Originally Posted by
Bikey Mikey
Color me confused. I gather that "weight weenie" is a person who tries to save every ounce on a bike. For some reason I was thinking that it meant "lightweight." I meant I'm a lightweight as far as it goes with my own weight(138~142 lbs and 5'7"). I'm still learning as to all the terminology. My question was about the use of my tires and the Ultegra Wheelset(the rim type is tubeless according to Stapfam's link and I thought that the Gatorskins needed clincher wheels)
The Ultergas can be used either way. Remove the tubeless valve stem, easy to do by hand, and you can use a tube and normal tire. The tubless function takes a special Hutchenson type of tire and still a squirt of Stans sealant. What makes them tubeless is the spoke holes do not go all the way into the second part of the rim. With a tubeless tire the ridge on the bottom of the side wall fits into a recess on the rim sealing it to air loss, much like your tubeless car tire. But none the less you can use tubes and regular clinchers on both the Ultegra and Dura Ace tubeless rims. The draw back to the tubless system is if you do have to remount a tire you need a blast of air to reseat the tire and a hand pump will not do it.