How reliable are tubeless tyres?

Tubeless is

Distance 8,960.5 km
Time 435h 30m
Elev Gain 111,649 m

no punctures this year so far <waves cock> ;-D

seriously, I second the comment about quality of ride with tubeless. At lower pressures its great

Nothing is infallible, tubeless is (IME) more reliable than tubes, however it can of course, fail and should that happen, as with a tubed tyre, you should have a contingency.

So I tape a spare tube or two to my frame, and a mini-pump, as well as CO2 inflator, it’s easy enough to ditch the camelbak full of junk if you want to OP. You might have to compromise on the bikes aesthetics a bit, but it beats walking home…

I do wonder why I seem to puncture less than the rest of you posting on this thread (with tubes).

Not really about how you ride it is where you ride. Come and ride where I live where it is a lot of stony gravel with sharp pieces of flint and your first puncture within a year will happen pretty soon.

When I used to ride a track bike off road I used tough tyres and even those punctured (RibMo, Armadillo and even one puncture with a Marathon Plus).

I’ve made my 5th bike tubeless this morning. I can’t imagine not going down that route. My 30ml round trip commute over the Ridgeway and a total of 5000 mile in 2015 had zero punctures on the tubeless bike and 4 flats on the non tubeless bike. I like the way the bike rides with low pressures.

I don’t think tubeless will cure your massive pack full of crap issue. My complete puncture repair set up is basically about the size of one of those mini fizzy drinks cans you get on aeroplanes…….. my entire tool kit is about the size of a 330ml can.

Been reading this thread with renewed interest. I’ve always ridden with tubes on my mtb (lube,tape,tyre seating all seemed way too much faff for the quick occasional repair), but having just got into CX riding,mixed road, bridleways and towpaths, my puncture rate has increased dramatically! Without stating the obvious I presume the above holds good for the CX bike? My rate of punctures on bridleways and towpaths is ridiculous! What’s the simplest least faff kit recommend for tubless conversion?

Fanatic278 – I was going to ask what your riding terrain is and what your tyre pressure is. I used to constantly get pinch flats but if you’re running high pressures on smoother trails then I can understand few punctures.

Not long in the tooth enough yet with tubeless in our household, but local terrain is thorn-rich so there’s probably been on average one puncture every 2 weeks on tubes. With ghetto tubeless we’ve not punctured any since, though had a couple of burps and sealant loss which went back up straightaway with a standard small handpump.

Carrying a tube, tyre levers and pump anyway for anywhere where we might be > 5km from the car as pushing for that sort of distance isn’t fun anyway!

For those asking: I ride Aberdeenshire with 33 psi

Just got back from a wonderful ride in the sunshine. On the road bike. No punctures. Happy days

Badgerbater – if you were talking mtb, stans tubeless kit with rim tapes the right size for your existing rims. You need either a compressor or one of the flash inflators (forgot the name). Despite what mr stans says in his videos, inflating with a track pump just doesn’t work. Your existing tyres will work whatever they are and you do need to soapy water the tyres to get a fit. Now yout talking cx so your mileage may vary as stans works best at lower pressures.

Funny coincidence – this morning would have posted as above – they’ve been supremely reliable for me.

Then this afternoon I went racing and as I rode the 100m the practise lap, my front tyre went down to flat in about 10 seconds. No cuts, no punctures – I borrowed a track pump, pumped it up and raced on it no problem.

*shrugs*

@jonwe, I’m talking CX bike but for all terrain riding. Will this still be a Stans tubless solution? I think the standard rims on my Giant TCX SLR1 are probably tubless ready(?)

After about 1500mi, my xkings are showing about 30 spots where sealant has done its job – even 1 thorn still embedded deep in the tyre. So its safe to say i find tubeless very reliable – still carry a tube(x2 on a big day out) and a pump though.

@jonwe, I’m talking CX bike but for all terrain riding. Will this still be a Stans tubless solution? I think the standard rims on my Giant TCX SLR1 may be tubless ready(?)

I’ve been wanting to see what the fuss is about for several years, so I might try something silly this week, seeing what one of my Jumbo Jim snakeskins thinks about being tubeless without any Stans. 😈

I’ve ridden far less this year that I have in the previous 10 years or so, but I’ve not had a fairy visit for ages, perhaps the last time was ~2008.

if you just want to prove to yourself that tubeless is shit it’s the right way to do it.

