Commuting tubeless
 

Hey,

How "confident" would you be when commuting in tubeless set-up?

I have a wheelset with ZTR rims, tubeless tyres, and sealant in.
I ride 30mm tyres, and inflate to ~4 bar.

I have a daily 2x10 km commute.
I naver had a flat in 3 months, but how confident would *you* feel in this set-up?

Enough not to carry spare tube and pump?
Enough not to carry spare tube and pump but have one at the office so that in the worst case I only have to walk 5km to get to a repairing place?
Not confident enough to ride without repairing gear?

Carrying a spare tube and co2 is so little effort I would continue to carry it until I'd gone for a couple years without needing it.

so lets say you decide to carry the tube and co2/pump. what happens if you do get a flat? now you have to clear out the liquid inside the tire and insert a tube and pump it up? seems messy but also, i dont run tubeless so i'm not really even sure how it works. i just go with the pump and tube method and i run gatorskins

if someone else wants to comment though, i'd be curious as to their experiences were.

I have generally found, commuting tubeless, that the sealant patches a hole before it loses enough air to need to refill it, so I just keep riding on a slightly squishier tire and top it off when I get home.

That said, I definitely ride with a tube and CO2. In general I hate CO2 so a situation where I won't have to use it is the best... My frame pumps are full-sized and not a great fit for this bike and the backpack I wear while commuting on it.

After 2 summers of commuting tubeless, with a 3rd coming up, I am still on the fence about it. Spraying sealant all over the bike while it seals up is a pretty spectacular sticky mess. But it is totally cool when it works (which is almost always).

I wouldn't commute without a spare tube and pump, but I also ride my commuter long distance on the weekends, and my commute home might turn into a 35 mile ride. I have a plug kit and tire boots on the bike also, because I hate walking. My standard commute is 12 miles, for 10 KM, I probably would think of ditching the tube and pump.

I still use inner tubes. My rule for myself is that I have to be prepared for at least one flat if I'm going more than three miles. I generally am ready for two or more flats.

A few years ago I considered it. I looked for people's stories about getting a flat or needing a tube. Generally it happened when they let their sealant dry out. And that's why I ultimately didn't convert, because I am lazy about that kind of thing. Occasions where the tubeless sealant failed to work were rarer and usually involved serious damage to the tire.

Tubeless is getting better all the time. Schwalbe's line improved with the Snakeskin/Microskin Tubeless Easy, and will improve again this year with their new tread compounds (they hired the rubber chemist who developed the Black Chili compound for Continental).

I ALWAYS bring flat fixing stuff on any ride outside easy walking distance.
Has nothing to do with trusting the tires. The world is a random place, and flats can happen anytime.

If tubeless goes flat, it will usually be catastrophically so, like a big sidewall gash, so you would need a boot as well as a tube and pump/c02.

Although if you do put a tube in, you don't have to clear out the sealant. Some will leak out of its own accord, you can pour/shake/wipe out as much more as you want, but you won't get it all so there's not much point trying. Just slap the tube in, it won't care that it's wet.

I think after 3 mo, I would have the confidence to not carry anything. Sure, maybe the risk is once/year you have to walk 5km and end up late for work. People that drive cars also sometimes have car trouble and are late to work. Depending on your work, judging the impact of that risk is up to you.

What's the point of tubeless if not to free you from carrying the extra gear? BUT, if you're carrying anything at all, it's not much more to have a road pump on the bike and carry a tube, so...

How about this option: get a small road pump and fresh tube, put them in a ziplock baggie, and hide/bury them under a bush about halfway along your commute.

Sorry to bump this thread, but I've been trying to figure out whether my new set of Schwalbe Marathon Supremes have the TL-Easy/Microskin technology or not. There's nothing on the box(es) that mention it one way or another (though it does say "Evolution", but I'm not sure that implies TL-Easy). I'm also not sure if there are separate SKUs for the tubeless-ready versions, or if it's just an upgrade that all the new ones have, in which case I need to know when they were manufactured. There are some codes silk screened onto the insides of the tires themselves but I'm not sure how to read them.

If you check the product page, they do list one evolution model (27.5x3.25) that doesn't say "TL Easy", but I bet that's a typo. However, I think it was only this year or last year that Schwalbe started calling their road/touring tires TL Easy, it's possible that you bought old stock. Then again, I don't know if Schwalbe actually made changes to the tires, or if they were generally tubeless-able before, and they just guarantee/advertise it now.

In other words, I don't know much...

I am commuting tubeless right now (28mm tires ~80 psi), definitely with tube and CO2. I hate CO2 though. Need to just put a frame pump in my backpack.

Well, you always need a plan B.

