[Closed] Why Tubeless?

i pinch punctured 5 times on monday, and i had enough pressure in (before someone says that!!) just had a few unlucky square edge hits.

i want to go tubeless for that reason (i need to know a few things 1st hence my other post!!)

Well, you're obviously one of the few fortunate souls who's never had to struggle fixing a flat tyre at 4.30 in the afternoon in late December when it's raining. Since I went tubeless six years ago I've gone from at least one puncture every time I took the bike out for a ride, sometimes two within a mile of each other, to having one puncture causing a tyre to go flat while on a ride in that time. I emphasise that: one puncture on a ride in six years. Maybe you don't think puncture-free rides are in any way important, but they're a damned big deal to me.

depends how often you change tyres etc... as setting it up initially is a faff.

Not convinced myself either - as you still need to carry a spare tube/pump.

No pinchflats, lower pressures, better grip, self-sealing punctures... didn't someone ask this just the other day?!

whilst your on here saying about this why not pop down a few threads and answer my question on tubeless please!!!

Its just a big con by the bike industry to sell more expensive tyres.

Its just a big con by the bike industry to sell more expensive tyres.

Ignorance is bliss. Or are you still running inner tubes on your car tyres?

I've gone from at least one puncture every time I took the bike out for a ride, sometimes two within a mile of each other

Surely you're exaggerating by about 1 million times?

I have had only one puncture on my tubeless set up and that was caused by a large cut to the side wall. That is in 2 years of riding. I have a vid of me landing hard enough to see the rim hit the floor (pressure was to low) and it din't lose any air or damage the tyre.
In contrast i have had about 3 rides on my new HT which has tubes and got one puncture in that time from a small stone that stayed in which in the tubeless set up would have sealed it self.
If you do change tyres a lot then tubeless will be a big faff but if you just fit one set of tyres then it is fantastic.

Not convinced myself either - as you still need to carry a spare tube/pump.

Were you looking for something to do away with carrying those?
no?
OK so you still have to carry them, it's hardly a bind - you're doing it now

Its just a big con by the bike industry to sell more expensive tyres.

Why's that? - most folk just use normal tyres for tubeless
In fact, given the slightly longer procedure for changing tyres, people may well keep the same ones on longer - so use less overall

I will never go back to tubes

I'm really considering this now, after getting a horn puncture 1 mile from teh end of todays ride, couldn't be arsed fixing it so just trundled back.

When you go "Ghetto" do you have to use new tyres or can you get away with one wit a little hole in it - as above?

Why's that? - most folk just use normal tyres for tubeless
In fact, given the slightly longer procedure for changing tyres, people may well keep the same ones on longer - so use less overall

This is what happened to me and the fact that i bougth spesh 2bliss ones for £20 each means that they haven't cost me any more than normal folding tyres.

I used to get a pinch flat about every other ride, i've only used a proper tubeless tyre on a tubeless rim no fluid as i can't remember the last time i had a thorn puncture, i've only gone tubeless at the rear end and i did it about 2yrs ago, in that time i've had 1 front puncture, its the best thing i've ever done.

Just wish my mates would as i still have to wait for them to fix there punctures 🙁

Even when you do puncture with tubeless it is rarely a catastrophic failure;usually just a slow puncture due to the fact the air pressure inside is unable to expand the tire hole like it can to a wafer thin inner tube.

I very rarely get punctures. One or two a year riding most days. I change tyres a lot as I only have one good solo MTB and one tandem so the tyres get changed for different conditions.

So for me its a no brainer - tubeless ain't worth the faff.

If you get a lot of punctures I can see more purpose in it - however I have seen 4 failures of tubeless. Burping and punctures and in each case it was a real faff to fix at the trailside.

TandemJeremy - Member
If you get a lot of punctures I can see more purpose in it - however I have seen 4 failures of tubeless. Burping and punctures and in each case it was a real faff to fix at the trailside.

They only time i had a tyre burp, which was when i landed badly of a jump, the yre reseated its self stright away. As for th epuncture faff then it is no worse than doing a normal one in that you just check the inside of the tyre for thorns/stones etc and fit in a tube.

It's pointless for me, i don't weigh much (<60kg) so i already run my tyres at a low pressure, i don't live in an area full of thorns and i only puncture about 3/4 times a year - even my commuter bike is fine.

My mate had a horrible faff with his tubeless one winters day, struggled to get his tyre of the rim, struggled to get it back on, pinched the emergency tube, struggled to get the tyre off again, used one of my tubes, struggled with the tyre again etc. All in sub-zero temperatures.
Strangely enough he flatted on tubeless whereas i was fine on tubed tyres?

Owen - You have to remove the tubeless valve - and on one occasion that was a real struggle and the UST tyres were so tight on the rim that removing them was as hard as any tyre I have ever done - half an hour in the cold and wet trying to change it.