I once had a whole thorn wrapped a couple of times around my wheel, in the middle of nowhere, after several difficult puncture repairs on exposed mountain tops so went tubeless and have had only 2 punctures since (3 yrs ago). Great to be able to ride with low pressures when terrain is suitable.
Last week my tyre went flat. Tried to reinflate with the mini pump, no luck and couldn’t find the leak so figured I’ll stick the tube in. Tubeless goo everywhere (now my gloves are permanently sticky). Still couldn’t reinflate and the thread on my Hope QR skewer somehow went in the process, so couldn’t fix the wheel back on. Ended up walking home. Turns out both the pump and valve were knackered.

I still carry a tube and a pump, pump also has C02 functionality.

I once burped a tire so much it broke the seal on the rim and couldn’t inflate it with the hand pump. I’ve been riding tubeless for two years and that’s the only time I’ve had to walk back to the car. I do tend to run stupidly low tire pressures though.

Keen to see what this new Huck Norris invention will do to stop me burping my tire.

Should point out that when I was running Maxxis Minions never had an issue with burping. It’s only when I switched to Hand Dampf with their waker (and lighter) side walls did I get issues.

badgerbater – Member

Been reading this thread with renewed interest. I’ve always ridden with tubes on my mtb (lube,tape,tyre seating all seemed way too much faff for the quick occasional repair), but having just got into CX riding,mixed road, bridleways and towpaths, my puncture rate has increased dramatically! Without stating the obvious I presume the above holds good for the CX bike? My rate of punctures on bridleways and towpaths is ridiculous! What’s the simplest least faff kit recommend for tubless conversion?
It’s a bit more difficult for a CX tyre, but it can be done. Intermediate volumes and pressures (ie between MTB and road) don’t seem to provide as much force holding the tyre on the rim. It’s not something I’d expect to work easily on just normal rims and tyres, but should be ok on a dedicated tubeless set-up [do quite a bit on the CX and haven’t taken the step, despite loving tubeless on the MTB].

A lot of write-ups on the web are from CX racers looking for a reliable tubeless set up for 20psi on off camber turns, which is very difficult. So things would be easier if you’re talking about general riding at 40psi, say.

Defo stay with tubeless, I’ve been running my bike without tubes for about 3 years now. No punctures even riding hard all over the place and on varied surfaces.
I did a ghetto set up on my current wheelset. 25mm gorilla tape and standard tubeless valves on wtb frequency rims with maxxis UST tyres and stans fluid. I go full pelt over rock gardens and corner pretty hard with no burping and ride a lot of my local trails which are covered in thorns and have no problems at all.
I still carry a spare tube and pump etc just in case tho. Like others have said, just tape or strap a tube to the bike frame or saddle and either get a mini pump (they seem to be getting smaller and lighter these days) or you can get co2 sets that strap to the frame or seat post.

Been running tubeless for years. Stans Flow with Continental tyres.

Only had one issue when the bead separated from the tyre wall. Only 5mm or so but no way the fluid would seal it.

I always carry spare tubes and patches for the tubes.

A mini floor pump and levers come along too.

In my experiences very reliable. Never had a puncture but have burped the air out of them twice when the pressure was too low.

My front tyre was done about 18months ago and is still going strong despite never topping up the Stan’s fluid. I always still carry tubes just in case though.

1st flat in a year of tubeless today from a big chunk of glass through the tire. Pulled out the glass which left 1cm long cut straight through the tire. Was only a mile or so from work so pumped up the tire as best I could and rode in trying to ignore the hissing sound coming from my wheel. Locked the bike up with the cut at the bottom of the wheel to get as much stans as possible over it and pumped up the tire again. Checked at lunchtime and was down to a slow leak. Pumped up again at home time and appears to now be fine. Happy days! Brought some anchovies at lunch just in case. Interesting story I hear you say…

The last puncture I had was in July 2015 on the road bike.

The amount of punctures you’ve had, has no bearing on the amount of punctures you’re going to have.

Been riding tubeless for years. Use Stans unless you have a UST setup and even them consider it. I always bring a tube, but only use it a few times a year. If you can walk back to your car at every point on your ride I guess you could leave the tube behind. Or just tape it to your seat and forget about it. It is nice to have a spare to help someone else out.

@badgerbater. On my mtb I’ve run tubeless ready, ust and old style rims drilled out to fit tubeless valves and they all work fine with pretty much any folding tyre. Where it struggles is if you run high pressures and get big cuts – under those conditions it will struggle to seal and blows all the sealant out unless you can get a tubeless patch in fast. Running at or below 40psi in a thorny environment it is however absolutely brilliant. I’m not sure what pressure you run xc tyres at but I’d suspect it will work if you go at the larger tyres / lower pressures end of the range of your bike.

