The idea is this... Mostly pros and far less cons versus conventional clincher/tube combinations.

What you get is a tire that across the board is far more impervious to flats other than a catastrophic failure which means a cut that would gut a fish.

Say goodbye to pinch flats- no tube. Most punctures will seal relatively quickly, many you might not even notice. You can lower your PSI for greater tire performance/ comfort... be wary of going too low and dinging your wheels.

Apparently tubes can overheat and you can have a major blowout on descents, dangerous, again not so with tubeless.

Supposedly less rolling resistance, as claimed by all the manufacturers. Due to no hysteresis between the tube and tire.

The newer tires are weight comparable to many of the higher end conventional offerings.

In general you're buying higher performance and much higher reliability with tubeless when installed and maintained properly.

Many new tires are coming out this year, quite a few wheels as well.

I'd recommend going with a tubeless wheelset, and tubeless wheels obviously, because it is very important to have a properly seated bead on tire installation and the wheels are specifically designed for a positive seal. Mount by hand, no tools, protect the bead.


Nail gun video:


Road tire, tacs, etc..,:

and without any sealant completely defeats the purpose? Other than seeming to be a far easier to install tubular system/ tubeless clincher, what exactly is the technological benefit of this tire?

I used to get flats at about the same rate. Then I put liners between the tire and tube. Over a year with no flats.

I put up a fairly extensive thread on my swap over over in the Racing (33) sub forum. I have been running tubeless for several years including doing some races on them. At this point we're on the 3rd and 4th generation of tires so unless you've ridden the newer offerings your database is out of date regarding performance.

If you've got tubeless ready rims you go buy the appropriate valve stems (note Shimano uses a proprietary stem), mount the tire and go ride. Sealant is optional, some folks use it, some don't, but it would appear that the safest sealant to use on an aluminum road rim is Bontrager.

Non-tubless rims require a Stans kit, and tubeless tires.

never run a non tubeless tire without a tube in either application.

My experience with the Tufo tubular clincher was meh. Get a flat and you need both a spare tire and tube if the sealant doesn't fix your flat. Or a second tubular clincher. Tests out poorly for rolling resistance.

I keep detailed maintenance records on my bikes. I reliably get 1/6th to 1/8th the flats that I used to get with clinchers based on years of riding both.

I do have sealant in there but the last one went the whole life of the tire without replenishing it. I doubt it was of much use for the last month or so of the tire's life. They ride great, they are easy to change when you need to even make a change, and they're lighter than clinchers by a fair amount (i.e. no tube). The whole wheel and tire assembly saves considerable rotational weight.

My last flat was when the the cords were showing through - hardly the fault of the tire.

I did it for the weight savings and ride quality, but I'd recommend it to anyone based on the flat performance - something I never expected.

J.

Sealant oughta be changed out every few months from what I gather...

All of their (Tufo) tubular clinchers weigh more than many tubeless tires without sealant. The exception being their race tires which are probably as delicate as anyone elses. Their 25mm offering weighs a good 60 grams more than the Hutch Secteur 28mm I have on my bike...

The only difference I can see is that they can be installed on any rim; they don't require tubeless ready rims. Nothing particular about them illustrates any advantage over a tubeless tire and tubeless ready rim combination in terms of flats unless I'm missing something.

I guess if you want a tire with an integrated tube, that is hassle free compared to tubulars, they're an option. They're rim agnostic in that sense.

That's been my experience as well. Notable is that my last flat was on a long mountain descent where I was hitting speeds in the 40-45 MPH range. Tire went flat over several minutes and presented itself as going flat slowly enough that I was able to ride down to a parking lot to make the repairs.

Having had *KABANG* blowouts with tubes on more than a few occasions I was pretty happy with that.

Latex tubes with a quality tire;dang good ride. I like em with Vittoria Open Corsa or Michelin Pro's. Never really considered the tubeless thing. Pros and cons either way I suppose. Lp