Originally Posted by
canklecat
I was >>this<< close to ponying up for Armadillos a few months ago, but after chatting with the local Specialized shop mechanic I decided to keep looking. Nothing wrong with the Armadillos, but I wanted tires with beads tight enough to grip my bike's single wall rims when flat. My original Specialized Hemisphere tires would roll off the rim when uninflated, taking along the rim strip and risking damage to the rim. I wanted tires that I could roll the bike on when flat if necessary. The Michelin's grip just tight enough for that, but can easily be handled with a pair of plastic tire levers.
Sounds like you would be a good candidate to try tubeless rims. When I mounted one of my WTB Cross Boss tires onto my WTB rim and got the bead seated, I realized that the tire label wasn't quite where I wanted it, and it took me literally 20 minutes of fighting it to get the bead broken to slide the tire over. Plus, when tubeless with sealant, you should be good to roll through goat head city and not have any problems.