heal). I’ve used tubeless worms but obviously not on the main road contact surface. I've also definitely avoided pinch flats when hitting drains etc

Running 28mm GP5000s and find them excellent

I have run road tubeless on Pacenti sl25 rims for 18 months no problems with schwalbe pro one 28mm tyres only got a flat due to rear tyre being worn out. (it was also tipping it down with rain so sealant had no chance) I Have had plenty of thorns that have been sorted out by the stans sealant and i have hit many pot holes which i am sure would have killed an inner tube. They roll well and i run then at 65 to 70 psi. My only complaint ia they dont last that long (on the rear) and are expensive unless you shop around.

I am running GP5000's but not the TL version just set them up tubless with stans sealant, they mount easily on my DT-Swiss rims and after 4000km I am yet to puncture. I have hit a few pot holes hard and I am sure I would have punctured a tubed tyre.
It took quite a while for the Stans sealant to clog up the porous side walls on the tyre but now its done i can change tyres quite easily and they hold air well. I pump them up once a week as they do drop pressure slowly.
I will not be going back to tubes on the road.

If you don't get many flats then not worth bothering in my opinion. I ran 28c tyres tubeless but admittedly did use them off road on a high puncture risk surface of flinty gravel and they still punctured and they didn't seal meaning I had to put tubes into a tyre that has sealant in it which is a mess.

I may just be unlucky and maybe others find that they seal the punctures more effectively.

will tubless lower the frequency of flats like offroad?

yes and you'll be able to run lower pressure for winter grip and no tubes means less rolling resistance

I was beginning to consider it on my winter bike as a 'comfortable' tyre pressure was also prone to pinch flats.

Stuck a carbon seatpost in instead, cured comfort issue and hence pinch flat issue.

Rolling resistance tests showed GP5000 clincher with latex tube was lighter and less rolling resistance than GP5000 tubeless, so only reason I would go tubeless is for lower pressure and grip if that is an issue.

They are a LOT harder to mount, and by implication dismount on the side of the road.

Not in my experience. The GP5000s went on with no bother at all on my Giant SLR rims. So easy that it was quicker than getting a tube in, in fact. Although I will concede that my mate's experience of getting some Schwalbes onto his similar rims was not so pleasant.

I have found that running tubeless on the road is a bit of a lottery. If you get a thorn in the tyre, you'll probably be fine but even a small cut could see you reaching for the tyre levers and the spare tube.

Mounting the tyres probably has more to do with the actual tyre/rim combo, as onewheelgod says, Schwalbe can be a b**ch!

Maybe Continental, being late to the tubeless market, have learned about mounting. But I recently remounted some G One speeds from one onto another set of Ksyriums and whilst they go on eventually, and sealed just fine, they needed levers to mount - and I am a dab hand with tight tyres. I cannot tell you how hard it is to mount the Corsa Speeds (I have five in the garage!) on multiple wheelsets. Carry a set of good tyre levers (Topeak Shuttle in my case) when riding tubeless.

The Corsa Speeds are amazing tyres - the fastest tyre available, and I did ride the 160km UCI Fondo in Albi on the road with them, but zero puncture resistance means you really are hoping for the best from the sealant. One did seal in a TT, and I finished at about 20 PSI, but the tyre was basically a write off for further tubeless duties.

I'll need a lot of convincing to swap my non tubeless GP5000s, which I now have on three bikes and a disc wheel.

Running road tubeless on 3 bikes and taking time initial set up is key. Had great results with pro ones. Don’t rate giant own tyres(gavia) tubeless. Hutchinsons have been good too.

Any puncture you get on tubeless that doesn't seal the first port of call is a plug - takes about 5 mins and away you go. You certainly don't take the tyre off and put a tube in - that would only be for a gaping rent in the tyre that can't be fixed [yet to experience this on road tubeless].

I've had Schwalbe Pro Ones, Hutchinson Fusion in Galaktik, Performance and All Season versions plus Vittoria Corsa Speeds on a number of wheelsets (carbon and alloy) and all mounted and sealed fine. However, getting a pair of GP5000TL's onto a mates Reynolds carbon wheels needed both of us and 6 tyre levers. Never known anything like it! I would like to try some GP5000 TL on some of my wheels where I have found it easy enough to mount other tubeless brands, to see if it is the GP5000 or whether it was those Reynolds wheels.