Might have just been bad circumstances but that is my experience. Less punctures but not none and more faff to get a tube in there if it does puncture.

For sure if I rode where there are hawthorn hedges I would be on tubeless. No question. but I don't.

I'm going to have to agree with TJ - I get maybe 4-5 punctures a year. Even when it's wet a cold, how long does it take to replace a tube (and check that the thorn or whatever isn't still embedded in the tyre)? Compared to that seeing folks faff around with tubeless/having tyres come off at the slightest hint of sideways movement/having to go to a garage for a compressor that gets air in quick enough/pouring sealant into the tyre/using double rims strips so that the tyre seats properly on the rim. A solution looking for a problem in my experience (and stressing 'my experience', it might be a godsend for other people).

AH that is one of the reasons that i have a pair of pliers in my bag. The easist way that i have found to get the tyres off is to pull them in the opposite direction (ie towards the center of the rim) though i did once put a pair of conti sport contacts on that took me the best part of an hour to unseat and that was with a tube in.
there is a lot of hawthorn here and the farmers do like to cut it.

owenfackrell - Member
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there is a lot of hawthorn here and the farmers do like to cut it.

By far the best reason for tubeless. Id be running it in your shoes

I was on holiday with a guy who could fix punctures in tubeless with some old rope and rubber solution.

Last year I had 4 punctures.
1 on my own bike with tubeless, a sidewall gash.
3 on 3 different bikes at Laggan demo day, pinch flats.

I have a compressor though and can understand why plenty people don't want tubeless. You could pump some looser fitting tyres for a year with a track pump and they wouldn't inflate.

I'd hate to go back to tubes. I rarely carry a pump and tube nowadays unless I'm going out into the wilds a long way.

I was on holiday with a guy who could fix punctures in tubeless with some old rope and rubber solution.

Which is cool, but assumes that he's carrying around old rope and rubber solution. Why not have tubed tyres, and carry around a spare tube, punture repair kit (for a second punture, if it happens), and a pair of eyes to look inside the tyre to see what (thorn, piece of flint etc) caused the puncture?

crispedwheel, he did carry around a kit to repair tubeless, and was quicker than swapping a tube to do it.

Kramer - that sounds ideal - you have something on hand to fix a potential problem that you know about. I may be slightly biased having watched my brother burped his tubeless tyres 3-4 times recently, and spent over an hour with him going round garages trying to find a compressor that'd seat the tyres before putting the valve core back in and pumping the tyres up with a track pump.
Just to clarify - not having a go at tubeless running folks here, just (as in one of my previous posts), trying to see the clear benefits (in terms of time spent on them, cost, performance, ease of replacement/repair) over inner tubes and tyres.

what size compressor can you get away with if it only gonna get used for mtb tyres?

Tried it. Never again.

Had Bontrager Rhythm Comp wheels - bought the special valves, bought the rim strips and bought the sealant.

First ride in the North downs, punctured both tyres. Rear 1" gash. Front - couldn't see the hole but the sealant was p!ssing out of it.

Had to put tubes in both tyres. Could not 'boot' the rear gash because everything was was covered in gloop. I get the tyres back on - but couldn't seat them properly, as funnily enough I couldn't get 70psi+ in with my mini pump - to make the tyres 'ping' into place. So had wobbily tyres for the the rest of the run.

UTTER WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY - SUPER STRESSFUL!

Sold the wheels asap.

Back to Hopes and 717 rims / standard tyres & tubes.

Now I can swap tyres to suit the location I'm riding (change most weekends)- and fix tyres without snapping levers or chaffing thumb knuckles.

NEVER AGAIN.

s

soobalias - I'm no expert on the size of the compressor, so don't take this as gospel truth. [i]But[/i], if you have to fork out another 60-70 quid (which seems to be the standard price quoted), to get a decent compressor that'll seat your tyres properly for tubeless, then that's another argument (and cost), not to do it in my view.

steve p - you couldn't get 70psi with a mini pump? Got to try harder 😉

dont get me wrong, i dont need a compressor - my track pump has managed just fine so far.

I just want one.

Gone tubeless on 26" with stans rim strips and 29" ghetto, never suffered with that many punctures before and still don't now, however I can run lower pressures and the tires grip better without the possibility of pinch flats! ( oh and some tosser round here keeps dropping roofing tacks down so no worries there either)

AFAIK all the tubeless naysayers are talking about ghetto tubeless or using the wrong sort of tyres.

UST rim + UST tyre = tyre inflates and bead seats easily with a track pump or a topeak mountain morph (mini-pump)+ no more pinch flats + no burping + no punctures (the thorn seals its own hole) + more grip + smoother ride

Tubeless def worth it. Punctures is one advantage but lower pressure = more grip and less rolling resistance and that is really useful.