I have been commuting tubless about a year, and have commuted with tubes for decades. That said, most of my tubed flats were pinch flats, and that doesn't happen with tubeless. On the very rare occasion when I get something imbedded into the (rear) tire, its always something that sealant would work well on.

I can think of once where a rock scuffed up my sidewall and caused a flat with tubes. With Tubeless sealant wouldn't fix that (due to location and size). That would require an inner tube or a plug.

Tubeless sealant won't fix anything but a tiny hole. Leaving the debris in the tire until I get home has helped the sealant work (i.e. if it is a nail, don't pull it out).

I have a plug kit to plug up holes that are too big for sealant. I've used it dozens of times on automotive tires, but haven't had the need to use it yet on the bicycle.

Considering ghetto tubeless again today, after I found my flat fix last night must have gotten the worst hole but there's another smaller one somewhere.

have you guys seen the new, i think, mavic tires that are supposed to be tubeless. i guess you can pump them up with a regular pump, nothing special required.

i wonder if that would be to any benefit to commuting tubless. i got a flat the other day in the pouring rain and sucked and now i'm considering going tubeless also...

Sounds interesting -- link?

That's a really cool video, I enjoyed it. Very impressed by the ease of mounting and inflating.

I went tubeless about six weeks ago with 700/40 Schwalbe Almotions on Dyad rims. So far so good and I must say these are the nicest tires I've ever ridden on. Very smooth and energy efficient with good traction. I was steered in this direction by www.rollingresistance.com which tests tires and gave their top rating to Almotions, way ahead of many smaller, lighter tires.


I still pack a pump and tube as I really hate to be stuck on the road and it's a small price to pay for the knowledge I can fix it. The day I leave it behind is the day I'll need it.

Interesting. I ride Dyads, I bought the wheelset in 2012, when tubeless was less of a thing (or at least I was less aware of it). Are your Dyads new and/or officially labeled as tubeless-ready?

Sadly, my brand new tires are not marked with Schwalbe's "Tubless-easy" endorsement, but someday soon I'll be mixing up some homebrew sealant, and may give them a try (after I get the mountain bikes situated)

The tires are "tubeless easy" but the rims are a similar age as yours and were not labeled for tubeless use. I picked up some valves, Joe's sealant and tubeless tape from Chainreaction and that was about it. I did have to take them to a tire shop to get them blown on with a compressor and it was a bit messy for a few seconds but other than that no problem.

FWIW it's only the initial tire seating that requires a good blast of air, just as it does with car tires. After that, the sealant does its thing and the tires only need normal pumping unless they come right off the rim.

If you have a tubeless rim, yes. The ghetto tubeless setup probably won't seat as securely or easily.

Right but watch the video, these mavic tires/wheels only need a regular floor pump for the initial seating

Saw that and don't know how Mavic does it except that the manufacturing must be very precise. It's quite remarkable. I was (unclearly) referring to my setup with ordinary rims and tubeless ready tires.

Also, in case it wasn't clear, I didn't go the ghetto route (i.e. an inner tube stretched over the rim to act as a seal) but just taped up the dyad rims and used them as-is with tubeless valves.

Yeah, I guess it's a definition of terms. I think 'ghetto tubeless' can refer to any setup where either the rim and/or tire are not specifically marked as tubless-ready, although the split inner tube seal is extra ghetto for sure!

I had non-tubeless tires running tubeless on WTB TCS rims on me&my wife's MTB for a while, but I had problems because I wasn't precise enough with the gorilla tape I was using as a sealing strip. In one case too narrow, there was a hole in the rim that was exposed at the edge (not a spoke hole, looked like a pin hole used during manufacture to hold the seam together while welding), in the other case too wide, I had tape all up in the bead area, and sealant would weep right out the sides all around.

So I went back to tubes. Hopefully soon I'll have time to try again, and goldilocks the sealing tape.

It's not like there's anyone enforcing what it means! I didn't mean the split tube, I think that's passé, most of them seem to be Gorilla tape and homebrew sealant.

I'm closer than ever to trying it. The front of my old MTB has an overnight leak too.

You need to top off the sealant every 6 months or so. Many tires will lose their seal when deflated, they you may need to blast them on again. It all depends on the wheel/tire combo.

I don't have any problem using a hand pump on tires less than 40mm, but I do take the valve out when pumping the tubes up initially.

My understanding was it's more like every 3mo or so. I was quite disappointed to learn that. I thought tubeless would be set it up once and ride the tire til it's bald. But ongoing costs for booster sealant is I think comparable to ongoing cost to buy tubes/patch kits. That's why next time I'm going to try with homebrew sealant.

The purpose built tubeless tires have a layer in the carcass that makes them less permeable. It's supposed to stop them losing air but it should help sealant life too. They are always improving...