Originally Posted by
WhyFi
This is like confirmation bias on steroids. As a non-user, and by its very nature, you'll only notice tubeless when it doesn't work for someone else - it's like taking a survey but only accepting the negative results.
I can guarantee you that 90% of the guys that I ride with don't know that I run tubeless and have been for longer than the three years that I've been riding with them. I've never had a flat while with them, but I know that I've taken punctures in their presence. Despite that, if I should take a Goldilocks puncture and go flat the next time I'm out with them, whenever that is, it'll automatically be an indictment against tubeless in their minds, because it'll be their only data point (as the successes went unnoticed).
The other thing with road tubeless, in particular, is that it's still relatively new, not all sealants seem to be appropriate for road pressure and user experience/skillset is... varied, to put it gently. Is a certain rim/tire combination really impossibly tight, or is it just that the person installing them was not yet practiced enough to do all of the little things to ease the process? Does sealant in general not work above a certain pressure or was the person using stuff better suited for MTBs?
This is why I think that it's important to talk about rates of punctures, before and after the move to tubeless, and the specifics of actual user experiences, rather than to lean on observations of failure or, even worse, parrot third-hand "experience" from those online or friends-of-friends.
You missed the first part, I've been running tubeless on the gravel bike since I got it last summer, so I'm familiar.
And on the gravel bike, it's fantastic, I've never had an issue.
Some might say you have confirmation bias, you've never had an issue, so it's great. Yes, the issues I've seen could be a due to sealant/tire combos, user error, etc., but it's enough that I don't want to mess with it.
The common answer of "well you can just throw a tube in it if you need to" is also a non-starter for me. Having removed tires and cleaned out sealant, that is something I would never want to deal with on the roadside. I've also seen people struggle with certain rim/clincher combos on the roadside, also something I wouldn't deal with. I ride mostly solo (even before the current situation), so if I can't fix it easily on the roadside by myself, then I wouldn't use it.
I rarely get a flat, so for the hassles of tubeless on the road, I don't see the benefit over my current GP5K/latex combo. My new road bike came setup tubeless, and the first thing I did was remove the stock tubeless tires and put a set of GP5K clinchers on. As always, ride what you want, and stay safe.