Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Several above have commented that touring could benefit from tubeless. But, quite frankly I have only had one tour related flat after several tours, and that one flat was discovered after my bike got home after hanging on the rack for a few days on the back of a jeep for a long drive.
My past tours were not in thorn country. But I will be doing a tour in thorn country next month for 8 to 10 days while doing a mountain bike trail with camping gear. I will be using slime in tubes for that and one of my wheels will have a thorn resistant tube. Still contemplating using tire liners for that trip.
But other trips I take in the future that are not in thorn country, I expect do to what I have in the past, just use inner tubes without slime, without liners, but with good quality tires. So far I do not see the benefit of tubeless.
I seem to have more trouble with flats around home than touring because I think I average about one flat a year, but I ride several thousand miles a year around home. And I use five different bikes around home.
Are you currently running a tubeless tire with a UST rim? Or just making guesses? Got goatheads, thorns or cactus? The idea for tubeless in mt biking is NO flats, from thorns or pinch flats, plus the benefit of running lower psi. And no tubes needed. Took the tubes out of my fat bike, they weighed 1 pound apiece. 1 pound. Seems like tubeless would be a great application for commuters and tourers.