I don’t mind getting flats when out on the trail. For me its a nice way to have a five minute rest and stick another tube in. Also I don’t actually get flats often. Not often enough to bother counting them.

I run around 27 psi for XC riding, using a Hans Dampf at the moment on the front for grip in the muck.

I like grippy tyres and I’m no racing whippet.

But my new tyres are tubeless ready.

Will I actually feel an improvement in my riding if I convert ?

Bearing in mind I don’t mind getting flats and I’m not racing for the win. So, any real world differences, or is it just marketing spin or only for those who perceive flats as a problem ?

I also cant be bothered with any tubeless associated faffing, I’m quite happy with my tube related faffing as it is

If you’re happy with your pressures and don’t do lower, I wouldn’t bother. For me tubeless works well as I can run lower pressures, if you are not doing this whats the point…

Tubeless is easier I think, but I see changing tubes as a real last resort

Will I actually feel an improvement in my riding if I convert ?

no.

you will lower your pressures to increase grip with no risk of a snakebite, but no guarantee you wont roll or wreck the tyre, you will still carry a spare tube for when it all goes pete tong

personally i would never go back to tubes, but i live in a land of hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble.

Bearing in mind I don’t mind getting flats

ye what? You can stop and take the same 5 minute breaks and look at the scenery with tubeless. Surely everyone minds getting flats…

From my experience – difference in grip, rolling resistance, feel, whatever.. not sure I noticed anything real. Probably convinced myself I did at the time. Lack of punctures is fantastic. Months since my last puncture.

I don’t see a world where flats aren’t a problem.. sorry. They spoil the flow of ride, make the group wait if you are out with mates. They make you stop when the midges are out or it’s cold and wet. No, the fewer of them the better.

I replace my drivetrain and service my bike to reduce the chance of mechanical failure – tubeless is just another step to reduce the chance of a ride interrupted.

Tubeless associated faff – not unless you make it faffy. Maybe takes a couple of minutes to put tape on some rims.. after that it’s no worse than tubes. Tyres seem to inflate, seat and seal easier these days of proper tubeless-ready tyres than before when I was trying to use normal tyres and loads of sealant.

Just converted to tubeless purely & simply for the reason of avoiding punctures .
I don’t really mind sorting one out on a nice warm Saturday morning with nothing to get home for , but not at 6 o’clock in January on my way to work .

I don’t see a world where flats aren’t a problem..

Ride in a flinty area where tyres get cut and flats are a problem. Realise the tyre is going down. Try to carry on in the hope it seals. Give up and try to find the hole out of which all the sealant has now leaked. Endeavour to pump it back up. Fail. Put a tube in so you can get going again. Tyre off at home and spend time cleaning and drying the tyre so you can patch the cut. Put it all back together. Next ride, same again…

Edit – I run tubeless in a flinty area for reasons I sometimes cannot fathom.

Seriously, I don’t get many flats and don’t mind putting a new tube in. Euain, respectfully your world is slightly different to mine 🙂

So far then I’m not hearing any improvement on offer from a feel / grip / roll perspective ?

(If I run lower pressures I think it will feel too squidgy and sluggish)

I’m a convert – when i first made the change, the bike did feel different. I can’t really explain it but it felt a bit more floaty if that makes any sense. But I had just swapped from a fairly heavy set of tyres to something a bit lighter.

I’ve not used tubes (aside from in two emergencies) since. I always ran fairly low pressures with tubes without too many issues, but can now go lower. I’ve generally found tubeless ready tyres easy to inflate too. I don’t really see the downside, so if had tubeless ready wheels and tyres I’d be ditching tubes.

Personally I don’t feel any difference at all while riding- it all goes into teh general pot of sidewall thickness, air pressure, ground hardness, how I’m riding and gets lost, even if there is a measurable difference in hysteresis which I reckon there ought to be. Tyre pressures, some people can drop them which can be good, I run the same because otherwise I just trade flats for dents. There’s a bit of weight saving, done right, but not everyone cares that much.

But stopping most punctures is awesome. I always say the same thing; tubeless is a faff, but it’s a faff in the garage with teh heater and the tunes on. Tubes are a faff, but they’re a faff halfway down the descent that’s just been spoiled by a flat, while your mates are waiting, in the rain.

So far then I’m not hearing any improvement on offer from a feel / grip / roll perspective ?

I think folk who’ve been using tubeless for a while have a tendency to forget that there’s a ride quality difference, which I think there is. Put all the anti-puncture stuff on one side and I reckon you simply get a more supple feel running tubeless compared to the same pressure with a tube and without the squirminess you might get from simply running a lower pressure with tubes.

It’s hard to generalise as it’ll depend on the tyre, how stable the sidewalls are and whether it’s tubeless ready, full UST or just a converted normal tyre. But my experience is that it improves grip, suppleness and reduces rolling resistance slightly – German mag tested this and it seems to be born out.

