dvald001

I don't know how many commuters have thought about switching over to tubeless tires, but my experiences so far have been really positive. I've been a huge fan of Grand Bois Hetres after setting up a 650b build at the beginning of the summer, but my biggest fear was that goat head thorns would pop them like balloons. Seriously, about 95% of the flats I've gotten have been a result of running over a goat head thorn--I've even had them flat some Marathon Supremes 3 times in a single ride. Rather than wait for the inevitable, or resort to switching to a heavy duty tire, I decided to buy a tubeless wheel set and to try running them with some Stan's sealant and no tubes.

Since then, they've worked perfectly. The tires mounted without problems and the sealant has worked exactly as it should. I even decided to test the the wheels out by riding through a goat head patch. In one 3 foot stretch I managed to pick up about 12-15 thorns in both tires. As I pulled them out I heard a hiss here and there, but was able to ride home without any problems. The tires held up.

In the last three weeks I've found 4-5 goat heads in my tires that I had picked up as part of my regular commute. Normally, pulling a goat head would be followed by 15 minutes of swapping in a new tube, but not anymore. Now I just continue on my way. I still ride with a backup tube anyway (in case I ever get a hole bigger than the sealant can handle) but I've been enjoying my nice supple tires without any fear that a goat head is going to ruin my ride.

henkie327

I've been thinking along the same lines, however I'm still on the lookout for a good not too expensive tubeless wheelset. And I'm wondering which tires I'd be able to run on said wheelset. Do I understand it correctly that you run the grand bois hetres tubeless?

dvald001

Yup! Been running the Hetres tubeless on a Stan's Crest wheel set. A lot of the things I had read online had said that I would need a compressor, but I was able to mount them with a floor pump really easily. Since tubeless systems work best with pressures no higher than 40psi, I would only recommend you do it if you're planning on running big tires. The Hetres work great for that, since I normally ran them at 40 psi anyway (and now keep them at 35ish). Stans offers a conversion kit for about 50 bucks that should let you turn any wheel set into a tubeless system.

mtbikerinpa

I've used UST tubeless at 50psi on 2.1 wide tires for commuting for years with no problems. Obviously back the pressure down for trails, but the tires are often rated to go higher than needed for the application.

JohnJ80

I went one step farther 3 years ago and went to tubular tubeless. Tufo makes a tubular that doesn't have any tube. You put some goop in the tire to cover any punctures that may occur. End result is that I get about 6-8x less flats to the point where when I do get a flat, it's when the cords are showing through the tire. They are just so much less screwing around that it's amazing.

J.

JoeyBike

I ran Stan's in my Pugsley tires inside the innertubes. Still worked great although I run pressures from 5 to 20PSI only. Once I ran over a whole clip of construction stables. I stopped, yanked all of the staples out spinning the tire every two or three staples. Rode home 10 miles and rode on that for another year without any repair. Stan's rocks in low pressure tires. The only drawback is a "head of cauliflower" precipitates out of the liquid Stan's over time. Running tubeless you just remove it but inside an inner tube means chucking the entire tube eventually.

Leebo

Specialized and hutchinson have a new road tubeless system that has dedicated rim and tire interface. No sealant required and higher pressures too.

dvald001

whats the advantage of tubeless tubular? Doesn't that mean you can't toss in a tube if the tire gets slashed?

noglider 

Tubeless Hetres sound heavenly. Do they make a sound? I've heard Hetres make that characteristic whine. It's a pleasant sound.

JohnJ80

Tubular=sew up.

The Tufos are unique in that they are not constructed like a traditional sew up with a tube sewn inside a casing (i.e. tire part). They are one piece. You run them with some sealant in them and, in my experience, bye-bye flats. Also the whole tubular set up is quite a bit lighter than the equivalent clincher set up.

Slashing a tire means you're usually done with either set up. I can carry a complete extra tire in the smallish under the seat bag (Jandd micro wedge). Changing one out is actually as easy or easier than a clincher, IMO. But, never had to do that and for my training rides I just carry the Tufo extreme sealant that is used to plug up to a 5mm hole.

Either way, I get about 1/6 to 1/8 the number of flats I got with clinchers. I've never been stranded in thousands of miles of riding. And, if I did have that one off chance where I was, I'd still be tons ahead in terms of time fooling around changing tires.

J.

jrickards

I checked out the tires and am a little confused.

First of all, on the Compass Bicycles site, it says that the tires are clinchers, it doesn't say anything about the tires being tubeless and it refers to a particular model of Schwalbe tubes as the recommended tubes.

Secondly, on other Grand Bois tires, it refers to the dimensions (the 29 part of 700Cx29) as the width, not the height, is this correct?

dvald001

You're right, the Hetres are not designed to be tubeless. However, I've run them for 600 miles now tubeless and haven't had any problems that weren't a result of my own incompetence. A lot of people run regular tires tubeless, but it often depends on the tire. I did a lot of
research in advance before I decided to go tubeless with my Hetres. Other people seemed to be successful with it so I figured why not?

IF you go back to the Compass Bicycle website you'll see that there are several Grand Bois models. Keep looking until you find the 650bx42m tire. That's the Hetre. And yes, the 2nd number relates to width and not height.

jrickards

So, could I assume therefore that the second number refers to width whereas the second number in the ERTO code (for example, 700cx35 for the Schwalbe Marathon tire I have with an ERTO of 622-37) refers to height?