Mountain Biking - Tubeless Tires: Verdict?

When tubeless tires started becoming more common I kind of discarded the thought as a fad, just another way to create demand for new items. From the sound of it, however, there are a lot of people really enjoying theirs. I watched a video at notubes.com of some guy abusing the hell out of a tubeless tire with his sealant in it. It was impressive, of that I have no doubt. My biggest concern with the video was that he's only stabbing it on the very bottom where there is clearly a small pool of the sealant. Does this mean that a puncture on the top won't seal very quickly, if at all before losing air? And what about a side puncture?

We have these little weeds here that I am confident were genetically engineered to destroy tires. They're full of little seeds that are as tough as a 10 penny nail. I've actually seem them puncture tires through an entire knob. Its not at all rare to see them put a little hole in the side of the tire/tube, should this be cause for me to stick to my tubes?

Verdict... I guess hooked on phonics isn't all its cracked up to be after all

Totally worth it. It's a bomb-proof setup if you run the Stan's tubeless fluid inside them. If the tire is rotating centrifigal force should push out the latex fluid and seal the time anyway. It's supposedly able to seal up to 1/4 inch holes. The only thing about tubeless that should concern you is pulling the tire away from the rim and burping air on the trail. But run your tires at high enough pressure and that isn't going to happen. If you want to run stupid-low amounts of pressure, but the rim strips from Stan's and you can run whatever pressure you want without that worry.

IMO it honestly depends on the application but they do exactly what they claim. I have a buddy who is a stans rep here and he put 20 screws and nails in different parts of the same tire and it still held air.
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It does depend on the application. For me cause I like to hit things hard and fast...I'm not an XC guy, I'm not a freerider, just an all around rider, that likes to rip downhill and hit some nasty stuff. I like the tubeless tire(but not by itself), but I go one extra step, i run a tube insite my tubles tires! I can run as low as 5psi and not get a pintch flat! Granted the wheels weigh a ton, but for me it's worth it!

With tubless they can be difficult to patch somethimes, and if you do need to take the tire off, depending on what brand or tire and rim you have it can be a bear to get off and back on the rim!

But if that sealer works that would be sweet! (granted more weight added on) but if you aren't an XC racer, it doesn't really matter.

Just my thoughts....

:beer:

Dude, where you been?

L8R

Just read my e-mail, come back when things aren't so coo-coo for cocoa puffs.

L8R

It's no mistake that motorcycles have been using tubeless tyres for more than 30 years.

Originally posted by DiL
Verdict... I guess hooked on phonics isn't all its cracked up to be after all
I fixed the title for you DiL. :)