Many will disagree but for me generally tubeless meant, more expensive tires, slightly more hassle/$ seating, messy cleaning out old sealant, no real or perceived ride improvement=back to tubes for me…For now.
To be fair I think if I had a pump (I have yet to get a pump that will seat tires) it would make everything more convenient. It’s irrational that I feel spending $100-200 USD on a pump is too much but, I sort of do. And with that any recommendations for pumps?
Got a roofing staple in a rear 5000 S TR 30mm the other day. Only noticed because there was a clicking sound coming from the rear as I was riding. The staple was lodged all the way in. I got my keychain Leatherman plyers and pulled it out. Rush of air/sealant comes out. Turned the puncture downward and smacked the wheel against the ground. It sealed.
Rode another 18 miles or so, measured pressure when I got home. Went from 65 to 60 psi. Not too bad. So far the tire seems to be holding air fine. Am I correct in thinking that I don’t need to patch it?
FWIW my favorite tubeless tires will seat with a standard floor pump. No special anything. Spray some water on the rim to make it easier to install, make sure the tire is straddling where the valve is, and then pull out the floor pump and pump it up. That works on my Specialized tires - S-Works and Roubaix Pro - and my Pirelli. I had a random Blackburn pump with a Silca head, and now have a Specialized $130 pump. Had tried and purchased a couple chearper Bontrager pumps and hated them. The Specialized pump is the best I’ve owned. Love it.
I do own a Porter Cable pancake air compressor, used it last night on the cars. Cost me about $100-130 about 5 years ago. Also use it for some painting jobs outside.
Here’s what I’m doing:
The Pirelli Cinturato have been indestructible over 3 or 4 seasons. I’ll put 2000-2500 miles on them and never have to stop to fix a flat. Last winter I was running the 32c tires at 60-65psi, but recently put on the 28c rear - its the rear that flats 90+% of the time - and running at 80psi and the 28c feel better at 80psi than 32c at 60-65psi. The Cinturato have good grip. Not the fastest tire but I’m riding about 160-200 miles a week on debris filled roads and with tubes I would be flatting every 3-4 weeks. #NoMoreStoppingToFixFlatsOnTrainingRides
and rolling resistance:
while training I’m losing about 7-8W each tire with the Cinturato, but I never flat. Actually I’m running a mullet setup right now, the S-Works 2BR T2/T5 26c training tire on front, and Cinturato 28c on back. Both tubeless. Because I’m too lazy to change the front tire, but the rear had to come off to put a patch on the inside of the S-Works 2BR.
Wet grip tested best with Cinturato tubeless for those 4 tires. They rock for training when you need to spend some time on debris filled roads, on the way to getting in/out of town to the quiet roads.
For the racing wheelset its 5000 with latex for price/performance, or S-Works with latex for road feel. Guessing I would like Vittoria for road feel but never tried 'em.
Same exact setup. Best training tire I’ve ever used. Running it on a Flo30 alloy wheelset. Setup is easy, one puncture in about 3500mi so far, sidewall, I was able to get it to seal (Orange).
I love tubeless on my trainers. Haven’t pulled the trigger on the race wheels because I ride them less and don’t wanna have to faff with it before every race weekend… looked at the RapidAirs but they’re out of stock. Probably just going to run 5000s with latex again.
For the price the 5000 with latex tubes is hard to beat.
I probably have over 8000 miles on multiple Pirelli Cinturato tires over the years. Great grip and good road feel.
I have plans to go tubeless on the road (i’m tubeless off the road already) but one question just arose and I’m wondering how you guys handle it. In the fall I’ll pack my stuff up and resign myself to indoor riding till the tulips start coming up in the spring. But then there’s those random unusually warm days in the middle of winter than demand an outside ride. I’m a user of Orange seal endurance so if I were to top up sealant in the fall it should be liquid all winter in spite of sitting there, right? But that still feels like a waste of sealant especially if it’s a cruel winter without a thaw. And of course it’s just one, maybe 2, days of warm weather before winter cold comes rushing back.
