Originally Posted by
gregf83
I didn't have any sales figures for tires so PBK seemed like a reasonable proxy. Of course tire manufacturers are motivated to sell tires and they are doing that now. Switching to tubeless won't allow them to sell any more tires, however, so there isn't much motivation. And what the manufacturers want to push is not of little import. Whether you want 11 speed or not, you're likely to get it in the next few years. Once one bike gets it eventually most of the bikes in your garage will need it also. It's an opportunity for the manufacturers to compel people to upgrade their equipment before they might if a technology change wasn't made.
The large manufacturers, Michelin and Conti, are not in the game because it's too small at this time and the demand is weak. It's fine for boutique tire manufacturers but the big guys will wait until they see an opportunity to increase sales or gain a competitive advantage.
Where tubeless has a bigger benefit, i.e. mountain biking, I think the takeup rate is much higher.
I was speaking of tire mfgs possible desire to push a type of tire being of little import, not component mfgs or bike mfgs, and of little import it is. I mean, it may be that tubular tires have higher profit margin for Schwalbe (I don't know, just speaking theoretically), yet just because that's true, they're not going to get bike mfgs to spec tubular. Increased costs of spec'ing lower production tubeless tires may be a disincentive to bike mfgs in spec'ing tubeless as stock fitments.
Certainly tire mfgs would sell more tires if they "went tubeless," because there is no excess inventory in the market and shops and mfgs would all need to purchase new. Of course it's all predicated on what the bike mfgs and distribution networks do, but my point is that it's easier to hypothesize a very profitable tubeless scenario for tire mfgs than it is a zero profit scenario.
Certainly MTB tubeless has grown more quickly than road tubeless, but I'd suggest it's not due solely to the perceived bigger benefits, but to the different technical demands and distribution network issues of low pressure tubeless, the general culture of MTB, and the ongoing development of disciplines within the sport.