motorthings

sorry, you don't really "gotta", but running tubeless means i enjoy:
1. the lack of flats
2. the lack of worry about pinch flats
3. less rotating mass (since no tube)
4. more supple ride (letting the tire work its magic without the interference of the tube)
5. ability to run lower pressures to improve ride quality

I do the same as you, fill up the tires to the PSI I want, and ride. No difference there.

ATPAH

This. I don't ride much pavement, so I'l swap out to my 25c tubuars when I am doing a long road ride or fast group ride (as the alternative to sinking hundreds of dollars into another wheeset or dealing with two tubeless installs for a single ride), but the tubeless benefits off-road are tremendous, and the cost is minimal.

JonathanGennick 

Tubeless reduces risk of pinch flat, because there's nothing to pinch that goes flat -- except maybe the tire itself.

I have read that going tubeless allows tires to flex better, meaning less rolling resistance. I ran my Byway tires tubeless for a few days, and honestly I couldn't perceive a difference compared to my Horizons with tubes in them.

Most of the time I'm running tubes. Haven't really had a problem with them.

mstateglfr 

#3 is about the only thing, so far, that would lead me to change. my wheelset is something i love because it has shown to be reliable, but it isnt light and so dropping a little rotational weight could be nice.

TimothyH

I find 40 mm tires too heavy and sluggish for multi-surface or significant paved riding.

60% of my riding is paved and I'm going back to a narrower tire as soon as they wear our.


-Tim-

mstateglfr 

Based on all your ride pictures, i could see why you say this. The surfaces you ride are pretty well groomed and hard/compact.
A 40mm gravel tire is probably overkill for the surfaces you often ride.

ATPAH

Or make the switch to what you prefer now, save those 40s, and plan an epic on which to use them.

chas58

Good advice.

For what it is worth, I tend to ride 40mm in the winter/spring when surfaces get wet and torn up, and I tend to ride 28-32mm in the summer. You don't need 40mm unless you need the flotation or ability to absorb bigger bumps. (it does allow you to run lower pressures though.

going from 40mm to ~28mm can easily save you a pound of rotating weight, which is significant.

"Fred"

I ride and race on a ton of gravel and I either ride 27 Paris Roubaix slicks for what I call good gravel (mostly hard packed dirt roads) which is rare and 33 file treads for most gravel. If there is enough sand or loose where 33's wont work I ride my MTB. I can find no reason to ride anything wider on a gravel bike. 33-35 will do anything a gravel bike needs to do.

Just my 2 cents!

Zurichman2

I am the newbie to gravel riding/racing. I have a road bike so my gravel bike is set up to mainly ride gravel. I just came back from my first race. The Pony Express 120. I opted for the 75 miler. I saw lots of people with flats there most were what looked like hybrid tires or the skinny tires. I had locals tell me to run the Kenda Flintridge Pro tubeless in 40 mm since they had flint out there. At the beginning of the ride I was particular on where I picked my lines. As the ride/race wore on and I became comfortable with the tires I didn't worry at all and rode wherever I felt like it. To me people said once you get a tire rolling the weight of the tire really doesn't matter. I would have to agree after this ride. Even if I lost some time because of the heavier tire. I had peace of mind that the tire wouldn't go flat. That in itself is worth it to me as it is just one less thing to worry about while riding in a race/ride. At 195 lbs. I ran 40 rear 35 front

Zman

msu2001la

This conversation seems really to depend on what type of riding are you doing, and what your end goal is.

If your goal is to minimize weight and ride as fast as possible, you will probably benefit from running the narrowest tire that the terrain you're riding on will allow for. For example, unless a gravel race has very specific terrain (like sharp flint rock) that might benefit a wider tire, a narrower tire in the 30-35mm range is going to be faster and lighter than 40m+, but maybe not as comfortable.

If your goal is to be as comfortable as possible over a wide variety of terrain, where you don't want to worry about lines and can just bomb down a train, or you don't particularly care how fast you're going so the additional weight isn't going to matter, a wider tire is going to be better.

Personally, I find 33cm to be adequate for most of the gravel riding I do, and I don't really like riding on tires wider than 35c on my CX/Gravel bike. It starts to feel heavy and slow, and if I'm planning on riding terrain where 35c won't cut it, I'd probably rather be on my hardtail XC MTB anyways.

shoota 

Do it! Do it! Do it!