But it is nice to know that hitting potholes, grills and kerbs aren't going to cause a puncture even when you lower the pressure for manky weather. Never been able to repair a puncture properly but sealant has meant that the hole did seal on the road and allowed me to put enough pressure in to get home without having to put an inner tube in.

Good ones do have low rolling resistance and I think they ride as nicely as open tubulars with latex tubes.

Hutchinson Fusion 5 All Season 11 Storm TLR

+1, think I found them for ~£28 each.

They seal at about 60psi which is enough to get you home without too much bother. Then it sealed properly overnight and went back upto 100psi.

You can use worms/plugs, but I think it's probably safest to stick with the skinniest you can find. I'm sure 2x5mm bits of string stick out the tyre and deforming the carcass around a small hole would make themselves felt! Thankfully I've not had to try yet.

I’ve used Hutchinson performance and Continental 5000 on roval slx24 wheels for about 3000 miles. I’ve used an achovie in the 5000 and I was back up and running in about 3 minutes, really impressed with the lack of fuss compared with changing a tube. Running about 10 psi less. Generally pleased with the change but I always have an achoive preloaded on the little fork as they are hard to load. Both tyres went on very easily.

I find that they do work, but once they've sealed you can't then go above about 50psi or the seal will blow out, so you end up taking off and patching before the next ride.

Anchovies leave your otherwise slick tyre going thump, thump, thump as you ride.

We've tried to mount six Pro Ones now, four have gone up ok, two been a nightmare. I think there are small differences between tyres that are important.

Been running tubeless on my road bike for two years/6000km. Only had one puncture that wouldn't seal at all (glass slash) and one that wouldn't hold more than 50psi but got me home no problem.
Gp5000TL easier to seal than Pro Ones
Do still carry a tube for longer rides

Just set up tubeless first time ever, roubaix tyres prime race wheels, took half an hour, was so shocked I forgot to line up my valves and logo's. Tyres cracked on rims with no sealant.

This site is full of useful info and he's really helpful on the phone

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/pages/tech-page

Im surprised by ajaj's comments about anchovies, i can't feel them and pump the tyre back up to about 70 psi immediately with no problems - maybe its the type of anchovie

I have ridden just under 10k miles on two different road bikes, both with tubeless tyres. One has light bicycle rims and Pro Ones, the other Giant carbon rims with Giant Gavia tyres. In that time I think I have had to put a tube in three times, I have also ridden home twice with a tyre that was squirting sealant, but was holding enough air to let me keep riding. Annoyingly on my second tubeless ride I managed to put a big split into a Pro One due to a piece of glass. I have found that the higher pressures don't allow the tyres to seal holes as well as mtb tyres do, but overall I am happy with them and wouldn't go back to tubes.

I've just set the winter bike up tubeless, Hunt aero wide wheels and gp 5000 tl tyres with contis own sealant.
The tyres were a pig to get on the rim (took me nearly an hour to do both), but the front pumped up instantly with just a track pump, the rear required some soapy water and compressed air, but still only took a few minutes. First ride will be tomorrow afternoon.

MtbTomo you haven’t ridden with me have you? I have Reynolds wheels, they are an absolute pig to get tyres on. I haven’t got full use of my left arm, any flats with those wheels and it’s a call to my wife.
Had a flat when I was running them with tubes, took 3 of us to get the tyre off. Gone tubeless and not had any issues since, just under 2000 miles on the same set of Schwalbe Pro Ones....(not impressed with the wet weather grip on these, but puncture resistance appears to have been good)

To summarise. Tubeless on an mtb is a no-brainer. Tubeless on a road bike is not so clear cut. They may work perfectly, install with no bother & seal up every puncture.... or they may not. It can be a bit of a lottery

Thanks folks, going down the tubeless route. Ta for the inputs.

I’ve had a few thorn punctures seal on rides and not known at the time (pro ones on Hope 20FIVE) and one where I’ve wondered why my shoes are full of spaff. I’m a big advocate; when it doesn’t seal (once so far, 500 metres from the end of the c2c) I put a tube in.

To summarise. Tubeless on an mtb is a no-brainer. Tubeless on a road bike is not so clear cut. They may work perfectly, install with no bother & seal up every puncture…. or they may not. It can be a bit of a lottery

I won the lottery on MTB but definitely lost it on road.