If you’re happy with tubes, why change? Personally I’ll trade a little more hassle on some installations for better performance and minimal flats, but it sounds like you’re happy with what you have. Or if you have tubeless ready kit already, why not just give it a go, you can always revert to tubes.

Haven’t noticed any difference in riding tubeless at all. Other than the usual no punctures. I did wonder what all the fuss was when I first converted then changed tyres after about a year and pulled about 10 thorns out of each which I hadn’t even noticed

So for me its not getting punctures – pure and simple

Cheers Northwind, sounds like a fair summary.

Kwack / BWDog, Im tubless curious, but sceptical.

I may still stick to keeping my mates waiting in the rain 🙂

(The bit I laugh at is my tubeless mates having to carry a spare tube with them, just in case)

Oh yeah, it’s reliable but it’s not foolproof, I carry a spare. Though I’ve only used it a couple of times in years, I’ve actually loaned/given the spare away more often, and loaned my pump waaaay more often than I’ve used it.

(The bit I laugh at is my tubeless mates having to carry a spare tube with them, just in case)

So do you.

I also carry a puncture repair kit, just I case there’s a numpty without one.

If you genuinely don’t mind flats and are happy with your pressures don’t bother. Personally I love it, I hate punctures and love low pressures and the little bit of weight I save is an added bonus. I also enjoy setting them up with my homemade fire extinguisher compressor thingy as the first few times I did it with a track pump!

I think folk who’ve been using tubeless for a while have a tendency to forget that there’s a ride quality difference, which I think there is. Put all the anti-puncture stuff on one side and I reckon you simply get a more supple feel running tubeless compared to the same pressure with a tube and without the squirminess you might get from simply running a lower pressure with tubes.

I think that’s true – as I said earlier, on my first ride out the bike definitely felt different but probably don’t notice it that much due to being so used it. One of the times I did have to put a tube in, the bike did feel different and the back end (end with a tube in it) felt harsher than it did tubeless but I guarantee the pressures were the same.

You can convert your regular 5minute stops to less frequent but much longer stops.

Tubeless is great until it isn’t then you can pick from any or all of these actions

1. Hear puncture, feel Stans on your legs/face, continue pedalling – it’ll seal

2. It hasn’t

3. Find puncture, inflate tyre* with puncture at bottom so sealant can work
(assumes tyre bead still seated)
4. Repeat 3.

5. It seals – hooray – resume ride

6. Fails under riding almost immediately

7. Repeat 3 and 4

8. Try plug

9. Small leak now massive leak

10. Admit failure and fit inner tube

11. Inner tube punctured from rattling around camelbak/seat pack for a year

12. Mend inner tube if 2year old cement still liquid

11. Fit inner tube

12. Resume ride

13. Puncture

14. Fix puncture and clear tyre of numerous thorns that weren’t evident until you fitted a tube

15. Resume ride

16. Get home and try to repair tyre – if step 8 was skipped then fail to find site of puncture which anyway isn’t necessary as it is now sealed as if by magic. If Step 8 was carried out or the puncture is a cut then try to fix with with a variety of patches, glues, stitching, boots etc all of which require unmounting the tyre, scrupulous cleaning, remounting, pumping, adding Stans and all of which will ultimately fail.

Marathons anyone?

I’ve seen ^ this happen out on the trail.

Definitely better from a ride pov. Lower pressure = smoother ride, more grip and a bit faster. Obviously there are many factors to play with – weight, type of tyre, sidewall stiffness, likelihood of pinching or burping a tyre, so a bit of experimentation is needed at the start. Also less punctures, but that’s a bonus as I still sometimes tear a tyre and get covered in stans.

Overall, well worth it.

I still carry a spare tube and anchovies.

Even if you don’t run lower pressures with a tubeless setup (which you should) there will still be an improvement in both shock absorption, grip, and drag. Simple reason – air is squidgier than rubber.

Think how big the box is for a new inner tube – 4 fag packets maybe? perhaps 8 for a DH one. If you go tubeless all of that volume in your tyre is compressible air instead of solid rubber (apart from a tiny bit of tubeless fluid).

I don’t know what that is as a percentage of volume in mountain bike tyre – probably not much – between 5% and 10% maybe depending on the tyre and tube…..which is why the difference is hard to detect. But something is better than nothing and of course you should also reduce the tyre pressure which is much more beneficial.

Disclaimer: No calculations were made during the writing of this post

Don’t mind punctures? When the only guy on a 12 hour ride running tubes gets his 5th puncture, it get a bit tiresome….
The bigger the volume of tyre, the more noticeable the difference IME. Don’t underestimate the improvement to rolling resistance – probably about 10% reduction in energy.
5,000 miles this last year on my fatbike – 2 punctures, one which sealed and other which needed a tyre-plug. I’ve pulled 10 thorns that have pierced a tyre casing in one sitting – none had actually caused a puncture.