Tubeless tyres .... What I've learned so far

[dim]

I've been using tubeless for a few years now .....

what I've learned so far: (hope this helps for people sitting on the fence):

only use tubeless ready rims (you can use tubeless tyres aswell as regular clincher tyres and tubeless tyres work great with inner tubes aswell)

the wider the tyre, the more effective the sealant works as the wider tyres use less pressure

if you struggle to seat your tubeless tyre for the first time, add sealant to the tyre before pumping it up .... it always works, but use a track pump

buy a decent pump for when on the road (this is very important) ... a tiny pump that fits in the palm of your hand will not help you

use decent sealant I use Orange regular and not the endurance version as the regular version seals larger holes... if you live in countries that get extreme cold conditions, orange selant endurance (and there's another version for even colder climates), is what is needed (check the orange sealnt website for details)... Here in the UK, the regular version is OK for the whole year

get the dynaplug racer kit ... expensive at first as it includes the special tool that holds the insert, but then you just buy the inserts/worms which are cheap (check youtube on how easy it is to use)

whenever you pump your tyres, rotate the wheel so that the valve is at the 10 or 11 O'clock position ....(this allows the sealant to be far away from the valve

once youve added sealant and pumped your tyres and all seems ok, spin the wheel a few times, or go for a ride so as to spread the sealant all around the tyre

always carry CO2 ....if you have a puncture and loose most of the air after the sealant plugs the hole, CO2 will seat the tyre and get you home (some say that CO2 coagulates the sealant so it's no big deal till you get the next puncture (then the sealant will not work as it's coagulated into a ball)

if you struggle to fit the tyre on the tubeless rim, you perhaps have too many layers of tape or the wrong tape (use tubeless rim tape)... my newest tubeless wheelset is HED Belgium Plus rims and I've used the new HED rim tape which specifies that only 1 layer of tape is needed .... tyres fitted by hand, and all is good after a few hundred miles

get proper tubeless valves .... I use the new Silca tubeless valves

carry an inner tube and use this as a last resort

always carry a bit of sealant especially if you are going on a long ride or tour

top up sealant with 30ml every 6 weeks.... at this stage, it's good to lay your valve core in a cup of warm water to clean it

always carry a couple of spare valve cores (if you damage the valve core while pumping the tyre, you will need to remove it and replace it ... you also need to carry the valve core remover.... if you have the valve core remover tool (it's about £3), you can remove the valve cores from any old inner tubes that you have laying around... and use them as spares

Orange sealant is not sticky and won't damage your frame, or your clothes or your skin ... it wipes off with a damp cloth

if you are on the road and have a puncture, spin the wheel so that the puncture is on the bottom, and give the wheel a few shakes up and down .... this will seal the hole. If the hole is too large, use a dynaplug or worm (takes seconds)

if you need to add an innertube, you have to remove the tubeless valve first (do not loose it!)

many times, people have punctures with tubeless tyres and don't even realize they had a puncture, as many times, the sealant seals the hole almost immediately... I know of people who add glitter to the sealant, so that they can see if they had a puncture without knowing!

tubeless tyres are great if you follow the above laws .... I won't go back to clinchers

[scottg]

Now imagine that tubeless tyres were invented first.

New, for 2019, inflatable tyre liners, easy to seat tyres at very low pressures,
no refreshing sealant every few months, no sealant, inflata-liners(tm) last
years compared to sealant. Punctured inflata-liners(tm) can be re-purposed
for many home repair tasks.
Order now and we will double your order of Inflata-liners(tm)

[Brucey]

only use tubeless ready rims (you can use tubeless tyres aswell as regular clincher tyres and tubeless tyres work great with inner tubes aswell)

my advice is that you should 'only use tubeless ready rims' if you are definitely going to use tubeless tyres. The reason for this is that tubeless rims have a tyre retaining lip that is

a) entirely redundant when using tubed tyres and
b) just makes getting any tyre (tubed or tubeless) less easy (often much less easy) to get on and off the rim.


Getting ordinary tyres on and off ordinary rims can be very easy to do; I have known very experienced cyclists who have bought tubeless ready rims and have found every make of tyre so difficult to get on and off the rim that they have given up with those rims and changed back to something else.


Tubeless tyres work very well on cars but on a bicycle they are arguably 'a solution looking for a problem'; it seem to me that every claimed advantage of using tubeless on bicycles is either

a) in name only and can be equalled or bettered using some other approach and/or
b) comes with attendant downsides which are equal to or exceed any potential benefit there might be.

cheers

[rfryer]

Dim, just curious, how often have you had to resort to an inner tube, and why?

I've switched to tubeless more recently, and am wondering whether carrying an inner tube is excessive, in addition to the plugs & sealant.

[dim]

Dim, just curious, how often have you had to resort to an inner tube, and why?