Running tubeless on both road bikes. GP5000 28s on the canyon. Fantastic tyres and have put over a thousand miles into them without a puncture.
Running Mavvic yksion pro on the other bike as they came with the ksyrium wheelset. I've had them on since the middle of summer and again, well impressed. Doing 30 miles a day in and out of London, with no punctures - again I'm over a thousand miles so far on them. They're also fast and grippy.

The continentals went on without levers and the mavics came already fitted so I can't comment on ease of installation.

Actually, just checked my strava gear page. The continentals are at 1400 miles and the mavics at 1800. Very impressive puncture resistance on both.

@woodster - that's the exact same comment my mate made, that basically it's mobile assistance from his wife at the first sign of needing an inner tube 🙂

Ok so I thought it was a bit too easy, had to pump my tyres up yesterday after leaving bike a week, fair enough but today they were back at about 30psi rather than 60 I pumped them to yesterday, is that normal?

No. Something’s leaking until it reaches a lower pressure then stabilising. My tubeless tyres will typically lose about 10psi per week down to about 30psi and will fully deflate over about 2-3months of inactivity.

Shouldnt I see some sealant coming out somewhere?

No, not if the air leak is from the top of the tyre - basically anywhere there isn't a pool of sealant. Air pressure isn't some magical emotive force that will lift sealant you know 😉

If it's leaking slowly overnight, not going totally flat then a bit more shaking of the tyre and maybe a ride or two should improve it.

They are a LOT harder to mount, and by implication dismount on the side of the road.

Not in my experience. The GP5000s went on with no bother at all on my Giant SLR rims. So easy that it was quicker than getting a tube in, in fact. Although I will concede that my mate’s experience of getting some Schwalbes onto his similar rims was not so pleasant.

I just fitted gp5000 TL onto hunt rims. Easiest ever tubeless setup. Tyres went onto rims with fingers only, no levers. Inflated easily with a track pump first time, no sealant. Deflated, cores out, sealant then cores back in & reinflated straight off no trouble.

Air pressure isn’t some magical emotive force that will lift sealant you know

Yeah I suppose I was thinking of it more like a foam. Riding it might help and also means I will be riding my bike, win win!!!

Well I listened to all the advice and bought Hunt Light Aero Disc wheels and a pair of Conti GP5000TLs.
Popped them on the bike yesterday and had so much fun that I find it hard to stop riding it.
Going up to 28C tyres at 65psi and dropping about a kilo in weight ( I had Shimano RX05 on there before - solid but very heavy.) the bike feels transformed. Comfortable and effortless to power up.
I'm a very happy commuter.
Now if I can get that bloody chainring re-anodised back to black I'll be sorted.

EDIT: Also imagine the look on my face when I tried to take the Gates drive sprocket off the freehub and realised that a Chainwhip wasn't going to do anything useful...

https://flic.kr/p/2i4fNXJ

And the good news is my tyres are holding pressure much better now!!

First roadside puncture today, didnt seal 😣😥😥😥

Lol, a fitting meme!

Hard lines with puncture fail, I keep boasting about the performance of my non-tubeless tyres with latex tubes, but I guess that anything which could hole a tubeless tyre would also hole a tube.

It was a pretty big hole tbh, patched it from the inside when I got home.

IV been Tubeless on the road Bike the last 2 Summers , Carbon Roval Rims With 1 wrap of Tubeless tape with Schwalbe Ones, our roads are pretty poor used to run tubes at 100psi dropped to 80 Tubeless bike much comfier well impressed

How often do ya'll have to reinflate (say get pressure up to at least 80 psi) your approx 25mm wide road tires? Considering going TL as i'm getting a hole-less carbon rim.

All depends how well the tyres match the rims. If you need to inflate them any more than you do with tubes then something is not right. They shouldn't be leaking air so shouldn't need to be re-inflated.

Rear tyre gets a top up every week or so when it gets a bit soft. The front every couple of weeks.

Mine get topped up to about 60psi every two or three weeks, they drop to about 40 over that time

I’ve been running tubeless on the MTB’s for years but only just converted the road bike. DTSwiss rims and GP5000TL 32mm and absolutely love them. Super comfortable at low pressures and tons of grip. Also carry round Stans Dart tool in case of larger hole that sealant can’t seal.

Eddie, Frankers, how easy were the 5000TLs to fit? I'm currently using Pro One Tubeless which were a doddle to install and inflate, but they cut easier than the GP4000s which were my go-to clincher. GP5Ks supposed to be better than the 4K so I expect will be better than the Pro Ones, but I keep hearing (third hand) horror stories of how hard they are to install, and that they are especially bad on DT Swiss rims (which I have).

