Nobby Nic Snakeskins on all bikes in our family, mine are on Arch EX on the HT and Flows on the bouncer. The rear tyre on the HT now has somewhere in excess of 70 healed holes, and a couple of longer slits, all perfectly well sealed. The rear of the IBIS has forty or so , and the fronts a dozen or so each. The tyres went up first time every time I’ve fitted them with SS valves and stans tape and fluid. Apart from the grip and superior feel the fact that I haven’t had to stop and repair flats over a hundred times says it all for me.

The only problems I’ve had were on my son’s bike. He hit a square edge hard enough to split the tyre near the rim, but that would have destroyed a tubed setup anyway, and he also picked up a split at Penmachno which I couldn’t seal with weldtite worms. Having said that I didn’t read the instructions properly ….. 😳

There are so many anti tubeless threads on here but I honestly don’t know what is not to like. It’s not difficult to set up. If you are doing a conversion then first time might take a bit of thinking about but once you’ve worked it out then it’s fine. You get a much better ride, noticeably faster and comfier and more grip. And punctures which were a very regular occurrence are suddenly a very rare.

What’s not to like? The cost, time, mess and faff involved with the initial setup.

“It’s not difficult to set up”: I’ve now got a proper setup (Superstar tubeless rims and TR tyres) and it was relatively easy, although one of the tyres leaked for weeks. But I tried a conversion and it was a nightmare. One “tubeless ready” Bonty Mud X lost over a pint of sealant. I’d fight for an hour to get it to seat, it would eventually inflate, with plenty of sealant inside. I’d shake, rotate, etc etc, leave it for a bit when all the hissing had stopped. Then come back a few hours later to a huge puddle of sealant on the floor. Repeat until I had no sealant left.

I pinched my tyre at the weekend. Tubeless meant it sputtered for a bit, I put a bit of air back in and carried on riding rather than mucking about with tubes, so thumbs up for it there, but don’t pretend it’s all easy or flawless.

As someone said above, not everyone suffers on a regular basis from punctures. And I can’t notice an improvement in grip or speed.

With a proper setup it’s probably worth it, but you can get the puncture resistance by putting a bit of sealant inside a tube.

With a proper setup it’s probably worth it, but you can get the puncture resistance by putting a bit of sealant inside a tube.

Tubes don’t work half as well with sealant as tyres do because the tube wall is thinner and the tube moves relative to whatever has punctured it (if it’s a thorn) and so the punctures reopen. And it takes a much much bigger hit to snakebite on tubeless.

Tubeless/tubes
Road/MTB
Dropper/hi-postin’
Shimano discs/Hope discs
King BB/cheap Shimanos
Campy/Shimano
Baggy/lycra
Blur/Oasis

And so on : )

None are right or wrong until you take a position based on experience or predjudice ..
Apart from Blur, they were simply lame.

exactly jameso I never started this thread saying I hated all you MF tubeless AH’s did I? NO I simply stated that I had not had a good experience with tubeless and was reverting to tubes. I also later commented that this was just my opinion. Others will have had great experiences with tubeless.

It is neither right or wrong – but it would seem that all the tubeless runners where very quick to be all defensive and also offensive !!

Tubes don’t work half as well with sealant as tyres do because the tube wall is thinner and the tube moves relative to whatever has punctured it (if it’s a thorn) and so the punctures reopen. And it takes a much much bigger hit to snakebite on tubeless.

I’ve been using slime filled tubes for the last 4 years with a fair amount of success. I’ve had a couple go in that time, but they were large holes created by rocks/flint, rather than thorns. Generally, if the tube does leak a little bit of air on a ride, you can pump more back in and the hole will seal again. Only downside is that they weigh a tonne.

I now have Arch EX rims on my full sus bike, and have been trying to build up the energy to switch to tubeless. Bit confused about rim tape though. The wheels came with Hope rim tape. Can I leave that on, or do I need Stans rim tape / elecrical tape / no rim tape at all?

(EDIT: Butcher / Purgatory tyre combo)

you just need yellow tape (or duck tape which I prefer) and some valves and fluid

edit. i.e. remove the existing tape and replace with couple layers of the yellow tape / duck tape or elec tape

(personally I found elec tape a bit fragile which could be an issue if the tyres are really hard to get on)

Cheers

If you didn’t want to write this:

It is neither right or wrong – but it would seem that all the tubeless runners where very quick to be all defensive and also offensive !!

Then you shouldn’t have written this:

nope still messy, wasteful, expensive and time consuming… …I don’t feel the need to run my tyres at a severely under inflated pressure so will stick with the tubes – no risk of pinch flats at 40psi

Just saying…

bails – Member

“It’s not difficult to set up”: I’ve now got a proper setup (Superstar tubeless rims and TR tyres) and it was relatively easy, although one of the tyres leaked for weeks. But I tried a conversion and it was a nightmare.

TBH, I wouldn’t be keen to do it without a proper tubeless rim or at very least a purpose built rimstrip (DT Swiss rim strips are really good for their rims). Tried, it didn’t work too well.

What strikes me is always the varying results, people say “it just needed yellow tape and it sealed” but sealing’s not the end of it, I did a ghetto job on some Mavics and it was easy to seal but totally untrustworthy- I did about 5 rides and rolled a tyer off the rim twice. But maybe other folks just had it work better, or maybe they don’t do corners.

But it’s like anything else, you can’t really bodge it then declare it to be a bad idea full stop.

The other one I don’t get is “I never get punctures, I went tubeless and I don’t see what all the benefit is”. If you can get away with lightweight tubes and not flat then yeah, there’s not much point. Doesn’t mean there’s no advantage, it’s just not one you use. It’s like buying a fast car and going everywhere at 20mph, then saying there’s no point to fast cars.

. If you puncture quick fix is turn bike upside down so hole is at the bottom so latex flows to it

Would it not be easier just to rotate the wheel half a turn so the hole is at the bottom?

xcretro – Member

all the tubeless runners where very quick to be all defensive and also offensive !!

xcretro – Member

perhaps if you all get so many pinch punctures you should learn to ride a bit better

Hmm.

lol northwind – that’s right! and repeat 100 times “i must learn to ride a bit better to avoid pinch flats” LOL

At this stage of the game I feel like it’s not so much that I ride tubeless but that OP rides ‘tubed’

Even I can do tubeless tyres use Continental something kings. I think it’s got special rims though which makes a lot of difference.

Can’t remember the last time I had a puncture!

Gone from tubes to tubeless and not noticed any difference, didn’t flat with tubes don’t flat without.

I’ve often wondered about the benefit of being able to run at lower pressure. By the time my tyres are up to the point where I can get round corners without them squirming around on the rims I get very few punctures, and I can’t see any advantage in being able to go lower. I get that general improved puncture performance is maybe a bigger advantage than the pressure thing though.

I guess it must help with what rims and tyres are used. Been running Hans Dampfs on Flow Ex 29s for a while with tubes. Already put the tape on, so was as easy as unseating one side of the tyre, removing tube, adding valve and jizz and reinflating with track pump. Bob’s yer uncle 🙂