Tyre/rim combo makes a difference.  Nightmare on my old 2012 Camber with DT swiss rims and various tyres (spesh, onza) but still doable.

Bought a T130 RS recently with WTB tyres and rims and setting up tubeless (admittedly with an Airshot) was a surprising joy with no sweating or swearing or soapy water involved and the beads settling into the rims with a bang that actually made me flinch at first.

Sods law I got a quarter inch sidewall tear on my 1st tubeless ride which wouldn’t seal but that’s now patched and set up tubeless again.

The last time I had to put a tube in on the Camber I extracted about 7 big thorns from the tyre so I’m sold on the benefits of tubeless, even in the bad old days of sweating and fairy liquid

I got a new 2nd hand bike for MrsOC on Monday, the tyres were pretty old and needed replacing which I knew from the start, and the bike had never been setup tubeless.

Ordered some tyres from CRC, along with valves, delivered to my work yesterday. Got home, and within an hour I had taped both rims, inserted the valves, and got them both holding pressure, admittedly I used my mates Airshot type thing. Hans Dampf on the front went up first time with some lovely pings, no water or anything, HR2 on the back took a couple of goes and a sprinkle of water, but went up.

Came down this morning and checked them and both held pressure over night. Will be properly testing them tomorrow.

The two “worst case scenarios” that I can think of out on the trail are:

1. Slashing the side wall of the tyre
2. Badly dinging the rim.

Neither are much different from when running with tubes, in fact with the first it’s likely to be simpler as you won’t have also slashed and destroyed an inner tube at the same time. On longer rides I carry a sewing kit with me – I bought it thirty years ago when I went on climbing expeditions and never used it until earlier this year when we came across someone who’d blown out the side wall of a tyre so he borrowed it and fixed it. Took a while and it helped that the weather was nice at the time – I wouldn’t like to be doing it in a hoolie on top of a moor.

On the topic of ripped tyre walls….

I recently restocked with puncture repair kits – I still carry one on rides because you may then puncture your spare tube if you have to use it!

Both were Lezyne ones (a normal patch and glue one and one with pre-glued patches) and both have tyre boots included. Haven’t had to use yet, but I’ve always carried a DIY tyre boot made from a bit of old motorbike inner tube, so it’s good to see manufacturers including them in kits.