I have three bikes (2001 Litespeed road bike, 2019 mountain bike, newish commuter ebike) and I don’t think any are able to go tubeless. I’ve had one flat on my road bike and two on the commuter that has big thick tires along with sealant in the tubes. GRR!!!
I started putting sealant in my mtn bike tubes and it seemed to help, but it doesn’t seem to help with the ebike which runs higher pressures.
Yeah I’m not yet convinced that tubeless is good for higher pressure use cases like road bike tires. I still run tubed on my road bike (~90PSI) and touring bike (~50PSI) as I have read stories about punctures and all the sealant squirting out uncontrollably while the tire is still spinning, making a mess on the bike, and necessitating a roadside tube repair anyway. For my mtb (~35PSI) and lower pressure uses tubeless is the perfect solution for goat heads and other hazards.
I can speak from experience! I wish I had some shop rags for my last repair…it was a mess. I’m only going with sealant in my mtn bike tires from now on.
I run my 28mm road tyres on ~5bar (73psi) tubeless. Seems to be working fine.
You have to accept that there is only so much fixing you can do without new rubber. A puncture that will take out my sealant will also make the outer tyre too damaged to take a tube. (at least with latex inners) I do carry a repair kit and a (TPU) spare tube.
/knock on wood
I can’t remember my last puncture on my road bike. I do replace tyres when they look worn down.
How do tubeless tires decrease flats?
I don’t think I’ve had a puncture since I switched standard tyres to puncture resistant, in several thousand miles of mostly road riding. This is with inner tubes, running at around 60psi. I feel absolutely no need to change to tubeless. If I do get a puncture, I carry a spare inner tube and can be on my way again in minutes, with the only mess being dirt on my hands from wrestling the tyre off and on again.
Tubeless tires use sealant (usually 1-2 oz) that spreads around the inside of the tire as it rolls and quickly fills small holes as air is initially escaping, then hardens within a few seconds of being exposed to drier air outside the tire. So, you may run over a goat head or tiny piece of wire or shard of glass that would deflate a tubed tire, but never know it since your tire will keep rolling. However, large punctures and gashes cannot be plugged by the sealant, so the conventional advice is to carry a tube anyway in case of something major.
@snowthx explained it nicely.
I’d like to add that tubeless is a setup for people that expect to wear out a set of tires in a season or two. Sealant will dry out and refilling it is a bit of work.
I think a tubeless setup is easier than latex or TPU - the thin inner tubes are a pain to position correctly. But a setup with good puncture resistance tires with butyl inners is effectively set and forget. For anyone who doesn’t lube their drivetrain once a week, tubeless is not advised.
For anyone who has tried more than one type of lube in the last decade tubeless is mandatory:)
Hey! I feel called out.
Did I mention I have a dedicated crock pot full of Silca chain wax? And of course I’m tubeless too, running lower pressures than standard since I don’t have to worry about pinch flats.
OK, that’d take a LOT of riding. I commute by bike, and I still expect my tires to last at least five years, probably more like ten (though of course, I replace tubes more often than that).
It is also concentrated in the centers of car lanes -basically anywhere car tires tend not to be. It’s one reason motorcyclists are well-advised to ride in the left or right tire track of a lane, and not linger in the center of the lane.
Interesting, ignorance fought.
I have an ultrasonic cleaner and I’ve now switched to wax, however, I don’t yet do the full wax immersion and am using the liquid wax form (Squirt for example). So far, so good. The chain stays way cleaner and reapplying takes a minute. I need to pull three more chains and do a deep clean on them and switch them off my liquid oil based lube (or whatever Rock N Roll use).
I’ll soon have a Park chain cleaner available along with a couple bottles of lube.
No tubeless tires yet though.
I wouldn’t bother with a chain cleaner (assuming you’re talking about the kind that goes around a chain on a bike with a degreaser reservoir). CeramicSpeed UFO Drivetrain Clean or Silca Chain Stripper are the best products for removing oil-based lube. Procedure is to immerse the chain in a couple hundred mill of the product for a bit, agitating occasionally. Several chains can have their factory grease stripped in that same bit of product, but chains that have been used with oil-based lubes will use up more of the capacity.
Hot wax immersion is awesome. I converted last year, and it’s night and day vs oil-based. The better drip waxes are only marginally behind full immersion, though, and are a perfectly logical place to land if you don’t want to mess with a crockpot.
Personally, I’ve found good old acetone to be cheap, easily available, cheap, very effective and well, cheap.
If you want to split the difference, the Silca wax comes in a ziplock that doubles as a sous-vide bag. Put the bag in a pot of boiling water, put the chain in the bag, done. That said, I still use a crock pot, but only because my wife was throwing one out and I couldn’t stand to trash a working appliance just because it has a stain that looks like someone barfed on it.•
•They did not. As far as I know.
I meant I would have a Park chain cleaner and oil based lubes available to give away because I won’t be using them any longer. Now it’s just an old t-shirt to remove the wax residue from the chain and drip on some new wax.
Not sure how it’s taken me 30 years of cycling to finally get around to trying wax! From my short time with it, it seems so much better and easier to maintain.