Any other tubeless commuters?
 

My latest build was a AWOL frame with 5800 11sp groupset and a Hope/Velocity tubeless wheelset.
The plan was to do weekend gravel grinder/fire road rides, but the bike was so fun to ride that it became my go-to commuter bike.
I have tried Specialized, Vee and Kenda tubeless ready tires. I don't reccomend Vee.
The Kenda Kozmik Lite II that I'm running now have over 3500 miles, and will probably last another 1500 easy.
I got tired of spending $15 for an 8oz bottle of Orange Seal, so I made homebrew tubeless sealant. It costs me $20-25/gal to make, and lasts longer in the tire than Orange Seal.
I made the first batch almost a year ago, and I gave away a quart. I still have about 16oz left, which should last me until Aug-Sept.
Since I completed the build in January 2015, I've logged 6500 miles (on that one bike) on roads, gravel, levees, and singletrack.
There have been several punctures, but the sealant has held well.
I've had one puncture that was too big for the sealant to plug. It was from a big ole Mesquite thorn. I had to take 5 minutes to throw in a tube.
I really didn't intend to commute on tubeless, but I've been very pleased so far.
Are there any others who are running tubeless on their commute?

I'm going to try it but am sort of waiting for a flat

I have a tubeless setup on my nice weather bike. For me it's an attempt to make roadie-type tires (schwalbe one) rather than hard-ass marathons work on the road conditions I face. It works pretty well.

I have a couple of tears in the rear tire that when they open spray sealant for a while before eventually plugging it up. If I were using tubes, I would have ditched that tire by now. Actually I am going to ditch it anyway, the sooner the replacement comes in the mail the better, and it's only about a 1000 miles. But in addition to the large tears, there are a zillion tiny punctures that would have messed my day up but they just seal and I keep going. So, not great lifespan for that rear tire but I have saved a lot of time on the road patching tubes and looking for sharps that need to be definitively removed before I can get back to rolling.

The spraying sealant from the big holes is a spectacle. But it also sticks to the frame and brake and haven't found what else yet, as well as to my legs (sticky latex not so much fun to pull out in the shower). If my front tire sprayed like that I would be unhappy about it shooting sealant into my headset.

I've ridden my Straggler and now my Soma Wolverine on our Ailerons with 700x35 Paselas PT's set up tubeless for over 2 years now with no real issues other than a couple of bad valve stems (the base tore off them eventually). Honestly I've had better luck tubeless than I ever did with tubes, and the ride quality is amazing.

I might try tubeless at a later stage .... I had a very close look at them

I commute 150-180 miles per week, and punctures are the last thing that I need (self employed and if I'm late for work, It costs me, as I get paid by the hour)

so, for now I will stick with Schwalbe Durano Plus (700cx25) .... bombproof, last long roll well and grip well (has a Schwalbe puncture rating of 6 which is the same rating as Schwalbe Marathon Plus).... I'm on my second set and will get another set of these when I need to change tyres on my commuter

I will however be buying a decent carbon framed road bike in a few months time (for weekend fast rides/strava), and will have another look at tubeless .... I may even opt for tubular

Time to start shaving your legs. It's a slippery slope being a roadie. :lol:

I've built a couple of wheelsets recently with tubeless ready rims. I learned the hard way that you really need to use tubeless rim tape even if you plan to use tubes (unless you enjoy difficult tire mounting).

I've been meaning to give the whole tubeless thing a try. At this point I think I've got four bikes with tubeless ready wheels. One of them even has tubeless ready tires. The main thing holding me back is trepidation (probably baseless) about the learning curve for initial inflation and sealant use. I don't have an air compressor, but I could probably find an old soda bottle to use if necessary. I've heard some of the newer setups will seat properly with just a floor pump.

The other thing is that my rate of getting flats is a bit lower than the life expectancy for sealant, so switching to tubeless could actually be more trouble than it's worth. I'd be interested to hear input about that from anyone who does the tubeless thing. I get about three flats per year, usually grouped together. Going nine months between punctures isn't uncommon for me, and I've got multiple bikes so any one bike could easily go a year or more without a puncture.

Yep.

My schwalbe ones mounted fine with just an air pump. Sealant helps. I pumped them up and they sealed w/o sealant but then deflated and the beads pulled away from the rim over the weekend. That has stopped since I added sealant (started out inflating the tires while the sealant was still in the mail).

Don't know about the life expectancy of sealant. Mine was still good as new a couple weeks ago when I took the bike off the wall that I had hung up back in October. So, ~6 months, the sealant stayed liquid, kept sealing. I had feared that it would harden into a lump where it had pooled over the winter, and the bike would thump-thump as I rode it. Didn't happen, stayed liquid.

I do have very few flats w/ marathon supremes and tubes (knock on wood) but tires like the continental 4000s just cannot survive on the kinds of debris we have around here. Schwalbe ones seem to have similar durability but the sealing helps. Their ride is nice, and pressure can be pretty low since pinch-flats are out of the picture.

