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Doing Dirty Reiver in April - will be using gravel tires in the 700 x 35c ballpark.
I have had tubeless on my CX bike for a year, with tubeless ready rims, tape and tyres and it worked great UNTIL I had to change my summer tyres to winter mud tyres the night before a race and the only way I could unseat the tyres was rocking the wheel with tyre in a vice.
I assume that the higher pressures run on a road-type bike, for riding to races and commuting, etc, would have seated the tyres particularly firmly... or not - I suppose the bead is either seated or not seated. Maybe it was just that combo of rim+tyre.
Anyhow... that's fine for a CX race where if you puncture you're out anyway and can get a lift to a train station, but in the middle of Northumberland it could be a disaster... While my rims and tyres will be tubeless ready, I'm tempted to just run tubes and carry loads of spares / put some Stans in the tubes...
Experiences?
Not had the problem you describe.
I will be going with a tubeless set up as last year and carrying a couple of tunes case of punctures.
Last year I can honestly I have never seen so many punctures on one ride. Or dropped water bottles.
Tubeless is the next best thing to mandatory for the DR.
How many tubes are you planning on carrying of you don't?
Id be tempted to run tubeless at the DR and deal with the tyre/rim issue if and when it happens. Short of a catastrophic rip in the tyre sidewall it won't.
the alternative is to run higher pressure to avoid pinch flats and carry a few spare tubes & patch kit I guess.
get some tyres that you don't need a vice to get off the rim (i'd do that anyway, even if i was just doing short rides from home, no-one needs that risk), run tubeless, take some spare tubes
I ran Sammy Slicks last year, tubeless in the front and a tube in the back (cannot get the back rim to seal). I had zero punctures in the front and packed it in after the fourth punctured tube in the back! Definitely go tubeless.
There is some panic mongering in here, it's just gravel not porcupines hiding in pointy rocks. Being able to actually steer and decsend on a CX will make the biggest difference to if you get a load of punctures. I rode the first one on tubes and have ridden at Keilder a reasonable amount with no punctures, even when loaded up with bikepacking kit.
Stick a 40mm upfront atleast if you can mind.
Cheers... Yeah I suppose the obvious answer is to get some tubeless tyres that I'm sure I can remove by conventional means if necessary! Maybe 35mm rear, 37 ish front...
Kerv, what psi were you running and were they 32mm?
Also, what's the rockiest the route gets? Thanks