ericcox

I went ahead and mounted the rear one as well before a ~77 mile ride on some pretty rough roads Saturday. Getting it to seat took a little more time than the front, but I still managed it with my regular floor pump. It popped just as I was about to break out the air compressor. I really like the way these tires feel. I'm not going to argue that they are a transformative experience over the continentals, but I'm likely to buy another set when they start wearing out.

NoWhammies

As a quick update on my Veloflex tyres. Since mounting/seating the tyres have been holding air great. No sealant loss (as far as I can tell) and the tyres are rolling well.

surak

25mm Schwalbe Pro Ones: Very initial experience with what I'm pretty sure are the first generation Pro Ones, since I've had them for a while but only just mounted them onto DT Swiss R 470 db rims. They were tough to even get completely around the rim without tools, despite using the Easy Fit fluid included in the kit. Had to use a CO2 cartridge to seat one tire, but floor pump was good enough to seat the second tire. They stay seated after deflating the tire to add sealant, and haven't lost much pressure overnight after a short hour ride yesterday. Running at around 70-75 psi, they seem comfy and assured.

32mm GP5Ks: Approx 1000 km on Hunt Aero Light Disc wheels with no complaints, but unlike with the Pro Ones, they don't stay seated when deflated and they lose a lot of air over time. I haven't seen any sealant leakage (Orange Seal endurance) and it's not an issue even on a long ride, so I haven't bothered to figure out if I need new tape, better seal on the valve, or something else. Have ridden over glass and lots of pebbles on road shoulders in the past year over the same roads where I've previously punctured with tubed tires without ever having punctured.

Eric F 

Interesting. I'm using 25mm GP5Ks on Enve rims and Orange Seal Endurance. I get very little air loss between rides - about the same as a tubed tire. Your experience with mounting the Schwalbes describes my mounting experience with the GP5Ks.

ericcox

My GP5ks definitely lost air much faster than my Pzeros. I had to add air to the GP5ks every few days. I can ride the Pirellis for several days without losing air.

So far, I am in love with the Pirellis and would buy them again. I'm guessing they are not quite as durable as the GP5ks based on the wear I'm already seeing, but the tradeoff in comfort, ease of use, and overall performance may be worth it. For one, I'm not sure that if I flatted on the side of the road with a hole too big to seal that I could have gotten the GP5ks off and back on the rim on the road side with regular tire levers. I could do it easily with the Pirellis.

Complete aside - I just picked up a very slightly used Canyon Inflite al SLX 6.0 race. The owner had not used the original wheels on it, which he put back on for me. The wheels were tubeless ready (other than valves), and the tires were tubeless capable. The Schwalbe X-Ones were incredibly easy to set up tubeless. Took me less than 15 minutes to remove the tubes, add valves, reseat the tires, add sealant, and inflate them. Probably closer to 10 minutes.

NoWhammies

Veloflex Corsa Evo TLR 28mm: Thanks to a sidewall gash, I had to replace the 25mm Veloflex tyre. Initial impressions of the 28mm? The tyre mounted much easier than the 25mm. Also, one blast from the air pump seated the tyre, unlike before when I had to do all sort of jiggery pokery to get the 25mm tyre to bead. After one 72k ride, the 28mm tyre feels nice an grippy. Definitely more comfortable than the 25mm. Verdict: Recommend.

Soon to be on order (but not on the bike): Michelin Power Road in 28mm.

eduskator

Schwalbe Pro One, Addix Race Compound (28mm). Currently using them with Muc-Off Sealant and it's holding its air pretty well (better than with Giant / Stans sealant at least).

Eric F 

Hmm...I'm used to topping off my tires every time I ride, even with tubed tires, so adding a few psi with tubeless is "normal" for me.

I managed to repair GP5k on the side of the road. it was messy, and difficult, but I did it. Good to hear that the Pirellis are working well for you. I will keep them in mind when it's time to change out my GP5Ks.

WhyFi

Checking in on the Michelin Power Road TLR in 28mm - I've got about 700 miles on 'em now (bite me - it's been an up and down spring ).

First, the bad:

The rear tire did take what I call a Goldilocks puncture - one that's too big for sealant alone but not big enough to total the tire. It was about the same size as the other times/tires that I've experienced Goldilocks punctures - about 1/4", which seems to be about the limits of Orange Seal. I popped in a knotted bacon strip and pumped the tire back up. It held fine and I've left it in for now, just to see if/when it'll fail. It's been about 150 miles, now. If/when the bacon strip blows out, I'll internally patch the tire (assuming it has some decent tread life left).

