Should you get tubeless tyres? Are they your best option?

Hi,

Just thought i'd add my take on the whole tubeless tyre/wheelset situation. Around 2 years ago I was looking to venture into the tubeless revolution but after reading all manner of reviews with regards to hard to fit tyres, leaky sealant, pressure loss I decided to not bother and stick with my standard clincher setup which I've been accostomed to for several years....

A riding friend of mine told me about a new road tubeless system called UST from Mavic which promised better tolerances with regards to fitting their branded Mavic tyres(made by Hutchinson) and I took the plunge and bought a Mavic Krysium Elite wheelset and it's been fantastic. I've yet to flat, however prior to installing the supplied sealant I could easilly remove and refit the tyres by hand with no tyre levers which made for a pleasant change as my last wheelset which I returned was a total nightmare trying to install any clincher/tubeless ready tyre and I promptly went back to clinchers for this reason as I couldn't see the point in faffing around on the side of the road for over 45 mins trying to fit a tyre that I could normally do in 2 minutes maximum being clinchers that I was previosuly using.

My take is that Mavic(I'm not getting paid to promote them by them way) really have created the almost perfect road tubeless tyre system in terms of ease of fit, inflation(standard track pump) so no inflation tanks needed to seat the tyre on the rims....with just one real caveat.....you have use the Mavic UST tyres which have the correct tolerances which makes this system so simple to use. It's downside is that it's not a widely adopted standard amongst wheel and tyre companies so you are limited in tyre choice to Mavic and maybe Hutchinson until a standard is agreed by the other companies and ETERO which from looking at it another way, is a pain as I like to have tyre choice like I had with clinchers before, so until this happens(if ever) you are limited as to what tubeless ready tyres fit easily or work well with the UST system. You can fit clinchers as well on a UST rim, but it's generally not advisable due to the difference in internal bead lip inside.

A couple of caveats.

• There is at best a ~2 watts of saving in rolling resistance for running the fastest tubeless setup which I would argue is not something one can perceive. A high quality clincher tyre with a latex tube is basically feels as fast for all intents and purposes 
• How often do clinchers flat? In my experience, not very often, maybe once every 5,000km (running Sworks Turbo, Pirelli Pzero or GP4000sII). Is that a hassle or hard to fix on the side of the road? Not really and not at all. 
• Fixing a flat for a tubeless tire IS difficult. The tires are generally extremely difficult to get onto the rim, so if you decide to install a tube, its a battle. Sealant goes all over your bike if you get a puncture as mentioned by other users

In a nutshell, you have messy, difficult installation/maintenance all for a quarter teaspoon of comfort and rolling resistance and you really are in for some ass pain if you do flat out on the road. I'd say they are harder to maintain than tubulars (unless you use conti competitions) and everyone groans about tubular. At least with tubs, you get the benefit of shaving 200-300g of the weight of the wheelset and they are at least, if not more 'comfortable' than tubless.

I have 3 bikes in regular use, all with schwalbe tires on stans rims. All 3 setups are 3 years old now. In all cases i have never had a failure or puncture, never carried a tube, never changed sealant (!), And they all were a cinch to fit and get seated. A lot of the stuff that people seem to be worried about just dont really seem to be issues.

My tubeless setup is 45g per wheel lighter than tubes, including sealant.

if you have a hole too big to self seal then Genuine Innovations make an awesome product called a a bacon strip - it's a plug for holes (similar in idea to cars/M-bikes), you simply drive it into the whole, pull the handle out and the plug sits in place sealing it up.

i just road 2,000km with one in my front tyre, only needing to inflate slightly after about 800km

really useful product!!

http://road.cc/content/review/183575-genuine-innovations-tubeless-tire-r... <-- reviewed last year!

It's a shame that a whole tyre system, tubular, is pretty much dismissed with the statement "Fitting a tubular tyre is a lot of hassle though, and much more tricky than fitting a tubeless tyre."

This is simply incorrect. I run tubulars on all my bikes, use Jantex tub tape for glueing them and Conti latex sealant inside. I can fit/remove a tubular without any tyre levers; NO HASSLE. Still the best ride characteristics, with the sealant I've got added flat protection and if worst comes to worst tubs can run flat and get you home.

