Rutnick

Well, I went road tubeless back in what? March? Has it been that long ago already? The system has been flawless up until about mid July. We were doing a quick 30 miler after work and I was looking around and didn't notice a huge chunk of metal on the road (was third in the paceline). Well, I ran over it and punctured the front tire. I heard the air coming out and calmly pulled out of the paceline, slowed down and pulled over. Much of it was on a complete flat.

Here is the moment all the "road tubeless haters" are looking for....what did I do? Well, I took the front wheel off. I took out a plastic tire lever, unbeaded the front tire, poured out the sealant (the puncture was about 3mm long), took out the road tubeless valve and put in an inner tube. I got the tire back on BY HAND and hit it with a CO2. How long did all that take? About as long as a regular flat....what? 2 minutes?

Now all the road tubeless haters are going....yeah but that tire is trashed now and what are you going to do? Run it as a tubed tire from now on? Well, the answer to that question is the following....I bought the Hutchison Road Tubeless patch kit. It was about $12 and came with about 6 patches and glue. I later took the tire off, I cleaned the area, added glue, waited for it to dry, applied the patch and well...put it back on the wheel with the road tubeless valve stem. I added sealant through the valve stem and reinflated. It's now been 1 week and 150 miles later on that tire. Still holding air.

Man, this road tubeless setup is SUCH a pain.

cpk0

you should pump your tires more often...

onespeedfreak

nice. i had a similar thing happen to me not long ago. i used 'shoe goo' to fill in the slash in the tire (when i got back from the ride of course), reinstalled the valve and a little stans to the tire and it has been fine ever since. i love tubeless.

CastIron

I've been loosely entertaining the idea of converting my Fulcrum 3's over to them. So how do they ride, corner, etc.?

Grasschopper

Um you can't do that unless the Fulcrums are designed for tubeless. The tire bead is different. That said Fulcrum is either making or going to make road tubeless wheels soon. Specialized is also jumping on the bandwagon and will be offering a road tubeless tire for 09.

CastIron

Leonard Zinn disagrees. There's even a kit for it.

Carbon Unit

Did you need an air compressor to put the tubeless tire back on after you repaired it? That is what some are saying that it takes an air compressor. I have been reading everything I can about tubeless and am very interested in giving it a try. For two reasons:

I hear that they flat less often

I hear the ride quality is more like a tubular.

So, it looks like there are few if any down sides to riding with tubeless.

wfrogge

Since Jan I have been riding 10+ hours a week on normal clincher tires and have yet to have a flat....... Whats the point? I dont know

ravenmore

You can use any rim as long as you have the proper kit apparently. I've thought of doing it on my Elites.

ravenmore

currently you are limited on your choice of tires.

Rutnick

except Open Pros. They are on the list to NOT used as road tubeless.

Rutnick

They say the rolling resistance is less than a tire with a tube.
More comfortable than standard tires with tubes.
They claim the tire will not roll off when you get a flat and you can ride the tire flat for a short distance. I rode mine flat for a very short distance and it was beaded as hard as it was when I installed it.

10 hours per week? I call that saturday.

Rutnick

yes, I used an air compressor. I use an air compressor to bead my tubeless setup on my MTB too.

The video shows the Stan's guy always getting the tire beaded with a regular pump but I've never seen anyone able to do it.

downside: one guy here will always moan about how much heavier they are. Blah blah blah...they are heavier.

Well, it's proven that the aero benefits of a heavier rim outweigh the extra weight. For me, I've ridden my fastest 100 mile and 60 mile rides on Road Tubeless. Maybe there IS something to less rolling resistance.

I would like to think I've gotten stronger on the bike but whatever it is...it happened.

With that said, my previous fastest 60 mile and 100 mile rides were on Bontrager Race Lite 700x25s.

FYI....the only thing you notice on a 23 vs 25mm tire is the 25s are slightly more comfy and those Bontragers get about 1500 miles and that's it.

I also use 700x 23 Hutchison Fusion Comps. I've always thought they were a tad slower but are comfy.

ravenmore

I'd like to check that list out - where'd you find that out from? I was thinking of plunking down money on a NoTubes kit...

Also, you mentioned weight? How much heavier is the setup? I would think the tires are heavier but you get to subtract the weight of the tubes (what about 100 grams each?). The weight of the solution is pretty negligible I think. I was wondering if actually you'd get a net weight loss on the system.

WillyG

Hi Rutnick,

I've been struggling to inflate my Hutchinson's Atoms on a pair of "pre 2-way" Fulcrum Racing Zeros. I bought the road tubeless kit from notubes, using the special valve stems, sealant and soapy water (no tape).

Can you tell me what size air compressor you used?

Thanks

pmt

What floor pump are you using?

foresthill

Not sure if this translates to road or not, but on my MTB, with a new set of tires, I find that it's much easier to get initial inflation to work if I inflate the tire on a rim with a tube in it and leave it for a day or two. After that, I've never had a problem getting it to seal with just a plain old floor pump. I never even bother with the soapy water thing...

Oh, and from everything I've read, the hook bead thing is bunk. The only thing the tubeless rims provide is a lack of spoke holes, but the notubes kit can serve that purpose as well.

umd

The tire is a rebranded Hutchinson, and the Specialized wheel seems to be in development hell.

schnee

Mountain bikes and cross benefit a lot from tubeless because of the no pinch flat thing. That enables you to run much lower pressure, but that's not really an issue for road bikes, is it?

I can see tubeless being great for commuting and utility riding because they're so much less flat-prone. Stan's will stop most punctures from even registering. The only thing that ever made me replace a tire on a MTB is ripping a knobby clean off.