If you ride road tubeless, carry this in your back pocket or saddlebag. Period. Never had a road puncture it couldn’t help seal. Never walked home. Never had to carry a tube. It’s smaller than a Co2 cartridge
When I ride road tubeless, I ride Schwalbe Pro 28s – if I rode 25s, this would be doubly important (high pressure is harder for sealant to deal with).
I have my LBS set up all my tubeless tires – so I can’t speak to the ease/difficulty of any of that. But racing road tubeless is a “must” for me now. If I puncture in my A race, I am 30 seconds away from riding again with the 28s, a dynaplug (if I even need it) and a Co2 cartridge.
25mm 5000TLs on Enve 3.4s were tough to put on. In the end resorted to tire levers as they were not even close.
Running them at 70psi (150lbs rider weight) and will drop to 60 over the next few rides. Comparing them to the 4000s II, same width, the TL are much more comfortable. They sound like mud terrain tires on a truck, but apart from that I’m enjoying the new setup.
Out of curiosity I think I’ll pick up a set of Pro Ones to compare once I’ve got used to these.
yesterday it was low 50s but sunny at 8am, warmed up to 75F by 5pm. The concrete works a little like a pizza stone, I went out a couple times and flipped the tires for even heating LOL. All that time in the sun worked its magic, even with a semi-not-working thumb was able to get one tire on. Mechanic at bike shop easily thumbed the rear tire onto Enve 5.6 rims, he was like “dang you just convinced me to go tubeless with the bake tire in the sun trick.”
Dynaplug has saved me a couple times. I still carry a tube and boot in case of sidewall slash.
Right…it can happen with either but in the case of the GP5000 the tube version of the tire is some $20 less per tire.
I’m really struggling with this right now. I get it on MTB and gravel where there’s a significant pinch flat concern. But I generally go a year and a half to two years between flats so I carry a tube and a patch kit and it’s overkill. But going tubeless I’m supposed to change out the sealant a couple times a year? And the tires cost more?
I say this with a set of GP5000 TLs mounted to my Roval CL50s just waiting to be ridden. I haven’t put sealant into them yet and was sort of thinking about skipping it given the post above. I mean if I just carry a spare tube it isn’t really any different from flatting on a regular clincher.
Now if I lived in a more urban environment or one with really bad roads or out west where they have those goat head thorns and flats are common I could see it. But I’m struggling to make the leap on my road bike.
How? I don’t exactly know because there wasn’t a camera aimed at my tires LOL.
Side effect of being a clydesdale cyclist? Possibly. Unlucky? Sure, I ride a lot of crappy roads and urban roads with bike lanes littered with a lot of crap (metal, glass, etc).
How often do you go through tyres? I change sealant with tyres generally, 2-3 times a year
For me its meant a few rides where I havent had to stop for a puncture, and could just keep rolling instead. Bit of cleanup after the fact, but for me thats enough.
There is also the benefit of running lower pressure with less pinch flat risk, which is both faster and more comfy, and the supposed benefit of lower rolling resistance, but that will depend on what you are comparing to as some tubed setups can be better.
it has saved me many a times more than inconvenienced me.
lately I’ve been just on the trainer and the bike sitting dormant in the garage. so changed out the fluid with the new sealant from Finish Line which they claim lasts the life of the tyre.
I did this since the latex stuff dries out.
But seems the company has since removed this claim
The reviews are mixed on Finish Line. Reviews say that it lasts “longer” but doesn’t necessarily seal as well as latex based sealant, especially on brands that are more porous (however one can tell that). I bought a 1L bottle because it was less expensive and doesn’t react with CO2 like latex will. Time will tell if it works or not.
On a side note, Lezyne is coming out with a combo CO2 inflator and plug tool. The plug tool is hollow like a ball inflator needle so you insert the plug, open the CO2 to inflate the tire and then remove the tool all in one go. Neat idea.
Not nearly that often…like once a year…maybe. I don’t race, ride both gravel and road and have several bikes so the miles don’t add up to the point where I need new tires frequently. And I can’t remember the last time I pinch flatted on a road bike. My Partner did shortly after getting her first road bike but that was because she hit a pretty decent size rock that was on the road…not sure why she did that.
Again I can see it for some, but in my use case it seems like it probably isn’t worth it to run road tubeless.
yup, bad country roads with goat head thorns, and in urban areas easy to hit road debris. I’m a heavier rider and had my share of pinch flats. Roads are littered with small wires from radial tires, thorns, rocks, potholes, bolts, screws, nails, glass, and random chunks of metal. Prior to TR I was putting 4000-6000 miles a year (2 or 3 sets of tires/year) on my one bike, a bit less now although that doesn’t change the math that eventually I’m going to (unavoidably) hit stuff. Road tubeless is easy decision for me, and I see why it is not for you.
Running Pirelli Cinturato tires on my DT Swiss di-cut pr 1400’s , the sealant did its job today after squirting out for a bit. Sealed the hole and tire pressure went down to about 75psi from around 87-90 psi. These tires do feel a bit slow but today is the first puncture after 3-4k km.
Ok… I ultimately tried to go road tubeless with my Reynolds wheels and wasn’t happy with the difficulty to install and uninstall the Pro 1’s with rim tape. So I picked up a set of the Far Sport tubeless ready wheels with no spoke holes. Wow… I installed the same tires by hand and was able to get them inflated and the bead seated in no time with my compressor.
Fingers crossed… but the plan is to use these for races only. I did two 80 mile rides with them to make sure they are ok and was very impressed.
Might have to pick up another set of these wheels.
Reading these tubeless installation vignettes, I get the sense that everyone is trying to avoid using tire levers. Why is that? I never even bother trying to push the last 20cm of bead on with just my thumbs. Why would you when a tire lever or 2 is so easy to have on hand at home and on the road? Perhaps there is some no-no that I’m unaware of?
Hmm. I can see inadvertently pinching an inner tube with a tire lever but pushing it in so far that it touches the rim tape is just bad technique, no? All of my tire levers have a hooked end that engages with the rim’s edge with positive feedback. So it feels like you would have to be careless to damage the rim tape. I hope I’m not just lucky…
