DBcoil

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Tubed and Tubless wheels?

Thanks for the help.

ca7erham

I can see almost no advantage to going tubless other than some extra cush. If you flat a tubed tire, you can just patch it or replace the tube for a very low cost. If you flat a tubless, you must replace the tire its self in most cases (I think). In addition to more costly tires, you must get more costly wheels. I also feel that I should say that my experience in the field of tubless tires is limited to an old road bike and what I've read.

mikeE46

Once you ride tubeless, you won't go back.








and

ProFail

Wrong.


Tubeless allows you to run super-low pressure without fear of pinch flats. If you get a flat, then use a sealant to seal the cut/hole. UST tires are not any more expensive than their tubed counterparts, but the tire option is somewhat limited. You do need a UST compatible tire, but their are homemade conversions floating around the web.


Tubeless is just now catching on for the road market. TubULAR has been around for a long time is still used by the pros. Tubular tires cost a lot and are either impossible to repair once flatted or must be sent to some guy in Florida.

ca7erham

Ma bad, I was talking about Tubular. Also it may have been a fluke, but my last bike, a full rigid, did fine at super-low pressure using the biggest tires that performance uses (I think 2.3s) and the biggest innertubes that I could find (2.0-a bigger number). Prolly a bit heavyer that way, but it was what I had.

mx_599

UST tires are heavy

mx

ProFail

The truth.

Am I playing Devil's advocate? I'd never, EVER run tubeless.

ZeCanon

I haven't flatted in 2 years running standard tires ghetto tubeless with homemade sealant. I tend to run around 24-25 psi front and rear. Every time I go back to tubes (if I am switching tires ors omething similar) I pinch flat even at 30-33 psi, which feels like crap when you are used to 25. If you don't change tires really often, tubeless is the way to go. and even if you do, it took me about 10 minutes to switch both mine for a muddy race yesterday, so not exactly a big deal.

mx_599

what is your sealant brew?

mx

gfrance

I'm no MTB expert by any means, but have been riding for about 8 years now. Somebody please explain why I want tires at 25PSI? What benefit could be had by running tires nearly flat? With a full suspension bike, why not run tires at recommended factory pressure? I seem to pump mine up to around 50PSI and haven't noticed any 'issues'.

(full disclosure: I'm mostly a roadie and normally run 120PSI...anything less is very undesirable.)

trek1

I went tubeless for an entire last season only to find a huge thorn in my Conti Explorer UST tire and it could not be repaired well enough to continue using it as tubeless so I just put a tube in and scrapped the idea. I always run 40psi and don't have to worry about pinch flats so my LBS said that I shouldn't need to run tubeless.

Funkychicken

Neutral: easy enough setup as long as you have a compressor ready, could not observe any significant weight / rotational weight saving
Pros: run really low tyre pressures, no more pinch flats (it's a magical feeling), dead easy to switch back to tubes
Cons: comparatively high maintenance. This requires explanation.

Pinch flats will be no more - so long as you maintain the amount of wet sealant in the tyres. It is also still possible to burp enough air out to get a complete flat, the likelihood of (and recovery from) which depends on the amount of wet sealant, your tyre pressure, and how big you're hucking. Re-inflation from a complete flat is near impossible w/o a compressor, so there's no way you're fixing it on the trail - bring a spare tube.

Maintaining the amount of wet sealant means regular sealant replacement (at least quarterly), means constant cost of sealant, and most likely you will need to go through the whole setup process each time. The process is not difficult, but personally I've only had to replace a tube maybe twice in a year.