My guess is we're close to the tipping point when tubeless becomes the majority. At Trans Wales this year it was noticeable how many were tubeless - over half I'd say.

I guide full-time in the Alps. I run tubeless. I have had zero punctures this summer. In the same time, guests running tubes have had approximately 1,000,000 punctures, 99% of them pinch-flats.

i don't see why people have such trouble setting up tubeless.

i put a tyre on a wheel (as i would, but with a valve instead of a tube) attach the track pump, and it inflates. just like pumping up a tube. no need to fanny around if you do it properly!

Blimey - I went tubless, just because I could and fancied a change. Really glad I've not had the problems others have had. Only had them 6 months, but taken them on and off a handful of times to change tyre type - can't remember it taking longer. Blew them up with my track pump - didn't really think I wouldn't be able to - it just happened. Come to think of it I havn't had a puncture since then either. Didn't use the bike for about a month as I was on the road a lot and they didn't loose a lot of pressure.

I hope I havn't been saving all my bad luck for the winter!

Yep, love tubeless run them for 4 years, about 3 punctures in that time all ripping the sidewall out. Mostly I am being clumsy 🙂

However, last few months no end of trouble, don't know why, as far as I can see nothing has changed but several punctures including pinch flats!

Still I'll never go back to tubes, more punctures and more rotating weight.

As an aside - would it be true that a rather "rigid"(insert own euphemism here) riding style and lots of pinch flats come hand in hand? Some riders seem to float over stuff and others seem crash around on the same tracks at the same speeds. The same ones (just from my observations) also tend to flat like f*ck.

*waves, i tend to pinch more than other types of puncture.

i would say raged. depends where your riding and all that, tend to batter through rocks a bit more when in peaks/lakes. its the way it is.
out with friends, i'm a "floaty" rider. but occasionally, you miss that line you jumped for, and hit the back wheel. bang, pinched tube... doesn't happen when set up tubeless.

and its a bit comfier on the hardtail

Tubeless rocks. I changed two bikes worth of tyres yesterday. 819's with 2.5UST Maxxis HR's took less than 5 minutes each. Tyre on without levers, inflate, seat bead, deflate, gunk, inflate. As simple as that. One tyre I seated from new with my mini pump just to see if I could! If I get a problem on the trail I'll have to put a tube in but it's very rare I find.

THEN, I tried to put the the tubed version of the same tyres (roughly) on my DT FR2350 wheels. FAIL. Broke 3 levers but using metal levers ripped the tubes twice. I gave up. I'm going to buy the rim strips and go tubelss because then I can use the metal levers without ripping the tubes. Also ripped half a nail off and cut my thumb. I can normally get most tyres without the levers but despite warming up on a V14 Bouldering problem followed by an hour of E11 climbing this just wasn't going to happen!

LUST are crap but if you don't mind the weight the proper tubeless tyres are perfect. Incidentally 2.35 LUST + Big Tube weights exactly the same as 2.5 UST without tubes!

I was the same for ages, couldn't see the benefits of tubeless, then when I stuck an alfine on the back of the bike I needed a wheel built and I wanted to avoid the hassle of having to remove the rear wheel to fix a puncture as much as possible.

I went for FUll UST, non of this faff with ghetto/stans.

"Tyre on without levers, inflate, seat bead, deflate, gunk, inflate with mini pump" was my experience and it's been flawless for 8 months, although the copydex and water mix has probably gone solid by now tbh.

As for the benefits - ignore the puncture part, thats a nice side effect, but the grip is phenomenal over everything and it's a lot, lot smoother. As money allows I'll be moving all my bikes to UST.

I have had a ghetto setup on my 719 with a UST tyre for a few months now, including a week in the Alps doing the Mega - not a hint of a burp/puncture. I weigh 16 stone and used to puncture a LOT.

Also enjoy miles better grip by being able to run at lower pressures.

Unless you are a serial tyre changer, I can't really see the downside.

I loved the feeling and grip with ghetto, but I had too many problems with it, probably unfair to blame the tubeless entirely for them, but I did burp the front tyre twice with just normal riding and had to drop in a tube as I couldnt get it to re-seat and then I ripped a sidewall on slate and had to put in a tube with some grass to get me home, which was then hell and all to get out as it became bonded to the tyre. I'm slowly being tempted to go back but I was bitten by my first attempts!

I've been on tubeless since UST first came out in 2001, I did go back to tubes on a new bike about 4 years ago, but it didn't last!

UST was good, Stan's is better. I change tyres most rides/races, with a track pump. I don't carry a tube, just a CO2 pump. I've not had to put a tube in a tubeless tyre in 8 years, I think I've had about 3 punctures out on ride in that time too. Occasionally I come to my bike and find the tyre flat, pump it up and it stays up, so any punctures have sealed themselves.

Plus, if you use normal tyres, it weighs less!