Thanks for the comments. So has anyone had real world success with say 30ish psi on a CX wheel set up (not XC!)?

Not had a real problem for years. Occasionally get a puncture and have to ride around on it/pump it up a bit.

Generally I don’t carry a tube, as on the rare occasion I’ve ended up putting one in, it instantly flats from all the thorns I’ve forgotten to remove.

Was a cynic for ages but then ended up with a tubeless setup on my new MTB in the spring. Fully converted and rapidly. Dead easy. Using Maxxis tyres on Stans rims both TLR. Had no puncture issues and found better traction with lower pressures. Considering topping up sealant at the moment with both bikes having still got liquid after 6 months.
Bottom line – try it, sure you will not go back.

Thanks for the comments. So has anyone had real world success with say 30ish psi on a CX wheel set up (not XC!)?

I’ve tried tubeless for cx racing eith pressures between 25 to 30psi and had problems with the tyres burping on off camber turns. Some tyres work better than others (Maxxis were recommended to me) and they say 40 psi is ideal. More and you run the risk of the tyre blowing off the rim….which I can vouch for!

40 psi for a CX tyre – for riding on tarmac? One reason why tubulars still rule for CX is being able to run them at a low enough pressure like 25psi for really soft conditions

you might be better off running them ghetto, as the inner tube sticks to the bead, which will help reduce the chances of a burp. i don’t see that 25psi in a tyre set up tubeless of ~ 35c will work very reliably TBH, as i would think that pretty low for mtb tyres. you just don’t have the volume. guess a wide rim will give you a better chance.
happy to be shown wrong!

I think road tubeless is very different to MTB – probs due to the lighter thinner tyres involved. I have just replaced my Schwable One tubeless with some Schwable One pro tubless after 18 months and c3,500 miles. In that time I must have had 5 or 6 punctures / issues. These were the first generation ‘Ones’ and were a lovely soft grippy rubber but I think they have proven to be too soft. They were covered in little cuts and are in a completely shagged state prompting the investment in a new set. That said many of these cuts and general damage has sealed during use and the performance was generally better than tubes in all departments. Since I bought them the tubeless version has acquired the ‘pro’ tag and they are a completely different tyre. Much harder more plasticy feel to them so I’m hoping for more durability on these. Will update at some point.

The majority of the Wednesday Night Crew run tubeless. At least 50% of all mechanical issues/stops we have involve tubeless problems. I run tubes.

This is my limited and anecdotal evidence, but they seem to be more effort/hassle than they’re really worth, and the trend for ever fatter and taller tyres works in favour of tubes in my opinion.

The majority of the Wednesday Night Crew run tubeless. At least 50% of all mechanical issues/stops we have involve tubeless problems. I run tubes.

What sort of issues? The last problems I had were with old non tubeless rims. With a set of stans and proper tyres all fine.

Thanks for the comments. So has anyone had real world success with say 30ish psi on a CX wheel set up (not XC!)?

Yep. Have raced tubeless with 23-26psi without any issues at all (I weigh anywhere between 85 and 95kg depending on how many pies I’ve been eating). For general riding I tend to run up to 40psi as it’s rocky around here and don’t want to have to replace rims very often.

My setup is Stan’s Crest rims, Specialized Terra Pro 2Bliss (have also used Vittoria XG Pro TNT with no issues), Stan’s vlaves and a couple of wraps of Stan’s yellow tape. Actually, I’m using a Specialized 2Bliss rim tape in one of my wheels and that seems to work fine too.

MTBing I’ve had 2 punctures this year. Both in the lakes on rocky descents. Both mended easily with a tubeless anchovy and on my way again in not much time.

What sort of issues? The last problems I had were with old non tubeless rims. With a set of stans and proper tyres all fine.

The type of issues that lead to standing around in the cold!

A variety of issues in truth. Mysterious loss of pressure, old and crappy sealant not working properly, tyres occasionally burping.

This is only my experience with my riding buddies, so may not be representative. I am also frightened of tubeless as it is one of ‘those’ things that I just know I couldn’t get right if I did try.

I’m sure a lot of people don’t have any issues – but my small sample seem to have enough that I remember about them and they definitely contribute a disproportionate amount of our mechanicals.