Anyone with real life experience with these tyres?

peted76 wrote:

wycombewheeler wrote:

mike the bike wrote:

If you do puncture out in the countryside and the tyre needs topping up some are a nightmare to re-inflate.  Fitting a tube means you've got to carry one, negating one of the advantages of the system.  I recently passed a rider with just this problem, his mini-pump wouldn't even begin to put air in the tyre and I wasn't giving him my spare tube as I had another ninety miles to ride.

The sealants have a definite and short life in the tyre and will need renewing every few months.  They're not cheap and the job is messy, messy, messy.

The sealants will also bung up your valves, making inflating tricky or even impossible.

Yes you still need a tube as sealing a tyre even with a track pump will need soapy water and is not something I would attempt by the road. but the benefit is not saving the weight of a tube, it's in having to stop for a puncture once in 100 rides (or fewer) instead of once in 10. I recently fitted a tubeless, there was almost zero mess, small bottle of sealant with a nozzle that fitted into the valve (core removed) empty sealant into pre sealed tyre, (fit and seal empty then deflate, fill then reinflate.) I went with schwalbe s ones. very happy with them.

 

Wycomewheeler is doing it wrong. However saying that tubeless can be tricky to get right in my experience, where as tubes are always very simple. 

I run tubeless and have done for nearly two years now, I've never fitted a tube on the side of the road, I've not the patience and I'd rather call the family taxi. What I do carry, is a small half filled bottle of bontrager sealant (the best for high pressure road tyres in my experience) and an air cannister, it's easy to pop the valve out, refill sealant and inflate if it's required in an emergency. 

To be fair I should probably get a mini pump instead of the cannister as pressurised air shouldn't ideally be used with sealant, but it's a quick fix, light and easy to carry.

 

doing what wrong? initial set up, or roadside repairs? i haven't had to make any repairs since going tubeless, but throwing more sealant into a tube to fix a hole the existing sealant is unable to seems pretty optimisitic to me. I'm not carrying a tube on my commutes now or if I go out for just a short ride (60-90mins), I do carry one on the club ride (would be too embaressing to ask for one) or audax rides (where i would be too far from anywhere). 

mike the bike wrote:

wycombewheeler wrote:

 

.....  but the benefit is not saving the weight of a tube, it's in having to stop for a puncture once in 100 rides (or fewer) instead of once in 10......

One in ten rides gets a puncture?  Are you sure you're fitting a tyre over your tubes?

I ride six days a week, in all weathers, over very mediocre roads and cover between 4 and 5000 thousand miles a year.  I've averaged less than one flat per year for as long as I can remember, .

[/quote]

Chlitern flints.

if i was looking at one replacement tube a year I wouldn't have bothered. It's not just me either. I would say on club rides (group of 8, probably 2 in 5 rides will be interupted by someone having a puncture.) . Everyone carries two tubes as getting two punctures in the same ride is not unknown.

wycombewheeler wrote:

One in ten rides gets a puncture?  Are you sure you're fitting a tyre over your tubes?

I ride six days a week, in all weathers, over very mediocre roads and cover between 4 and 5000 thousand miles a year.  I've averaged less than one flat per year for as long as I can remember, .

Same here.  Been commuting (urban roads and shared-use, muddy riverside paths, usual sort of thing, all weathers, almost always weighted down with panniers or a big bag) for nearly six years.  In all that time, I've had - I think - about five punctures (and one of them was actually a sidewall tear).

(Oh god, I've done it now haven't I?      )

wycombewheeler wrote:

 

.....  but the benefit is not saving the weight of a tube, it's in having to stop for a puncture once in 100 rides (or fewer) instead of once in 10......[/quote]

One in ten rides gets a puncture?  Are you sure you're fitting a tyre over your tubes?

I ride six days a week, in all weathers, over very mediocre roads and cover between 4 and 5000 thousand miles a year.  I've averaged less than one flat per year for as long as I can remember, which is about one every 300 rides.  And not all those have resulted in a roadside fix; sometimes a slow leak has got me home where I can work in the warm garage.

The secret is to buy top quality tyres and tubes, keep them inflated and to occasionally flick out the embedded flints.  I've had really good luck with Schwalbe tyres, everything from their 'One' to the epically reliable 'Durano Plus'.  

As I said in my earlier post, I am not anti-tubeless, exactly the opposite in fact, but I believe the manufacturers are rushing a half-baked technology onto the market and it will backfire on them.  After faffing about with short-life sealants and tyres that won't inflate, customers will give up and abandon the idea.