Rim Width Relative to Tire Width
 

Any tried running a tubeless setup? How is it with comfort?

Do you prefer running a wider tire with slightly lower pressure?

Does opting for a wider tire negatively impact handling based on how tightly the bead seats onto the rim?

What is the difference in width between a road, gravel or mtb rim?

Tubeless is great for comfort!
My road bike is tubeless in 25&28 tires. A noticable improvement over non tubeless.

Tire & rim fit chart WTB

Tubeless is often a sticky mess. But at least it increases your maintenance requirements.

The only way tire pressure affects handling is if the pressure is low enough that the rim relative to the contact patch. I run pressures high enough to avoid pinch flats and tire flooping, because lower pressures 9toa degree) increase speed and definitely increase comfort.

Rim width and tire width matter, but unless the rim's internal width is the same as or close to the tire width it doesn't matter much. if the rim is too wide the tire will be stretched too wide, but most older rims are more like 15-20 mm, and most tires run 23 mm or more.

I've done almost 19,000 tubeless road miles. Would you like to guess how much time I've spent on maintenance? Literally not a single minute. I've replaced worn out tires, but I would have done that with tubed tires.

But sure.

Google could answer all of these very basic questions for you.

You never even added sealant in 19,000 miles? :foo: Surely that takes more than a single minute.

I've read enough stories of difficulties mounting or getting a seal, the need for regular sealant addition, and worst of all the incidents of major messes, sometimes on the side of the road. There must be a reason for all the "help me fix my tubeless issues! :cry:" threads that continuously pop up on BF. But hey, I'm glad you're happy with yours!

No, I’ve never had to add sealant. I wear out a few pairs of tires a year...I’ve had tires that were dry when I replaced them but I’ve never actually had to top them up.

My first tubeless tire install had one of the tires blowoff the rim a few hours after installing. I never did figure out what I’d done wrong...probably over inflated. I anticipated the cleanup would be a pain but I just wiped it up with a wet rag.

I do have sealant spray from sealed punctured inside the rear triangle of my bikes. It just gets wiped off when I wash them once a month or so.

No mounting issues here, especially with GP5000TLs. In 32mm I don’t even need a compressor. The 28mm size did require a compressor to seat.

Sounds good, thanks MTH!

Tubeless miles ridden: 50,000+
Bikes currently outfitted tubeless: 4

Would I recommend tubeless? Maybe. It depends.

Running tubeless tires is like using an umbrella. The average person can pretty easily determine whether they need it or not.

No, a wider tire negatively impacts handling based on how loosely the bead seats onto the rim.

I can't answer your first question because I've only used one set of TL tires.

1. Yes, I highly prefer to ride bigger tires with lower pressure. Unfortunately, I'm very limited due to my frame clearance. About 30mm actual width.

2. I'm not entirely sure what this means. If your tire is so loosely seated on the rim that it can move around, you have major problems. For example, one of my friend's TL tire slips along the rim under hard braking. Is that what you mean? I don't think this is something you necessarily need to worry about.

3. A good road rim is between 19 and 25mm wide (internally). A good mtb rim is probably somewhere between 27 and 40mm wide. A good gravel rim is somewhere between those two. It mainly depends on tire size.

I would say that extremely wide rims are highly overrated. It's fashionable for mountain bikes, but proportionately, they don't really use very wide rims. A 2.6" tire on a 30mm rim would be like using a 33mm tire on a 15mm rim. The main reason some road rims are so wide now is for aerodynamics.

I've thought about this some more and have realized that there has been some additional time spent because I run tubeless. Not a lot, but when I change tires, I do use a paper towel and alcohol to clean the old sealant off the rim. Strictly speaking, this probably isn't necessary, but I do it. Additionally, the rims on my current two bikes both came pre-taped. If it weren't for that, it would indeed have taken 10 minutes or so per wheel to tape it (and then cleaning with alcohol is definitely needed).

But for me, the benefits far, far outweigh the effort. If you don't get many flats, tubeless probably isn't worth fooling with. Judging by the sealant boogers on my tires, I've been saved dozens and dozens of flats. I'm many hours ahead of the curve all things considered.

For the road I run 19c rims with 32mm GP5Ks, ride and handling is fantastic. :thumb:

Does anyone run 23mm tubeless? I have 19mm inside width rims now that are tubeless compatible. Problem I have is my old Madone frame won’t fit a 25mm now. Too close to the fork crown. Too wide on the rear. This is with tube type GP5000 tires. I was thinking of getting Bontrager 24mm tubeless because that is what looks like is the only tire available that will fit. Want to try tubeless to run lower pressure. I run 102/110 to keep from getting pinch flats.

