Originally Posted by
Kapusta
In some cases and applications.... yes.
I’ve been mountain biking since 1984. I’ve never found a situation where I need my tires to be flat to ride.
Also what you are saying about pinch flats and rims strikes is not the whole story. There is a window between what will give you a pinch flat and what will actually dent a rim.
If there is a window it is a very, very, very narrow one. I
never pinch flat. I also never dent rims except for a single incidence where I missed hopping a curb correctly. I
have seen a whole lot of tubeless rims that look like someone took a hammer to them.
I don’t recall what the rim was but that’s a Hadley hub…$400+…, probably a $90 rim, spokes, and labor for build. It’s close to a $600 mistake. (And the owner was an idiot since that wheel is worth a relatively cheap rim replacement.) A bit more air in the tire would have saved a whole lot of money.
With tubeless I can run my pressure a few pound lower than gives me pinch flats without denting my rims. Been doing so for many years. With tubes, and a ~2.3" rear tire, 28 is as low as I could go in the rear before getting pinch flats. With tubeless I was down around 25 and never dented the rim. Front was not relevant for me, as pinch flats were never really the limiting factor for how low I could go (stability was).
Really?! 3
whole psi! That’s astounding!
Sarcasm aside, that’s the very narrow “window” I’m talking about.
Inserts let you go a lot lower without denting a rim. Whether that is worth the extra weight depends on what the application is. Bikepacking is probably not an application that warrants inserts.
EDIT: I guess I should have differentiated between rim strikes and rim damage. The point of foam inserts is to allow pressures that would otherwise risk damaging the rims.
Air also allows you to avoid damaging a rim. It’s cheaper and lighter. Bikepacking puts extra weight on the bike which kind of negates any benefit you might get from running lower tire pressure anyway.