Seriously though, I just got my first puncture on my tubeless tires last Saturday. Until then I didn't know what to expect, so when it happened I stopped so I could watch it in action. Sure enough, about 30s later it was sealed up and I was back to riding. No changing tubes, no nothing. Heck I could have kept on riding if I had wanted to.

shoota 

You like getting flats in the middle of nowhere?

shoota 

Same, even though I'm about 30% pavement. My GKs are actually about 42mm. They're cushy but they are heavy. I'm ready to try a narrower tire.

shoota 

I've been curious about these tires. Do you have calipers to check their actual width?

Zurichman2

I am off for the next 2 days. I can get a set at work and give you an answer by the weekend.

Zman

mstateglfr 

Cant say i would like it, if it happened, but it hasnt. I havent gotten a flat on my gravel bike yet.

At the same time, if i did get a flat, itd be a 5-10min break and i would be going again. Where a flat happens isnt really of consequence to me- its the same amount of time and effort whether i am on a paved trail, rural highway, or gravel road.

Perhaps i have my tires at too high a pressure to worry about pinchflats. The psi i run at is comfortable though, ao i dont worry about it.

shoota 

Thanks dude!

Valid point. Have you ridden Kansas and onward south? I'm in Oklahoma right now and the terrain is so much harsher than Iowa. I didn't realize how gentle Iowa graveling was till I started riding down here more. Tubes in Iowa make sense, I wouldn't do it down here though.

mstateglfr 

Ive ridden in central and southwest MO, but not out in KS. Ive heard the flint hills(kaza area yada yada) has sharper rocks.

You down in OK permanently, or just for a short bit and heading back up to the hawkeye state eventually?

shoota 

You heard right, I got a nice little puncture last Saturday, first one. Yeah, I'm here just for a bit then heading back up.

Zurichman2

Coming from my end I knew I was in way over my head for the Kansas gravel race. Also I really want to eliminate all small problems that I can to reduce the stress level and to be able to enjoy the ride/race more. I had that with the Flintridge tires at the Pony Express. I did pick my lines early in the ride/race but as it wore on I had no concerns at all and let the bike go where ever it wanted to. I was very happy with the tires and mostly with the bike. The extra lbs. wear on you as the hills and ride progress.

veloz

I have gravel tires from 28-37mm. For me at 190# I like 35’s best. Wider are the deluxe fat ride but definitely slower to accelerate & climb. 32’s feel fast and I’ve raced on them twice. Conditions vary so much over 50+ miles that I doubt I’ll do that again. I run tubes because I regularly switch tires between CX, gravel & city. I have no problem running a 35mm in front at 32psi. FWIW: Last CX race I ran MXP clinchers (33MM) at 30/44 with tubes. Misjudged low barrier and stair hops several times but no rim damage or pinch flats. I’ve noticed more rim damage on others bikes in the last year or two from low psi but because fewer people rim brake, they don’t notice it themselves.

On MTB (1.9"-2.3”) I like tubeless. On road I don’t. Gravel is right in the middle.

chas58

Flats (with tubes) and gravel are inevitable if you have typical V5 gravel in the US. If you are just riding hard pack dirt, not so much.

It just seems that a lot of people that have flats, end up with another one several miles later. I'm not sure what is up with that, but either they didn't find and clear the original cause of the flat (if something stuck in the tire) or their portable pump didn't get them up to the appropriate pressure and they pinch flatted. If it is mucky condition, it is hard to keep the inside of the tire clean, and that also causes problems.

The first flat doesn't bother me so much as the second one. I've had to hitch hike before if something went wrong with my repairs. I've pretty much given up on patch kits unless I'm doing it in my garage - and carry that dreaded spare tube.

HTupolev

Depends on various factors, with tire width being a big one. Flats are inevitable if the tire bottoms out a lot.

I still carry a pack of glueless patches in addition to the tube. Glueless patches are terrible, but they're so cheap and take up so little space and weight that I can't really justify not having them.

chas58

True, but when I use the glue, I always seem to get eaten alive by mosquitos while waiting the 5 minutes for it to cure. ;-)