I've switched to tubeless more recently, and am wondering whether carrying an inner tube is excessive, in addition to the plugs & sealant.

I've never had to use an inner tube yet, but always carry one. (I also have IRC tubeless tyre levers)

I've only had to use a tyre worm once (this was during a 100 km Audax ride)

I have had a tyre that had a very bad cut on the sidewall and I had to bin that tyre (It was an IRC tubeless tyre) .... Luckily I was close to home and had to walk home

[mattsccm]

Sounds reasonable but I''l add my bit.
My road wheels are tubeless tyres on tubeless rims but that' because they are my newer, best wheels. About 4/5 years old. My rough stuff bikes are all using non tubeless rims and I haven't had any issues. Not all tubeless rims have that lip.Mine have a square shelf by the rim wall for the tyre to sit on. Tape does this as well.
Have never damaged a tyre in 40 years on the bike.
Can't be bothered with worms etc . A tube is quicker. Based on how long it takes me to bung a new tubeless tyre on or do a swap.Never needed to actually do one in anger.
Chinese ebay valves work as well as expensive ones.
All the sealants I have used have been fine for at least 12 months.
I have 2 pairs of wheels for the road bike. Summer and winter. I check them when they go on so about 6 month of the year sees them hanging in the shed. probably not ideal as the sealant pools but if I remember I rotate them.
Duct tape works well but is messy when swapping tyres. Tesa tape is much cheaper than dedicated tape and is really the same thing.
Don't own a tubeless specific pump. A SKS Renncompressor works fine although i can see that a MTB pump would bung more air in faster.
Schwalbe tyres are easy to seat. WTB (knobblies) much the same. Both inflated with a tube over night take their shape and inflate tubeless easily. Replaced a Schwalbe recently. Don't remember ever topping the air up mid ride after a puncture but inside must have had half a dozen thorns poking through.I'm converted.

[rfryer]

Dim, thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear! There will always be some classes of bike problem that most people can't be bothered to carry the kit to solve, at least on short rides, for example a badly shredded tyre that can't be booted. I'm wondering if, with tubeless, tyre issues requiring an inner tube might fall into this category.

Of course, carrying a tube means you can maybe avoid carrying plugs and sealant, but I would rather plug from outside the tyre than fit an inner tube. Also, using an inner tube is creating work for later; taking it out, cleaning it up, repairing the problem. Plus, there must be a real risk that the inner tube will be punctured by sharps already in the tyre that the tubeless system has tolerated.

[DNC123]

If you have a badly shredded tyre an inner tube won't be much use. You will need a new cover if you are tubed or tubeless.
The list of things to carry "just in case " grows ever longer.

[TrevA]

I don’t use tubeless but both my son and son in law do. I recently had to pick my son in law up as he had a puncture that wouldn’t seal. He seems fairly pleased with them, other than that. My son is going back to tubes, he’s not impressed with them at all. On a recent ride with him, the tyre manage to unseal itself going around a corner and we had pump it up several times to get it to seal again.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Tubeless road tyres are a total nightmare, and really best avoided, IME. On MTB type bikes / riding, they are a godsend, I wouldn’t be without them now. That’s the funny thing. The engineering doesn’t transfer at all well with tubeless tyre systems.

[Cyril Haearn]

Seems very complicated
What are the advantages?

[dim]

Seems very complicated
What are the advantages?

It's very easy ....

add sealant, pump the tyres and ride .... 9 out of 10 times, if you do get a puncture, it self seals and you don't even have to stop riding ...

worst case scenario, if you get a puncture that does not seal,add an inner tube (you would have to do that anyway if you had normal clinchers)

I commute on my bike throughout the year and leave home before 5am .... I hate getting punctures when it's pitch dark, icy cold and raining

[Darkman]

Was considering tubeless but the OP has put me right off.

So I have to carry spare sealant, spare valves, a big pump, a spare tube in case it all goes pear-shaped, as well as the faff of setting them up tubeless in the first place and even after all that the sealant still sometimes doesn't work?

Think I'll stick to tubes!

[DNC123]

I had the same thoughts for some time.
This summer I needed a new pair of wheels. LBS told me that decent wheels all came tubeless ready nowadays. Tubeless rims and with tyres fitted. Add sealant, inflate and ride. So I went along with it. No regrets at all.

In October I was out on my winter bike on a sh1tty day. 2 punctures (on different wheels) in 200 yards, so I converted that bike as well.

Been all through the winter hedge cutting season with no problems. Think I have had a puncture...one tyre went soft but a few strokes with pump sorted that. And I'm "only" on 25mm tyres.

Can't get my head round how easy it has been. I regularly ride a stretch of pave type road that is notorious for snakebite punctures. A thing of the past now.

Realistically how often does anyone get a full tyre blowout? Last one I had was over 30 years ago, and I ride 7,000 miles p.a.

[DNC123]

Sorry, duplicate post.