So my question is what do you guys do about riding tubeless in the winter months when you’re not doing regular tubeless maintenance? Just keep it loaded with sealant at all times in hope that those warm days will come or just grab the bike off the wall and fill up the tires and hope there’s enough sealant still liquid to keep you from misfortune for that 1 or 2 days? Or do you top off for just that day and then deal with the solidified bits in the spring when road riding begins for real? I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around this inconvenience when you can just grab tires with tubes in them and go when the moment strikes.
I just leave the sealant in the tyres for the winter. I never ride my road or gravel bikes during the winter period (usually from November to March), but I try to check the pressures and spin the wheels every now and then to make sure the sealant dries evenly inside the tyres. So far this has worked and I have been able to just top up the sealant in the spring before the first outdoor ride. I use Orange Seal Endurance.
My system is I weigh my wheels when I mount the tires and first add sealant. I check weight on schedule and if too low as to imply less than 30ml of sealant, I top off. Winter included.
Just set up my first road tubeless wheels. Been tubeless for ages on mtb, recently in cx, but held out for the longest time on road
Going for a ride later or tomorrow, but I’ll say setup was a breeze with gp5k str and zipp 303. Standard floor pump snapped the bead and both tires held air overnight. If only mtb was this easy!
I occasionally bother to check, but often not. I carry sealant though anyway so if anything goes wrong and there’s none in it I’ll just top up at the Roadside
Tubeless sealant will not dry out that fast unless you’re in a dry and arid climate (and it doesn’t sound like you are. I am in the UK and have winter tubeless wheels and summer winter tubeless wheels and both wheels usually have sealant when I refit them, even the winter wheels that have sat all summer.
I don’t do any “tubeless maintenance”, I just leave the bike/wheels until it’s nice enough to ride. When it looks like spring is really about to start, I do look over the bike, and top off sealant (if I’m not changing tyres anyway). I’m using Stan’s, and I don’t think I’ve had it dry out in the UK.
Downside of tubeless - but I only had to stop to put the puncture on the road and give it 30 seconds to seal. And then again a minute down the road. Sealed the second time 
but now I’ve got this mess to clean up.
So what’s the trick to get a gash or slice to seal up quickly?
I had a puncture this weekend after rolling over some glass I presume. Pulled over, spun the wheel/tire so that the puncture is at the very bottom, allowing the sealant to do it’s thing. Waited about 30 seconds and it seemed to have sealed up. Took off shortly after but the sealant didn’t hold. Pulled over again to do the same thing described earlier and took off again. Sealant didn’t hold again so I just kept on riding and just let the sealant keep spraying (it was raining so I was soaking already anyways). After about 1/4 mile of riding, it sealed up with no problems and I was able to complete my ride.
The slice is about 3mm long. IMO not large enough to stick a plug in. I’m using Orange Seal Endurance, which may not seal as fast as others. Running about 45 psi on 34mm so not super high pressure.
I haven’t had issues with running tubeless and getting punctures on my wider gravel and MTB tire setups, but haven’t had much luck on the road.
Depending on the size it might just be worth plugging it. I have had many of those in the past and some open up if you go over some road debris
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Touch wood I’ve never used them but I’ve used tyre worms a couple of time successfully on road in the past and once un-sucessfully on the gravel bike, however my mate used a dynaplug which seems a neater , faster and more permanent solution. He had to use two on the gash in his tyres.
Think if its raining or wet, it might take longer to seal. I don’t think there is a trick. It’d probably be a bit quicker to wait until it has sealed before continuing to ride, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to do that in winter.
Some more than others. Conti Race Kings do this and also leak sealant through the tread, but it’s “normal” for them to do this.
Or not at all because most if not all sealant forms a plug by interacting with air. I had a cut in the wet and needed to put a dynaplug in for it to seal up it was holding about 30 psi which was ridable for a 38mm. once it had a chance to dry it will hold 60. (which is way too much for a 38mm tire)
