mdilthey

Any of you touristas going tubeless? Why or why not?

I'm considering it for two applications; One, my off-road mountain bike's tubes and rims are heavy. Going tubeless would save a lot of weight and reduce flats.

Two, I'd even consider doing it for a pair of 28mm Hutchinson road tires for an UL tourer.

Thoughts?

Max

bmike

tubeless on the krampus, split tube method. no issues thus far, although i'm running tubes now in the studded winter tires... will go back to tubeless when i switch to summer tires.
have not done it on the rando bike. but if i had a very like bike with 30s and up i would consider it.

robow

When I weigh the risk vs. benefit, I just don't see how my touring will be more trouble free with the use of tubeless. Until it becomes so mainstream that I can easily find a tubeless valve, sealing rim tape, and sealant everywhere, not to mention tubeless worthy tires, I'll likely not convert.

Question, have you tried sealing those bad boys with just your small mini pump? Though I have not tried, I'm betting it won't be easy (though I maybe wrong here)

bmike

you just put a tube in on the road / trail until you get to a gas station or shop.
and CO2 carts will sometimes pop a bead back into place.

yes, if you blow the bead off or have a sidewall cut you might not seal up, so you put in a spare tube.
lots of tubeless tires out now. not sure why you would worry about a valve stem, you can carry a spare if you think it will fail.
and you shouldn't need to mess with the tape (or the valve stem) once setup.

robow

Yes, I knew this but did I mention that I'm probably a retro grouch

bmike

So you use sew ups and rod brakes?
How do you deal with that on a tour?

robow

Last time I really looked into it, the tubeless road worthy tires were pretty pricey and couldn't find many in the 32 size other than cyclocross heavily treaded tires, is that still the case? I know that Stan's conversion kits with Hutchinsons were like $250.

fietsbob

I'd still bring a Back up innertube if I were planning ahead.

You can buy quite a few really nice dinners on tour , in restaurants with $250.

nun

I'm not convinced about tubeless. I've read that if they do puncture they can be tricky to fix and that the tires are hard to get on and off the rims. Also what do you do if you get a slash in the side of the tire. With a tubed tire you just put a tire boot or some duct tape on it, so you'd have to carry a tube and a boot anyway, just in case. If the ride is significantly better I might try them, but I'd still carry a couple of spare tubes.

hueyhoolihan

i don't hear enough advantages, even from their advocates, to convince me that i want to switch.

robow

Question for those in goat head country, will those tubeless self seal after grabbing a few of those thorns?

staehpj1

My friends in New Mexico and Texas say that they are great for goat head thorn country. While I have toyed with the idea, I have not tried them myself.

pbekkerh

I have tubeless on my MTB for use around my home but not on my touring bike. The tubeless are so much tighter on the rim, that i can't imagine having to pull them off on the road and they are impossible to get back on. I have not tried CO2 but even my small home compressor has trouble blasting the tyre back on the rim.
And I don't see the benefits. They are a bit lighter but how many tenth of a percent are you saving on a loaded touring rig? In the terrain, they can be ridden at a lower pressure but on the road I run my tyres at high pressure anyway. My current tyres are even a bit heavier than standard because I use Schwalbe tyres with all the protection available, I hate to puncture.
If you have to bring, and some of the time, ride with tubes, where is the weight saving?

If you use tubeless with anti puncture solution, that adds weight, and its a mess you don't want to have on your fingers and bike, in the middle of the desert or in the middle of town

robow

Well that clinches it for me

veganbikes

I think it is a cool concept but it is messy right now, with no real standards and so many different brands. Plus it is messy in the sense of having the sealant which would be a bit more of bugger to deal with on tour. I am always looking to ditch some weight but tubes aren't the weight I am looking to ditch. I could get rid of a few pounds on me or go with some lighter parts elsewhere.

staehpj1

If you didn't need to carry any tubes as spares you could eliminate the weight of 4 tubes from what most carry (two in the tires and two spares) which would be pretty significant IMO. You would also effectively more flexible sidewalls which would mean an improved ride and probably less rolling resistance.

