For my impending trip to the Alps, should I leave my tires as tubeless which I’m running at the moment, or stick inner tubes in for the trip.

One problem I have is I have found it impossible to mount tires on my Flow rims without using masses of soapy water and a compressor, which I won’t be taking with me!

Advice please. 😀

Take tubeless and if they fail put a tube in?

I used UST nevegals last time – no issues at all. They have beefed up sidewalls though, i wouldn’t have gone with converted normal tyres.

I’m going for the 1st time in July and have been told to go back to tubes, dh tube in the rear

Sounds like a plan shorty 😆

I guess I was asking in principal are tubeless tires OK for the Alps or are they a big No No.

tubeless is always best for me in the alps, since whenever I use tubes I get loads of pinch flats.

As shorty said, give it a go… if you have any bother and can’t reseat, go for a tube.

Dave

What he said, and don’t deflate the tyres for the plane, even going into outer space only adds 14.7psi to the pressure so you’re unlikley to blow them up in the cargo hold.

Shorty has the answer. Go tubeless if that’s what you run. It’s only a mountain, not unlike any other. Takes tubes as you normally would in case it goes wrong.

Take tubes, seen plenty of sliced tyres out there.

If you have any issues with a group they will hate you for it!!

Tubeless, definitely. But don’t mess around with ghetto or any of that crap. Either go the whole way or use tubes.

+1 tubeless and as stevomcd says real tubeless

I’m planning on running Maxxis minion DHF on the front and high roller on the back, both dual ply, on Stans Flow rims?

Lakes Puma, same as me this year. I’ve used beefy tyres ran ubeless in Verbier and ended up with a cracked rim but the tyre was fine !

Scruff were they Flow rims? 😯

I run tubeless at both ends – proper UST rear but a std front.

I’m planning on running Maxxis minion DHF on the front and high roller on the back, both dual ply, on Stans Flow rims?

Exactly what I have on the Five at the moment and will be running for the Mega. With Stans yellow tape and fluid.

Tubeless, definitely. But don’t mess around with ghetto or any of that crap. Either go the whole way or use tubes.

I did the Mega on ghetto tubeless (with dual ply high rollers on 719s) – no issues.

seen plenty of sliced tyres out there.

don’t forget some tyre boot then…

I went tubeless one year, ghetto tubeless with my 2.5 dual ply High Rollers.

There wasn’t a problem only when I changed back to my normal tyres, instead of sealant in the 2.5’s I had a rubber ball in each?

The sealant hadn’t been in more than three weeks.

Since then I havnt bothered with ghetto tubeless again. Perhaps it was altitude, maybe the heat or maybe the plant journey, no idea which but if I’d got a puncture I doubt the rubber balls would have done much.

Also, a mate went and put sealant into his tubes. He got a puncture in Italy doing DH. He had to get all the sealant out his tube before he fixed the puncture and the end result looked like he’d had some sort of orgy in the woods. Jiz everywhere. 😀

something wrong with your sealent then. Mines still liquid after 6 months. Has to be changed every 6 months anyway. I run a HRII 2.4 on the front for euro rides its not LUST but went up fine with track pump and stays up. I dont get much air so maybe thats the secret.

Tubeless will be fine for the Alps based on my experience. Yeah you may rip the tyre as I did once on the rocks, single ply but seen dual ply sliced open as well, so carry tubes and tyre boots with you. Blue Peter tyre boots from milk carton or toothpaste tube.

Take the valve core out to make reseating tubleless and if you are still struggling then CO2 or look up Ghetto inflator.

Don’t forget you’re not meant to have CO2 in your hold luggage

what is it about the alps that makes people worry about their tyres, are you doing DH or XC? Just curious as I’m off there in August for a week’s XC, and can’t think why I would use different tyres.

BigJim – I’m hoping to have a go at everything, so would rather be ‘over tired’ for xc than under for any DH.

Plus others have mentioned that the terrain is quite arduous on tires, more so than UK trail centres.

You need strong sidewalls for fast aggressive cornering, running standard big volume XCish tyres had me off to many times for me to be happy. One of the group went home earlier and I borrowed their heavier downhill tyres and no more offs.

