I was thinking about joining the tubeless brigade and getting a Stans, or similar, kit.

This seemed to be a sensible option as I can’t afford the whole dedicated tubeless rim/tyre set up.

However, it would appear that there’s not much in the weight saving department. Given that there’s various tapes and about 150-200grms of goop to go into the tyre, and a standard inner tube is no heavier than all that gubbins.

Apart from the better snakebite performance, something I don’t have issues with it seems (kiss of death), is there anything else I’m not considering?

The tyre conforms to the ground more easily and magically gives better traction and lower rolling resistance.

Weight saving it not the reason for doing it.

Personally, I’d give it a try, you can always go back if you don’t like it. I switched last year and really liked it. The ability to run lower pressures seems to give me more traction and just seems more comfortable. So when I changed bikes a few weeks ago, one of the first things I did was convert to tubeless.

Weight saving it not the reason for doing it.

This – though you should get a weight saving unless you’re using silly light tubes (and if you’re using silly light tubes and not getting punctures then you should maybe think about a road bike). You don’t put 150-200g of goop in the tyre – at least I don’t – standard single use bottle is 100g, but being a weight weenie I tend to use half of one of those bottles per tyre.

You also mention not having an issue with snakebites – do you not have an issue with punctures at all?

converted recently and love tubeless.

you will save a little bit of weight, especially if you only need the stans yellow tape and not the rubber strip as well. that depends on your rim i guess. I only needed 60 ml of sealant.

less air cos ur running a lower psi will save weight too.

In reality weight isnt the real reason, they give better grip and feel smoother (to me on my hardtail) and i think im faster since swapping.

Oh and the lack of puncture related faff is fantastic!

You only use about 50g of latex.

The tape weighs between 5 and 50g depending on how much you need (yellow tape Vs a rubber strip).

A normal tubes 150g or so usualy so weigth saving is minor, propper tubeless tyres are heavier (but often unnececary), most brands have moved towards ‘tubeless ready’ or somesuch which is a normal tyre caseing with a tubeless compatible bead.

As above though, the benefits are generaly more grip, faster rolling and no punctures. Weight saving is generaly a pretty minor change.

Not sure how much a rim strip us, at a guess around 50g? I do know that 2 wraps of Roval blue tape which is the same weight as Stans yellow tape is less than 10g and a tubeless valve around 10g.60ml of sealant is 60g,so in total it’s 140g. More than a lightweight tube but less than a sensible weight pinch flat resistant tube!

If your wheels are tubeless ready of course you don’t need the rim strip, and it becomes even more of a no brainer. Proper tubeless wheels are easy to set up.

less air cos ur running a lower psi will save weight too.

😆 – yeah, almost 1g for every psi!

Right, seems like my assumption on the weight is completely wrong. 😳

I’ll probably give it a go then.

Stans appear to be the original and best and most pricey, any good value alternatives?

stans liquid is imo the best. but i used superstars rim tape and valves as they were just the same but cheaper.

I used a Joe’s No Flats kit, but with some Stans fluid I had on the shelf.

Was a bit of a faff to get the tyres popped onto the rims. I needed a compressor with these rims, but my old bike worked fine with just a track pump.

This time has been with Maxxis tyres and they’ve sealed up first time. The Continental’s I tried before were quite porous and took a couple of weeks and a lot of faffing to seal up.

Probably depends on individual combinations of rim and tyre as to how easy it’ll be, but I still think it’s worth a try.

I literally just finished going tubeless about 20 minutes ago. It was pretty straightforward. Although I did already have Stans Arch Ex rims with yellow tape, and Spesh Purgatory 2bliss tyres.

It was a simple task of removing the tubes, screw in the tubeless valves, fit tyres, fill with stans fluid through the valve core and pump up. Literally worked and sealed first time on each wheel (with a bit of sloshing around of the fluid mind).

Also a decent weight saving for me – my Conti tubes weighed around 200g, approx. 50-60g of fluid and valve went in, means about 140-150g per wheel – worth it without even trying the grip/less punctures benefits