And I've never had a tub roll off using the Jantex tape.

And my wheel rims are lighter than the equivalent clincher/tubeless model.

Fact not opinion.

I've been running Schwalbe Pro Ones and S-Ones on Hunt 4 Season wheels for over two years now. They were all dead easy to set up and have been superb.  I don't actually know how many punctures I've had. I only know about the ones that have lost a little more air pressure because they have always sealed themselves. A couple of times I've gone to the garage to find the bike with a flat tyre from the last ride. Quick spin of the wheel to distribute the sealant and pumped up again to let it do it's thing. Then gone out riding as normal. The added bonus of increased grip and comfort is the icing on a very lovely cake in my experience. Never going back!

I'm definitely a tubeless convert, I'm using IRC Roadlite 25mm tyres fitted to a pair of handbuilts from Malcolm Borg at the The Cycle Clinic.  So far the tyres have covered 6300km with absolutely no issues and I run them at 70psi and they are fantastic.  I no longer bother to carry a spare tube with me as there's no way one will fit, so I take an Innovations Tubeless repair kit and a tube of flexible super glue to deal with anything that the sealant can't handle and as the IRC tyres have a butyl layer they can be patched inside just like a regular inner tube.

Mixed feelings - when it's all working they're brilliant, but if you've got a hole that's just a little bit too big, or just the wrong shape they're a PITA.  However, that is easily fixed once you recognise the problem and stick a patch insiode the tyre.

So back off two weeks' hols: was getting seriously fed up with being covered in a fine spray of rubber solution every ride and so patched the offending rear tyre.  Note that while everything was sticky, the tyre never became too soft to ride.

All good, so off I went on hols.  First ride out, front tyre goes - sealant everywhere, but seals OK.  Finish ride, top up sealant and reinflate.  Next ride - repeat - same hole.  Finish ride, patch tyre.  Next day, same again.  Different hole, sealant everywhere but still able to ride.  Learning now, so test inflate to full pressure and it goes again.  Patch tyre and all good for remaining hols. 

Key tips - always travel with sealant, a ghetto inflator and a track pump of some description (I've got a folding zefal one). I would not have fancied patching tyres and replacing sealant without an inflator.  I just make sure it's behind me and wear glasses, so that if it fails I'm not going to lose an eye.  Frankly, I don't think it would make much of a bang anyway - the air comes out as a loud hiss just like pushing the valve in on a tyre that's inflated to 100 psi.  If the top comes off, it might shoot off for a foot or two at most I think.  Still, better safe than sorry.

On balance, I'm sticking with tubeless, but it was a close run thing at the beginning of the hols.  Done a year with them now on one of my bikes.  Schwalbe Pro One.  Had to replace two because they were no longer round (markedly so) but the current set are fine.    At 100 psi, they are seriuosly slippery in damp or wet conditions (compared to Michelin Pro 4 at the same pressure). They run happily at 80 though and are more comfy at that pressure.  If they've deflated, they will still bowl along happily at 40 psi

I ran road tubeless for a couple of years. At the time, I was convinced the ride was smoother - I could run the tyres at lower pressures without fear of pinch flats and I rarely punctured. I found a few issues though:

- if a puncture/cut was too big for the sealant to seal it, it sprayed latex all over my mates. Not a regular occurrence, but not something easily forgotten either...

- once I'd helped them peel the fast drying latex from their bikes and faces, I was left with the job of trying to fit a tube to a tire with a seriously strong and stiff bead. It was always a pig to get a tube in and inflated without pinching it. Doable, but took a lot longer than a normal tube change.

- fitting new tyres was a hit and miss affair: the aforementioned very stiff bead meant they were hard work to get on the rim. Then sometimes they'd seal easily, other times not. When they didn't go first time, it could be quite difficult to get them to go up at all.

When I eventually went back to clinchers, I got wider clincher rims which meant I could run lower pressures and get some of the comfort advantage I had on the tubeless. I also didnt notice a difference in rolling resistance between a good standard clincher and a good tubeless tyre - a bit of talc on the tubes helps to keep the friction low anyway. All in all, I didn't feel like it was worth the expense or the (admittedly occasional) hassle. I doubt I'll go back to tubeless unless the standard clincher dies a death...

