Which is a great way to get the universe to pay attention to you and remedy that particular little oversight.
yes, indeed, my former Wed and Sat ride leader did not allow anyone to say the F word (flat) before a ride.
Iāve had a side wall tear/ blow out on a descent tubed - I kept it upright, but event over. It convinced me of inserts when I went tubeless - wouldāve been safer for the blow out, and I couldāve limped to a bikeshop or the next support stop. The boots didnāt hold in the tyre with a tube so it was event over.
Iāve probably said already on this thread, but personally I think limited enough occasions where it wonāt seal with dynaplugs (even a couple) and a boot would work with a tube for further distance than you could āride flatā.
Even Froome knows the painā¦
Maybe this isnāt the best place to ask, but hopefully itās close enough.
Iām a bit resistant to change in generalā¦ I still run tubes in both bikes (MTB & Road/Gravel). I understand and agree with all the benefits of tubeless, so Iām not looking to be convinced that itās better. Thankfully, I donāt really encounter many tube-specific issues, but I do wonder on what I could be missing out. On to the issue/questionā¦
Unfortunately, these days, I only go for actual bike rides every few months. These rides are usually spur-of-the-moment and a bit hurried. (Thereās definitely a discussion to be had there to fix that life issue.) So, when an opportunity presents itself, I pump up the tires and go. From what I understand, the sealant would dry up between these rides, meaning I would have to refill sealant (and remove old stuff?) before taking off for a ride. Am I missing something here? Or just missing an opportunity? Again, other than the implied opportunity to plan life better to ride moreā¦
You shouldnāt need to remove sealant under normal circumstances, but it might be advisable to rotate the wheels so you donāt have a big booger in one spot. But yeah, you got it right, we have to add fluid every 3 or so months, depending on the sealant used and temps. My backup full sus bike doesnāt get ridden enough, so before I ride it I take the wheels off and shake them, listening for any sloshing. No sloshing = add fluid. But I donāt have any need to pull the booger out, except on the rare occassion it gets loose and starts clunking around (itās annoying).
In this very specific case, I would stick with tubes. Itās not worth the cost or hassle to switch. Yes, sealant does dry out, and faster than I would like. Your choice is between spending a lot of money to switch, and then checking/refilling them before every monthly ride, or just pump and go. Iād choose pump and go.
^^^
we have 3 casual bikes in the garage, grocery store bike for me, and 2 cruisers for wife/kids. Tubes for the win!
I carry plugs. But Iāve needed International Rescue (the wife) on one occasion - the side of the tyre split - but that would have been the same result with a tubed tyre. I needed IR a few times before I went tubeless - e.g. four punctures on one ride, to take a friend to hospital, etc.
I had the same, due to a crash. Patched myself (and it*) up and carried on the ride.
*park tool tyre boot and TPU tube that Iād only recently started carrying after a friend had a ride-ending sidewall slash, having ridden tubeless for 5 years without carrying one.
The real challenge isnāt so much how to carry it but where youāre willing to let some still-wet sealant come in contact with your kit. IME if it goes onto a garment wet and then manages to dry before washing then it never comes out again.
Thankfully Iāve never had to do this but have seen a few inserts in back pockets and have thought about the over-the-shoulder considerations. Up the back of the jersey FTW for me in this instance - any permanent sealant stains would at least be on the inside of the jersey and the outside of the bibs/baselayer, even though theyād still likely be visible from the outside.
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+1 for this. Also depending on the bike and type of riding it might be way easier/cheaper to keep a dedicated spare tube and lever(s) attached to that particular bike, where my dynaplug stuff is shared across bikes due to itās high cost and I have to remember to bring it with me if I want that kind of insurance.
My city lockup doesnāt even have spares on it - just GP 4 seasons which are reasonably puncture resistant. If I flat Iām walking, unless there happens to be a bike shop nearby that will sell me a tube - much higher likelihood of that than of finding a tubeless solution in the wild.
Emphasis on ānormal circumstancesā - usually even a seldom-used bike will have sealant circulating well enough that if it dries out thereās not much of a hardened-puddle ālumpā stuck in any one place, but on my most neglected MTB I did once manage to get so much dried sealant in one spot in each tire that the wheels were noticeably out of weight balance - enough that it affected how the bike rode and I had to invert the casing over my knee and get a knife and āshaveā lumps of the stuff off.
(I suspect I did that by adding sealant for 1 ride, then leaving the bike for months til it dried, adding sealant for another ride, then leaving the bike til it dried, and then doing it again a third time. That bike was hung on a wall hook and I suspect each time I put it away the wheels rotated until they were heavy-side down, meaning that multiple successive sealant topups dried on top of each other in exactly the same place in the tire.)
Not meaning to offend but I do not fully get where the OP is coming from. A tubeless tire is a variation on clincher tech, little more. Tire construction varies somewhat and rim bed shaping is different but neither of these thing prevent one from removing a flatted tubeless tire and installing a tube. I have done this on a few occasions, most recently on the 4th of July. I was 25 miles from home when I flatted, put in a tube and finished a metric for that ride. I had to do that since my sealant had dried out. Normally it is a good bit messier but it is not really that much of a problem. For my use case tubeless is so superior to running tubes that any added inconveniences are well worth it. Sealant has gotten me home so many times I literally cannot count.