Or he/she could find a bicycle forum where they actually discuss all things about bicycles. I wonder where someone could find such a forum? Oh wait, you seem to have given advice or commented 2476 times on bicycles on this forum. What a coincidence!

Sometimes Bike Forum members seems to forget what a bicycle forum's purpose is.

Last, I bet if they Googled the questions, Google would come back with links to this forum. So I guess you are half right.

Some of the OP's questions are extremely general, and suggest that he/she had not done even cursory research before posting. Questions are more easily answered when they are a bit more specific.

Forget tubeless mess. Seen way too many guys with tubeless tire being cut and not being able to seal. What a mess on the road. That milky crap will spray all over your bike.
If you want comfort, then just go wider tire. Period. Just keep in mind that the wider the tire, the more floppy it will feel in cornering (tubeless or not!). Think truck tires, good and comfy over rocks, but "jackknife" thru fast corners.
My mtb rims are 21mm internal width, and I run 2.25" (57mm) tires on them.
Most modern road rims are 19-21mm internal width, so you can easily run 28-40mm tires on them (assuming your frame can fit them), but I wouldn't run anything over 28mm if you plan to use the bike exclusively on tarmac. Wider tires tend to be more floppy in corners.
I'm still running inner tubes in my mtb, scooter, and my dirtbike.

I installed tubeless 32mm GP5000's over the summer, just to try it out.
The initial install and setup was a pain. The tires were super hard to mount on my rims. They inflated easy enough with a floor pump and one of those dump tank/air shot things, but I couldn't get one of them to seal up, and it kept going flat after a few hours. I eventually took it to my LBS and paid them to do it. I think they re-taped the wheel (which had factory tubeless tape installed).

Since then, I've had zero issues. No flats all summer, the tires are super comfy and fast. I run them at around 65-70psi. I added more sealant a few weeks ago, because the internet told me I should. This is really straightforward and not messy at all... just let the air out, unscrew the valve core, add sealant with an injector thingy and pump the tire back up. Takes about 5 minutes.
Other than that, they've been maintenance free. I do worry about getting a roadside flat that I can't fix with a plug, even though I carry a spare tube it would be a huge pain to get the tire off and back on the rim.

The only reason I'd go back to tubes is that I'm concerned about swapping tires and going through that initial setup pain again. A second set of wheels (one for road, another for gravel) will solve that problem.

If your road bike.had extra clearance, would.you go wider?,

You left out "then post as an expert on the matter a few days later."

Be careful running too wide a tire on too narrow a rim for it. It'll probably work fine until you puncture. I had that happen with a front tire. Whenever the air pressure in it dropped that bike became uncontrollable. The front wheel would ot track and a crash was certain if it the loss of air happened at any speed faster than walking.

Cheers

Seriously!! THIS! Right now there are at least two ongoing threads on the MISERY of tubeless tires. Without much effort I could find a dozen more started in just this year. WTF? Are all these riders ... what exactly ... I just don't know. To me anyway, all those threads have one thing in common. A very credible ring 0' truth. As I said in a post in one of those threads. Paraphrasing here: "One day (like with threadless stems) tubeless or not wont be an issue. When that day comes, fine. I'll go tubeless. The technology will be mature. The economies of scale established.

Most new bikes have disk brakes, why fight it. But right now ... tubeless? Absolutely not! Bontrager Hardcase Series clinchers DO NOT FLAT. I don't carry flat repair tools on the two bikes with the Bonties. Kenda's flat daily on these roads. Schwalbe Marathons flat every other month on these roads. The Bonties haven't flatted in YEARS of daily riding. The bike with the 2" Bontie H2 flatted once after four years and I was ready to get a new pair but after a new tube they are going strong again but with over 5K miles on them it's just a matter of time.

“You’ve read stories”. LOL. Great first hand experiences your sharing.

here is a first hand experienced account from an average dude who’s not a mechanic named me:
I’ve installed tubeless on 5 different wheel sets now.
Had a challenge getting them mounted on 2 sets but no problems after mounting.
No sticky mess with sealant. Easy peasy to add through valve stem.
Have had 2 flats from punctures , which self-sealed back up just as advertised.
ridden about 4000 miles at lower pressures and increased comfort. I ride gravel and paved roads primarily. A little single track and off-road.

whats not to like?