I've been riding tubeless (currently Hutch Sector 28s, previously  Bonty R3s) at weekends now for 4 years and have only had a single non self sealing puncture due to a 1cm side wall cut - that's in around 12k kms. Booted it and fitted an inner tube and cycled 50km home - no problem.

Commute is on inner tubes though, mainly due to wanting bulltetproof archetype rims - probably had 5 punctures in the last couple of years but that's over a much higher mileage and some pretty nasty conditions. 

The tubeless setup feels so much smoother that i certainly wouldn't go back to tubes on my weekend bike. Will probably swap over the commuter at some point when the rims need replacing.

Yes they need the sealant topping up every few months but as far as i'm concerned, that's a small price to pay for the additional comfort, nicer rolling and reduction in punctures.

Each to their own.

I put Schwalbe One Pros on my DT Swiss wheels at the beginning of the year. They went on easily and inflated with my track pump. Wasnt much of an effort really. They stay up really well. Run at  low pressures now. the ride is definitely cushier than with my Conti's.

Have had one puncture  - on the Dragon Tour this year. Tyre held up fine until i got back home (happy with that because the weather was terrible) but did go down overnight. There was quite a big hole in the tyre. I put a tube in for the next day due to time constraints in the morning before we rode again. Then went back tubeless when i got home. the tyre actually just sealed itself when i put more gunk in.

I really like the tubeless setup. Not sure I save much weight as i still carry a tube with me to be on the safe side.

As the writer was saying cars, motorbikes etc have been tubeless for many years so why has it not taken off for bikes well for me its price ..i.e. Motorbike front tyre approx price £70 know this is a good quality sports bike tyre giving roughly 6000 miles, now in the say in comparison say a Schwalbe One TL tyre cost £50 now there is nowhere near the same amount of rubber or the same amount of money gone towards the technology and I get nowhere near the same mileage so why is the such a huge price on the bike tyre, we could also go on about car tyres as well but I think we will just stop there….. is it supply and demand or is it a good money making technique who knows but I will stay with my cheaper tyres for a good while yet until the price comes down.

I've used the Schwalbe One tubeless on my Campy Shamal two-way fits.  They got sliced by road debris twice.  The latex solution I had installed couldn't cope and the deeper and more secure bead recess seating required of tubeless meant that removing the tyre and fitting an inner tube was very difficult (had to call my other half out to rescue me on one of those occassions).  I was willing to put these incidents down to experience and continue with tubeless but worst of all was the impossibilty of sourcing replacement Schwalbe One TL tyres (at c£50 a throw!).  On balance, the performance gains, which were noticeable but marginal, weren't worth the downsides and the insecurity of the system for a road bike set up (IMHO).  I'll be happy to revisit the system as it evolves.

Teehee! And this: 

"Tubeless tyres are designed to ensure the tyre bead locks securely into the rim so it can dislodge at high pressure, which is something you definitely don’t want to happen."

Uh "can't" I think : -)

And "ghetto" refers to various methods of DIY tubeless, mostly in MTB's. Eg http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-repair/tech-how-to-ghetto-tubeless-...

which tyres do you use and what's what kind of milage do you get from them?  Do you have to top up the sealant often?

If you use standard tyres, they are cheap to replace and if you get a big cut you can repair a pucture with a small pack of patches.  Tubeless are expensive to replace and if you need to carry a tube in your pocket the gains seem pretty marginal.

Well, if this is the game, how about this?

"If your bike has tubeless wheels when you’re in luck as you just need the tyres, valves and sealant."  

Happy to help!

He thinks he's Pedant Of The Day? May I highlight, "....Because there isn’t two layers of material (tyre and tube) pressing against each other...", so that the Sub' responsible may hang their head in shame.

Excellent informative article, and sorry to be pedant of the day sir, but I don't understand this "While it is possible to ghetto tubeless a regular clincher tyre, it really isn’t recommended and could be potentially dangerous"