And the good:

These things hold air like a champ. They're my first tire, tubed or tubeless, where I haven't felt compelled to top 'em off before every ride.

I don't know if there's such a thing as a break-in period for tires, but these things are feeling more supple the last couple of weeks. My initial impression was that they were meaningfully less supple than the Schwalbe POEA, but they seem to be getting closer - the little thumps of seams and cracks have dulled, whereas they felt pretty stiff before. And this isn't just when I'm rolling out without topping them off, either - even when pumped up to my reference pressure (a little less than 60 up front, a little more than 60 on the rear) they feel better than they did 500 miles ago.

Still a lot of debris on the roads, but it's getting better, so I've felt out the grip a little more. So far, so good - pretty confidence inspiring thus far.

They still feel like they roll pretty easily, but that's only based on my uncalibrated ass-o-meter.

All in all, they're looking like a solid tire as long as I get decent mileage out of them.

sfrider 

Which ones? P-Zero?

ericcox

Yes, PZero Race TLR in 26mm. I'm a huge fan of them so far.

WhyFi

Can't wait to try them out - I've got three of them in 28mm just waiting.... but I don't think that I'm going to get to them this year.

Too many good tires on-hand - first world problem.

scottydonald

You have done well to Get so many tyres - I grabbed a spare Pro One 28 TLE just incase, my LBS said it would be two more months for one.

A month on mine so far, one puncture with Orange Seal, didn't hold on the road, then held when I got to the bike shop ; seems putting your finger over the hole and shaking the tyre worked, been two weeks now and the tyre is sitting at 65PSI; just seems the over 90(30*C) degree days in the garage are the only days it seems to need topped up. very happy with the ride on my Enve 4.5 AR Discs and these.

NoWhammies

I've had two of those punctures over the last three rides I've done. Fingers crossed I'm not done for the season...Although writing this I've probably cursed myself.

WhyFi

Ouch. I've only taken three of 'em, total.

Were they all about that 1/4", ~5mm size?

WhyFi

Just a heads-up on a good tubeless tire deal: Excel has two-packs of Hutchison Fusion 5s for $59. I've only used the Performance, but the Galactic are on sale, too (25mm only). Also, there's one non-tubeless variant listed, too, so don't buy them accidentally.
https://www.excelsports.com/promotio...ire-super-sale

fried bake

Thank you, sir! These are my faves and a huge saving vs the previous vendor.

Hiro11

Pure road, fast riding: GP5KTL 28mm at 75-80 psi.
Mixed surface road or smooth gravel: GK TLC 32mm at 37-40 psi.

The GP5KTLs have great grip and a very smooth feel. They also feel damned fast. The GK TLCs are impressively fast rolling for such cushy tires at low PSI, I can do most any group ride with them except the race sim type stuff.

I found both tires easy to set up on the rims I'm using. I got the GP5KTLs mounted with my hands and inflated them with just a track pump. I have used many Panaracer tires, and I've found they are particularly easy to set up reliably on a variety of rims. I do own a 6gal compressor and a Prestaflator, the best investment you can make if you have a bunch of bikes set up tubeless.

InvertedMP 

I started my tubeless journey with Conti GP5000TLs. I have Michelin TLRs in 28mm sitting on the shelf and have heard good things.

I didn’t think I would like the tires I am currently running as much as I do, but man it’s gonna be hard to use anything else after using the ENVE SES tire in 29mm. I am a super fan. They are super super sticky, by far the stickiest tire I’ve ridden. They are fast, do well on lower air pressure, and seem to deal with crap in the road really well, no punctures or issues yet. I have black 29mm on my Foundation 45 wheels, and Tan wall 29mm on my FFWD F6 wheels. I don’t see myself changing from this tire anytime soon.

