Tubeless won’t stay on rim

hirsute wrote:

I must have jumped on the tubeless train at the right point.

I have some mavics which I can almost fit the tyre on by hand. I can inflate with a track pump and easily top up with a hand pump. I don't need special glue or tape for the side rim.

I have bought a dynaplug micro pro which is a thing of beauty (which I have used once).

I'm quite happy.

And I wish you well, and also everybody who has embraced tubeless technology for it is probably the future.  But I am an avid reader of cycling magazines and their reviews and there have been far too many problems with tubeless for me to risk it just yet.

Tales of tyre levers broken in the battle to remove or fit a tyre do not encourage a longish-distance rider like me to take the plunge.  Being unable to inflate a flat tyre with my mini-pump is my idea of hell.  There's a recent (GCN?) video on YouTube of an experienced presenter/rider who uses every trick in his extensive book but still can't get his new tyre to hold pressure.

Now, if you are never more than a few miles from help or can summon assistance on one of those wireless phones, you may be prepared to take a chance.  But that's not my sort of cycling and that's why I'm sticking to what always works. 

Best of luck.

ktache wrote:

Mike, a couple of weeks ago I was doing a 25 mile off road loop around Henley, on my new bike, it's hedge trimming time,  I was pulling out multiple thorns and even a small twig.  All sealed quickly.  Checked and more thorns the next day.  One huge one that took a couple of minutes to seal and I was even looking forward to shoving in one of those anchovy things in there.  Now normally I would take out 2 spare tubes on my older bikes, and my mini track pump, so it would have been a disapointing session of pumping and fixing several tubes.  With a curtailed fun day out, and much less grinning and smugness.  I'm sold, though I will not get my other bikes converted.

Orange Endurance Seal I think, 4-6 months and still sealing.  Stuck in a top up squirt the other day.

And I'm playing with quite low pressures, so would have probably snake bited a few times by now.

I know, I know,  I'm out of step with tubeless.  Of course it has advantages, otherwise it would have sunk without trace, which it clearly hasn't.

But I ride six days a week, something like 4000 miles a year, over the same roads as everyone else.  My local hedges get trimmed just like yours.  My rain sweeps volumes of flints onto my roads too.  And my broken glass is as sharp as yours.  And yet, running on my high-quality tubed tyres, I'm averaging a flat a year.  (Although to be fair I'm up to two so far this year.)  And I've never, in sixty years biking, had a snake-bite puncture; a most overrated problem if you ask me.

You see, the thing I like most about cycling is its simplicity.  I don't have a bike-computer, no GPS, no cameras, no electric gears, no ANT, no bluetooth, no hassle.  Just a bike and nothing but the basics.  I can, and do, take off for a few days at an hour's notice.  I might end up in France or maybe  I won't.  But wherever it is I can fix 90% of problems whilst sitting on the grass verge, using my motley collection of old tools.  

How would I inflate a problem tubeless tyre under these conditions? What if my gloop had dried out?  How would I refit a tight tubeless tyre after slipping a tube into it?  What if my valves were bunged up with gloop?  The list of potential troubles is too long for my specific needs, the current systems are too fiddly and too uncertain.  Like most ex-military men I plan for the 'least worst' outcome.  And tubes give me just that; the worst I can expect is to fit a new tube in about ten minutes.  Tubeless opens up a whole new world of pain however, the worst I might expect would be a flat tyre I can't inflate or even squeeze a tube into.  

No sir, until they come up with tubeless technology fit for a simpleton like me, I'll keep it simple.

mike the bike wrote:

ktache wrote:

Mike, a couple of weeks ago I was doing a 25 mile off road loop around Henley, on my new bike, it's hedge trimming time,  I was pulling out multiple thorns and even a small twig.  All sealed quickly.  Checked and more thorns the next day.  One huge one that took a couple of minutes to seal and I was even looking forward to shoving in one of those anchovy things in there.  Now normally I would take out 2 spare tubes on my older bikes, and my mini track pump, so it would have been a disapointing session of pumping and fixing several tubes.  With a curtailed fun day out, and much less grinning and smugness.  I'm sold, though I will not get my other bikes converted.

Orange Endurance Seal I think, 4-6 months and still sealing.  Stuck in a top up squirt the other day.

And I'm playing with quite low pressures, so would have probably snake bited a few times by now.

 

I know, I know,  I'm out of step with tubeless.  Of course it has advantages, otherwise it would have sunk without trace, which it clearly hasn't.

But I ride six days a week, something like 4000 miles a year, over the same roads as everyone else.  My local hedges get trimmed just like yours.  My rain sweeps volumes of flints onto my roads too.  And my broken glass is as sharp as yours.  And yet, running on my high-quality tubed tyres, I'm averaging a flat a year.  (Although to be fair I'm up to two so far this year.)  And I've never, in sixty years biking, had a snake-bite puncture; a most overrated problem if you ask me.

You see, the thing I like most about cycling is its simplicity.  I don't have a bike-computer, no GPS, no cameras, no electric gears, no ANT, no bluetooth, no hassle.  Just a bike and nothing but the basics.  I can, and do, take off for a few days at an hour's notice.  I might end up in France or maybe  I won't.  But wherever it is I can fix 90% of problems whilst sitting on the grass verge, using my motley collection of old tools.  

How would I inflate a problem tubeless tyre under these conditions? What if my gloop had dried out?  How would I refit a tight tubeless tyre after slipping a tube into it?  What if my valves were bunged up with gloop?  The list of potential troubles is too long for my specific needs, the current systems are too fiddly and too uncertain.  Like most ex-military men I plan for the 'least worst' outcome.  And tubes give me just that; the worst I can expect is to fit a new tube in about ten minutes.  Tubeless opens up a whole new world of pain however, the worst I might expect would be a flat tyre I can't inflate or even squeeze a tube into.  

No sir, until they come up with tubeless technology fit for a simpleton like me, I'll keep it simple.

I'm not trying to convert you as you seem happy enough with keeping it nice and simple. However, some of those issues aren't very likely. If tubeless fails (e.g. a cut more than 5mm in the tyre will probably be too big for the sealant), then putting in an inner tube is the fallback option. Tightness fitting the tyres onto the rim could be an issue, but it depends on the precise combination of tyre and tube and you can have the same issue with non-tubeless. My experience is that tubeless tyres aren't too much hassle to get on and off the rim - I've had more trouble with getting them to 'ping' into place after they're on the rim (usually problems with the rim tape being damaged).

If you need to fit an inner tube, then you'll be removing the tubeless valve anyway, so even if it is gunked up, it won't be a factor. Also, when inflating the tube, it'll push the tyre into place so there won't be the issue of trying to reseat the tyre with air pressure alone).

Miller wrote:

 Tubeless is still evolving.  

Let me know when it is ready for a fan of the simple life, I may then buy some.