Tubeless or not tubeless...that is the question...

[Paul smith]

..mate just gone tubeless...reckons he can feel the extra grip which lower pressure offers....was thinking to my self today how wonderful my tyres are..no punctures in about 4 months..as I was thinking them lovely thoughts..ppffftt...back tyre went..bout 6 miles from home..wasn,t gonna take my back pack..only reason I did cause I wanted to take some squash with me thank f**k I did...anyways...what you rekon folks..tubes??..or tubeless??..while we,re on the subject..do you have to have air compressor to pump them up ??..can you use normal pump..or co2..ta very much.,hope that makes sense....

 

[soundwave]

you could try slime tubes first as will give a bit more protection than normal tubes but a bit more expensive.

i can pump my tyres up with a foot pump but a co2 pump will get it on the rim but you also need tl ready tyres and a tl ready kit so could get expensive if you need to buy it all in one go.

or these with the slime tubes.

 

[Monoblock]

For me it's as simple as, if you have tubeless tyres and rims then why not??
Tubeless sealant is far better than then tubes so go tubeless if it's easy, carry a tube and away you go


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[trouty]

I am a big tubeless fan and once you get it sorted it is great .
there are lots of different methods and you dont need tubeless wheels or tyres to make it work . look up ghetto tubeless for ideas

I also make my own sealant as used to have 2 fat bikes and they needed a fair amount of the stuff .
video of it in action

also Co2 is supposed to be bad for some sealants

 

[tommie]

so what is the home made sealant??

 

[EddiePJ]

also Co2 is supposed to be bad for some sealants

That also raises another point. I wonder how many people actually keep a regular check on their sealant and top it up. Not many I bet.

.

 

[Tom Rae]

That also raises another point. I wonder how many people actually keep a regular check on their sealant and top it up. Not many I bet.

.

Though the latex does harden it does so forming a skin so there is at last some ongoing protection but yes, it should be topped up regularly.
I am currently using Slime tubes as the tyres my bike was supplied with are not tubeless (though I know they could be converted) but when replacement time comes I will definitely be going back to tubeless set up. That said, the slime tubes are proving fine but they do not allow as low running pressures as tubeless.

Tom

 

[soundwave]

i check mine every 12 weeks and top up if needed but there is always some left even after that amount of time

 

[Gl3n_uk]

I think tubeless are great, I had an off yesterday, I think I caught the sidewall (there was a hole in it) and the tyre lost pressure quickly causing me to crash!!! That or the tyre tore as I crashed!

Anyway I highly recommend that along with tubeless you also get a dynaplug tool.

Two inserts were needed, air was seeping from the rim but after repairing the sidewall damage a bit of pressure and a quick ride then sealed that

Dynaplug and tubeless are amazing, save a very expensive tyre.

 

[trouty]

my recipe which works great for me is
equal parts of

Latex adhesive ie copydex but as I am carpet fitter we get it by the 5 litre
glycol antifreeze
water .

I am told that groind up old rubber is also added but have not neede to add any and the recipe above has sealed a 6 mm cut in a fat tyre for me a year ago .

 

[2Lazy]

Yesterday I got my first puncture on my new Haibike SDuro AllMtn 6.0. I was 12 miles from home but not a problem as I had all my kit in my backpack and I have fixed dozens if not hundreds of punctures in my time. 10 minutes and I'll be back on the road. Or so I thought!

To cut a long story short it took me almost two hours to fix the damn thing! Or rather it took me five minutes to fix the puncture but an hour and 45 minutes to get the tyre off the rim and back on again. And believe me I know most of the tricks - pinch and push to gather all the slack, tried it, push the tyre into the centre of the rim all the way around, tried it, bit of lube along the beading to help get the tyre back on, tried it. I'm telling you these have to be the tightest fitting tyres in the entire known universe! It took me ten minutes just to get the tyre lever under the tyre let alone begin to unmount it. On two occasions I almost admitted defeat and was going to call a friend to give me a lift home but I pressed on determined to not let it beat me. Such was the effort and force required to get the tyre back on the rim when I finally got it back on I literally fell backwards and collapsed in a heap on the floor!

So at least I now know that it is physically possible to get the tyre back onto the rim but the idea of having to do that on a regular basis is unthinkable. I'm pretty sure the rims and tyres are tubeless ready so I'm thinking of getting my local bike shop to convert them to tubeless.

Any advice and to what extent does tubeless with sealant protect MTBs from punctures?

Also if you do get a puncture in a tubeless set-up with sealant, and you have to effect a roadside repair, by putting in a tube, how messy a job is it with all that sealant sloshing around?

 

[tommie]

what make of tyres are those?

(so i know not to buy them)

 

[2Lazy]

what make of tyres are those?

(so i know not to buy them)

Rims: XLC Evo Disc Hubs on Rodi TR40 Rims, Front 15mm, Rear 148x12mm

Tyres: Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin 27.5+ x 2.80

 

[Tom Rae]

On my first real ride, I had a puncture on my 29er Nobby Nics which was fine to fix on the trail, I have subsequently fitted slime tubes (easily) and not had a subsequent puncture. Tubeless is the way to go, based on my analogue mtb experience. I am simply waiting until my tyres need replacing first hence the half way house tubes. Tubeless ready rims do have a larger shoulder for the tyres to sit on and this may be an issue, also some modern tubeless ready rims are assymetric which may make fitting more difficult? I suspect it s the rims not the tyres that are making it difficult.

 

[2Lazy]

On my first real ride, I had a puncture on my 29er Nobby Nics which was fine to fix on the trail, I have subsequently fitted slime tubes (easily) and not had a subsequent puncture. Tubeless is the way to go, based on my analogue mtb experience. I am simply waiting until my tyres need replacing first hence the half way house tubes. Tubeless ready rims do have a larger shoulder for the tyres to sit on and this may be an issue, also some modern tubeless ready rims are assymetric which may make fitting more difficult? I suspect it s the rims not the tyres that are making it difficult.

I think you may be correct. The side wall of my rim does look quite deep. I also think in my case it's probably this particular combination of tyre and rim which makes the fit extra tight. It was incredibly difficult just to get the tyre lever under the tyre to begin unmounting it which suggests that the tyre diameter is slighter smaller than the rim.

 

[2Lazy]

Noticed today that the puncture that took me two hours to fix has deflated again. Couldn't face the prospect of having to remount that tyre again so took both wheels to my local bike shop. They're converting them to tubeless for me. Guy in the bike shop says I won't regret it - apparently he's been running tubeless for quite a while and hasn't had a puncture in more than 18 months.