Badger6

The deal is that their tires are actually some of the best in the market...but as pointed out, they get no respect because they aren't a "tire brand." On my old gravel bike, now "rain bike"/commuter, I've run continuously for several years now the Specialized Roubaix Pro 2Bliss Ready 30/32. Tend to be pretty snug to mount, but I've always been able to pump them up with a track pump, they seal nicely and hold air reliably, and they run great at 45-50psi, don't seem to suffer punctures until the tread is nearly gone, which is when I swap them out (both ends at the same time). I have gotten between 3-4k km on a rear, which is surprising for a tire with the grip they have. At $40 a tire, with their proven durability AND performance (in real world), I find them to be a great tire, albeit not a hardcore road tire....

it is rumored they've discontinued this tire, if so, I hope they replace it with something equally as awesome...or I'm going to be back to searching for a big volume road tubeless tire for that bike.

Badger6

Road standby: Challenge Paris-Roubaix Pro TLR 27. Pricey for sure, but rolls fast enough for me, and works great on the crappy roads here in Belgium. Always depart the house at 72psi rear, 70psi front, because I'm not a 58kg 22 year old anymore. Regardless, these have a lot of grip, and don't mind getting hammered on broken pavement, cobbles, and gravel, and smooth new pavement (the best!). Due to lack of vulcanization, they are flat out the package, and really tight to get onto the rim, I've never done it without a tire jack. Inflate easily with a track pump, and seat into the bead track without any issues (never run them on hookless, not sure if they can be, though claimed to be UST compatible). They seal up immediately without fuss.

primov8

I have a hand built PWB gravel wheelset on order so I removed the GK 38s on the SBC and got a set of Goodyear F1 32c tubeless ready tires specifically for on-road. While the GK 38s were very comfortable, I wanted a faster and slightly narrower tire. I also wanted to keep the black/tan look and decided to give the F1s a try.

Mounting the tires wasn’t as easy as the Schwalbes and GKs which I was able to do without any tools. I had to use a tire bead jack to finish getting the tires onto the rims. At least getting the beads to seat was just as easy as the other tires I’ve set up as tubeless. Without any sealant, it seated quite well, better than the GKs where it didn’t deform when I removed the valve to fill it with sealant.

Took out the SBC for a sub 40 mile loop and I’m impressed. Inflated at 60/65 psi, from the get go, obviously a much faster, rolling tire than the GKs. Surprisingly, seems to be very supple and really nice grip on tight turns; predictable which is what I like. Aesthetically, a nice clean designed tire and this 32c tires looks much narrower than the Schwalbe Addix 30c I’ve got on the Lynskey.

PeteHski

My limited experience with road tubeless has been great so far.

First set were Giant Gavia AC1 28 mm which came with my 2019 Giant Defy. They were hard wearing and had no punctures over 2500 km of nasty, rough pot-holed local roads full of debris. Reasonably comfortable, reasonably grippy and seemed to roll fast enough. Honestly hard to fault. No idea how hard they are to seat as they came on the bike, but they came off easily enough. I only replaced them because I wanted to try something else this season. They look like they still have loads of life left in them.

I've recently fitted a pair of Pirelli Cinturato Velo 32 mm. They were easy enough to mount by hand, but seating them was seriously hard work. No chance with a standard track pump (tried the soapy water tricks etc) and then took half a dozen blasts with a boost pump to get them seated. One was particularly stubborn, but got there in the end. I've ridden them for only about 250 km, including a local 150 km GF event on pretty rough roads. So far, so good. The extra volume makes them very comfortable and they seem to roll just about as well as the 28 mm Gavia did. Grip is excellent and no punctures. I'm sure there are faster tyres out there, but puncture protection is my main priority out on the road and these appear to be the best tubeless tyres on the market in that respect. They seem ideal for our local roads, which are in a pretty poor state of repair. I can't imagine running some delicate lightweight race tyre in these conditions!

To conclude, I would definitely recommend the Giant Gavia AC1, even though they don't sound very exotic. They just seem to get the job done without any fuss. It actually makes me want to try their newer Gavia Fondo tyres that are now fitted as standard (in 32 mm) this year on the Defy. The Pirellis are looking good too, but need more mileage on them before making any conclusion. I rode past a lot of guys fixing flats on my last event (roads were appalling) so they are certainly living up to their puncture protection claims.

WhyFi

Really great deal on Hutchison Fusion 5 Performance two-packs at Excel - $59 Currently in stock in 25mm, 28mm, and 30mm - https://www.excelsports.com/hutchins...tire-oe-2-pack

sshakari

Overall a very good tire. I've had an issue with my rear tire after 1k miles where the side walls had sealant coming out at the sidewall seam.