Originally Posted by
Vicelord
Ok, so I've run tubeless now going on 4 years. I ran a conversion kit for 3.5 with non UST tires, and never had a flat. For the past .5 year I've run the same type of non UST tires, Maxxis CrossMark, on my ZTR tubeless rims, and still haven't had a flat. It's not like I'm riding in Georgia on nice paths either, I'm in freaking Arizona, and I ride hard. Lots of jagged rocks, thorns on everything, and harsh temperatures.
The guys at my LBS all race, ride hard, and are tubeless as well. Same story as me, they're so confident that they don't even carry a tube or a pump on the bike. None of those three have had a puncture outside of a couple catastrophic explosions that would render the tire useless even with a tube. Get a thorn? pull it out and watch the Stan's goo fill up the hole and harden almost immediately.
So this is where I get confused. Why do I hang out in the shop and hear countless people turn down any thought of going tubeless? I watch people on the trail changing tires
constantly and when I suggest on the group ride that they go tubeless, they sneer at me in revolt as if I'd suggested they blow a guy in the alley for cocaine. Meanwhile, I keep on riding and they keep getting flats. We had 14 flats on a group ride last Wednesday between a total of 10 riders. None of those flats were on the 4 bikes in the group with tubeless tires. Not one.
Why, when I suggest to a good friend, that he make his newly built Superfly 29'er SLX tubeless, does he tell me tubeless is a dumb fad that doesn't work? Then he texts me saying he got two flats on a ride through the neighborhood, saying he only has one tube. He's been on these group rides where the tubeless guys are as close to invencible as you can get. He has witnessed this first hand, yet still refuses to spend the $75 on going tubeless... that's about the cost of 8 flats between tubes and Co2 cartridges.
I just don't get it... maybe it's different in some parts of the country, but in a place like Phoenix, why the hell would anyone refuse tubeless? Is it just some newfangled technology that the ol' schoolers don't want because they don't understand it? Is it something that happens because they heard it from a friend who heard it from a guy who knows the owner of a shop's wife that tubeless stinks?
WHY!?
/end rant
I rode a rockier'n'crap trail with a few friends here in the midwest. 2 of them were running tubeless. I run DH tubes 1/2 the time, but not that day. I didn't have a flat. The guy running tubeless had 2 seperate issues that day of his tires burbing air on harder hits. The other rider that day had a similar issue.
I'm a bigger dude so if I run pressures lower than 32-35psi, I'll roll the daggum tire off the rim. I usually run 38psi with DH tubes. So what's the point of going tubeless for a guy like me?
If I were just riding XC all day keeping my hiney planted on a saddle, spinning smooth circles as my trendy new dually 29'er glided over cobble...I'd probably do alright with it. As soon as I hit a corner though...my bike would feel all squirrely b/c there's not enough psi in the tire to support my 2bills.
Side note:
You sure piss and moan alot about people who disagree with your opinion.
I guess if everyone's a "know-it-all" punk and can't take your suggestions as suggestions instead of someone telling them what they need to do...they they probably react like some "back-alley-coke'n'blow" thingy like you suggested. That part I don't agree with. (the manner in which they respond to you) However...if someone likes to run tubes for a valid reason, I'd just let it go.
I think I'd be more inclined to work a little harder to accomodate a Stan's system if I lived in your geo though.