Originally Posted by
Kapusta
Who said anything about riding around on flat tires? Straw man argument there.
If you can compress the tire to the point where the rim hits the ground and damages the rim, the tire is flat.
The point of this is what exactly? People have been trashing rims since long before tubeless. Run the pressure too low for your tire/wheel setup, your terrain, and your riding style and you can trash a rim. Tubeless just lowers that pressure threshold.
While people have damaged rims in the past, tubeless and running low pressures have
increased the number of rims that are damaged. And my point is exactly what you said. Ruining a wheel isn’t a cheap mistake. Adding a bit more air is cheap insurance. Tubeless doesn’t lower the pressure threshold, it just masks the clue that you might have a problem. Pinch flats tell the rider to increase the pressure a bit. With tubeless, the indicator is a dented rim. Very large difference in cost.