It does come with some costs that have already been mentioned. I have not yet decided that tubless is worth it for me. I definitely am not ready to spring for new wheels so if I did try it I'd go with a ghetto conversion. I figure I get part of the weight savings and sidewall flexibility by using thin lightweight tubes sized on the small side.

3speed

Running tubeless on a touring bike never occurred to me. It is an interesting idea, though. As for goat-head or other flat prone areas, that's actually where tubeless is supposed to shine. You can jam a nail into a tubeless tire and pull it out again and the tire will seal itself back up with only a minor loss of air pressure(theoretically). Tubeless Could basically mean no more flats on tour. I'm intrigued...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTlZvOVG8zs

pbekkerh

This is only true in terrain. On a flat surface, higher pressure will always give you lower rolling resistance.

staehpj1

I'd be more inclined to agree if you had said smooth surface rather than flat surface. A flexible sidewall has better comfort and lower rolling resistance on any irregular surfaces and I have found that really smooth pavement is the exception rather than the rule just about everywhere I have toured.

indyfabz

Would it? I ride tubeless on my road bike. Tubeless tires with sealant are not the lightest things in the world. Are MTB tubeless tires different? Also, you would serve yourself well to carry at least one tube anyway. Not all punctures will self-seal well. Both the GF and I have had punctures that have not sealed completely, requiring the insertion of tubes.

mdilthey

If I were running tubes, I'd probably put in a little sealant anyways, specifically for small punctures like Goat's Head Thorns, which I lost a battle with on a tour I was under-prepared for.

The touristas over at Pedaling Nowhere used tubeless setups for their mountain bikes as they crossed Africa this past year, specifically for the anti-puncture-ness.

So, on my current MTB, I have these really heavy rims and 36-spoke wheels. I was considering keeping those as my spare wheels and upgrading to some really nice 32-spoke wheels with nicer hubs and tubeless rims. If I did that, I'd save weight from having lighter wheels and no tubes. Tubes for 2.4-inch 29er wheels are big tubes, much heavier than a few ounces of sealant. However, the idea is to get a rim that is maintenance-free save for replacing sealant once every six months. if I'm going to have endless trouble, it might not be worth it.

For what it's worth, I'm only thinking about this for my off-road bikepacking rig, not my regular touring bike.



It seems like everyone here is pretty polarized; half of you think it's an anti-flat setup perfect for touring, and the other half think it's a gimmick. Hmm...

Chris Pringle

For off-road tours, you will be hands down really pleased to have a tubeless set up, esp. if you are light touring/bikepacking. You might still have to carry an extra tire, a spare tube w/ sealant in the unusual event that you go flat. I would not carry a bottle of sealant. Just wait untl you get to a large town to get it sorted out yourself or by the local bike shop.

For on-road tours, personally, I would not run tubeless.

robow

As usual, a pretty good honest work up from the GCN boys

Video: Are road tubeless tires worth it?

sstorkel

If you frequently get pinch flats, tubeless tires are worth a look.

If, like me, you don't frequently get pinch flats then there's absolutely no benefit to going tubeless.

3speed

^ Really? Pinch flats are the Only benefit to tubeless and if you don't get frequent pinch flats then there's "absolutely No benefit" to going tubeless? What about, oh I don't know, all of the other benefits to going tubeless? Sure, there are tradeoffs, but there are certainly benefits. I don't know if maybe you haven't read up on tubeless, but extra protection against all of the other kinds of flats that you might get, lower rolling resistance, ride feel, etc, etc, aren't made up theories. They're real, scientifically measureable benefits. It's not for everyone, but it's just silly to say there are "absolutely No benefits" other than avoiding pinch flats. I'd actually say that's one of the lesser benefits in a touring situation. It's a fantastic benefit in a MTB application.