I can’t prove it but I think the standard XC tyres sidewalls were deforming at anything over 25mph on corners.

Tubeless with a back up tube – sorted

Ive been in the Alps each summer for about 5 years. I don’t think a single visit has gone by without seeing some poor soul running tubeless, but stuck a long way from anywhere with a puncture which he cant fix, and needing to borrow tube to get him back up and running.

I’m about to head out and tried to set up tubeless earlier in the week, a bit last minute… No joy, so will be running tubes again. I would have been interested to see if I noticed much difference.

I’ve had more punctures in southern Spain than at home, due to thorns, but managed no punctures in 3 weeks in Italy and Frances last year (11st and not particularly jumpy).

“What is it about the Alps…” – good point, Ms AD and myself rode the Snowdon Rangers Path last weekend with no issues with tubes, that’s about as rocky as it gets for me (Wales, France, makes no difference)

the difference between wales and the alps is presumably that you did snowdon once right? and not 12 times a day for 14 days?

you might start the week off riding at the pace you would go down snowdon at, but for me after a day or two i’m a wee bit more up to speed, and as a result, kit gets a PROPER pounding.

if i was worried about any bit of my bike, i wouldn’t run that part. the alps WILL expose weakness in your bike bits!

Ive been in the Alps each summer for about 5 years. I don’t think a single visit has gone by without seeing some poor soul running tubeless, but stuck a long way from anywhere with a puncture which he cant fix, and needing to borrow tube to get him back up and running.

What kind of tool doesn’t take a spare tube though?

Tubeless with a back up tube – sorted

This.

And this.

the difference between wales and the alps is presumably that you did snowdon once right? and not 12 times a day for 14 days?

As I said, I’d like to have been able to run tubeless, but mainly because of lower pressures, not becuase Alps = Punctures. But I suspect I’d have blow a tyre off pretty quickly, resulting in going back to tubes (if not an injury).

I’m not a particular advocate of one or the other, but my experience is that is it possible to ride 40,000m+ of decending without a single puncture (and using single ply High Rollers). Maybe I was just lucky?

Tracknicko – respect is due if you ride the equivalent of Snowdon 12 times every day for 14 weeks! I dont know many people who’ve done 12 1,000m runs in a day…

….you’d also need a fairly long day and quick uplifts. But I do get your point 😉

i think general speed as well comes into it. the UK is rocky in bits, but it is also nadgery.

A LOT of the French stuff is designed (or evolved) to be ridden faster. Wide and sweeping turns, you just end up getting faster and faster as you go on.

even the straightest and simplest of fireroads will have you riding through meter deep streams with rain bar bits at 25-40mph.

puncture tastic.

When I was in the Alps with The White Room, a fair few of our group had punctures. These were mainly due to the drainage gulleys across the trails, which are lined with pointy stones.

The problem was with the full suss guys being lazy and just riding over them, giving them punctures straight away. The two on Hardtails, me and my mate did not have a single puncture/problem…. I bet this year we will now!

The guy who had ghetto tubeless with normal tyres had to put tubes in, but then got another puncture about 10metres on, he then borrowed a DH tube and didn’t have any more problems.

I was running a LUST upfront and a Dual Ply with a 100g latex tube in the rear.. No problems..

If you have been running tubeless with tubeless tyres without any problems, for a few months then stick with it. If not, then swap over now, to iron out any teething problems.

les crosets is at 1670m… point de mossettes is at 2277m.

swiss cup course links the two.

so that’s 607m per run.

snowdon is 1085? and ranger’s path hits the A4088 at about 180m…

so that 800m per run.

now how many runs did you say you were doing?

Not denying I would generally ride more than a 1000m descent in the Alps, just doubting that many people do 12,000!

To answer your question – one run down Rangers to the YHA, plus Telegraph Valley, so probably 1,200m total.

furry muff. on my days off when it was raining i used to do consecutive non-stop runs of the Pleney.

can’t remember what the most i did in a day was, was having a competition with the other guide at one point. either way. must have been getting pretty high in terms of vertical metres.

few years ago now tho, think i’d currently manage about 2 consecutively before my hands cramped for good, and a keeled over and died.

‘only’ 560m to play with on the Pleney mind…