I fitted them to the Hunts with no real problem. I did need to use levers but they went up with just a track pump. The only problem I had was getting them to work with the round base Hunt valves. I had to loosen the valves, push them in slightly and then after the tyre seated properly tightened the valve again, re seated the tyre and finally popped the sealant in. A bit of confusion for a minute but once I realised the problem the next tyre took minutes.
If I used the Mavic valves with the parallel sides base it would have been effortless.

I run the new Specialized Turbo RapidAir in 26c on Roval rims, go on with fingers only, inflate with track pump 1st time, lose maybe a couple of psi weekly, about the same as butyl tube. I'll not use tubes again.

They fitted to my DT Swiss rims without any problems using Pedros tyre leavers. I read some of the horror stories too, but after fitting tubeless Xc tyres for years maybe I already have the knack . I have used Schwalbe Pro One’s previously but found them very fragile and didn’t last long.

I used the DT SWiss valves that came with the wheels, again no issues

GP5000TL fitted to my DTSwiss PR1600 easily. No levers required, pumped straight up with normal track pump.

just bought some Bonty hardcase lite TLRs in 32mm so looking forward to giving them a roll.

I bought a PlanetX Carbon Evo and there is no way I can get 28s in there so I’m going to try Schwalbe 1 25s in there. Looking forward to trying that.
Tubeless does seem to work for me. But if course with the weather we’ve been having I haven’t exactly been tearing the miles up.

Have pulled the Gbike out a few times to see little glossy bits on the tires, obviously punctures I’ve avoided.

Have had a few rides where the punctures failed to seal due to high pressure (40psi max)

I’m still undecided

I take spare tubes when I do a ‘big un’ but I don’t take spare stans fluid/ noodles.

Maybe I should,

which is easier? Changing or patching a tube OR faffing with a tubeless+noodle and adding more seaLent when it doesn’t seal.

Not convinced tubeless is the future with road/gravel

which is easier? Changing or patching a tube OR faffing with a tubeless+noodle and adding more seaLent when it doesn’t seal.

This is my internal debate, am planning some big/remote gravel rides in the summer and currently thinking I'd rather stick with tubes and just live with the slightly higher tyre pressures (I have suspension seatpost anyway due to low back issues) and occasional thorn puncture. 'Better the devil you know' as I said on another thread.

Would be interested to know of people's experiences bike-packing and touring with tubeless, I guess the only drawbacks are the rare occasions when it goes very wrong, in which case you just have a slightly messier job sticking a tube in.

I bought a PlanetX Carbon Evo and there is no way I can get 28s in there so I’m going to try Schwalbe 1 25s in there. Looking forward to trying that.

If you've not already I'll measure mine tonight, my 25's are huge, they barely fit under the brake caliper on my road bike whereas the hutchinson 25's fit under with room for a mudguard bracket!

Would be interested to know of people’s experiences bike-packing and touring with tubeless, I guess the only drawbacks are the rare occasions when it goes very wrong, in which case you just have a slightly messier job sticking a tube in.

I took tubes on my last big trip trip as the tyres weren't compatible.

Got a puncture halfway through day 1 in the pissing rain.

Spare tube had rotted/split due to how long it had been in my pack.

Spare-spare tube the valve core snapped off whilst pumping (why are presta valves still a thing?) and TBH didn't look much healthier than the other spare.

Couldn't patch the original tube as it was pissing it down so neither glue nor glueless patches would stick. Ended up sacrificing all my dry socks for the trip trying to dry and patch it under my jacket.

Swore I was never going for a long ride with tubes ever again.

A friend raced the GBDuro last year and made it to halfway through the last stage with tubeless and dynaplugs before getting one that was too big to seal. Then got double digits of punctures in the last ~400km.

I'm tempted to take something like a slime tube as the get-out-of-jail solution in future.

Just spent the evening setting up my first road tubeless combo.

25c Schwalbe pro one's on Alex Draw rims. Wasn't too difficult, but needed CO2 inflator to get them up. Only ever needed my track pump when doing mtb tyres.

I've gone from 32c gravel kings to 25c, they look tiny!! Hopefully will get to take them for a test ride soon. Got a bad feeling they'll be flat by the morning though!!

Well bugger me, they're still hard!! 👌