Not sure about tubulars. You've got the tubes but you need to pull the glued tire off the rim, unsew it, patch the tube, and sew it back in again and glue it back on. So for roadside repairs you need a whole spare tire rather than a patchkit. I remember back in the 80s after tubulars had faded away the first time, a friend was talking about getting some to commute with mostly due to the lack of pinch flats, but if you get a different kind of flat, then you've got trouble, it seems like.

Tubeless looks interesting but no way I'd ever go back to tubulars...

Are they not using tubeless sealant with tubulars? It seems like a natural

I had a nice 1/4" slice in one tire. The sealant sealed just fine at first. A few days later I hit the levee roads, with golf ball sized gravel. The tire flexed enough to pop open the cut and spray sealant everywhere. It finally sealed again, only to pop back open the next time I took that route.

I ended up using a larger tube patch on the inside of the tire. I let it set overnight and mounted it with fresh sealant the next day. That was probably 700 miles or so ago, and I haven't had a problem since.

As far as tire longevity goes, my first two sets of Specialized Renegade Controls only lasted me about 1000-1200 miles a set, and that's with rotating them.
This last set of Kenda Kozmik Lite I SCT DTC tires are still going strong after, I think, over 3500 miles.

if I build new wheels they are getting tubeless ready rims. But my commuter tends to be old stuff, so it's going to be last. I just don't have enough problems that it would solve.

I built a set of road wheels last fall, and I wish I had gone tubeless-ready for that

On average, I only have a flat every two years of daily commuting. I don't see tubeless tires providing any noticeable benefit for me.

If I bought a bike that came with tubeless ready wheels, I would consider it. Otherwise, I'm just not that interested in going through the expense and trouble of switching.

Old thread, but this is exactly my question!

I commute on a MUP 35 minutes each way 5-6 times a day. Had a few flats this week, because of storms blowing all the smashed beer bottles folks drink and throw into the woods onto the trail. With the ride being on 35 minutes, when I get a puncture halfway there...it's a toss up to swap it out or ride to my office to make it easier to swap. That happened this week, was cold-ish, pouring rain, and halfway there. Oh, and bike has a rack and fenders, so makes changing flats a bit harder than on a road bike.

I'm not looking for performance or weight savings, just a lack of punctured tubes. Been riding this trail for years now, not a ton of flats, but this week I've had two.

I run cyclocross tubeless on my CX race/gravel riding bike, so have set it up. And have all I need on hand - Stan's tape, rim strip, liquid. Older rim, but brand new Panaracer Gravel King tubeless ready tire. I'd still carry a tube and would get a plug fix kit.

Don't see the reason not to try, especially having set up tubeless already and having all the needed goods on hand. (though I know non-tubeless rims always can pose some challenges in setting up.)

Thanks!

Oh, and beyond commuting, I ride this bke all over the city, so I'm on it 7 days a week. Run 38 mm Panaracer tires. And it's a solid-quality commuter I built up myself two years ago. Nothing fancy, but a solid bike.

Zombie thread, but I’ll bite. I have regular and tubeless ready rims, use stans tape on all rims now, and still use tubes on all tires. The only tires I ran tubeless for a while were on my fat bike, but the sealant dried up and I was not able to get the tires set on the rims again, so went back to tubes. With the few flats I get with tubes, it’s not really an issue. The other advantages of running tubeless don’t outweigh tubes for the kind of riding I do.

nayr497 : If you are already running tubeless on a bike, so you know what it involves, then why not run it on a commuter? The worst that happens is that you get a puncture that won't seal, and then you put in a tube -- which is what you are doing now, right?

I have tubeless 700x32s on my gravel bike/commuter. Never had much trouble with flats, I just like the ride quality better. IMO, the problem with tubeless is they're great until they aren't. Which can be a problem on a commuter. Get a flat on a tube tire and you're rolling again in 15 minutes, worst case. If something goes wrong with tubeless, you're probably going to stick a tube in it anyway. So you wind up removing the stem, it'll probably be messy, and removing and mounting the tire is likely to be a struggle. Late for work.

I've mounted road and mtb tubeless with just a floor pump. I smear a little sealant on the beads, and work as much of the bead up onto the shoulder as I can by hand. Give a few pumps to see if it's taking. If not look for the spot that's open and work it toward the shoulder some more and repeat. Not as difficult as it sounds. Once the seal takes, add air until the beads completely seat, then let air out, remove valve, and add sealant through the stem. If the hand pump doesn't work after several tries, I'll drag out the compressor but usually don't need to.

Thanks for the replies!

Yep, I have set up wheels for my cx bike tubeless, so have an idea of how setting it up goes. I definitely had a rough week with flats during my commute and don't get that many, but I am going to put a new tire on the front wheel and the rear has a slow leak, so going to try to the tubeless setup. Why not. I do carry everything to repair a punctured tube, so worst case, I can throw a tube in if a puncture doesn't seal. I actually have one of those Vittoria "air stop" canisters somewhere too. And will pick up a plug system too, need one for cross anyway.

I don't punch a clock, essentially set my own hours, so being late isn't a big deal. But, it's kind of a pain because I have fenders and a rack on the bike. Also, it's a 35 minute commute...so anytime I get a flat...I'm always torn to replace it on the road, or just ride in and do it at my office, where it is just a bit easier (and drier some days!).

I know tubeless set-up is often trial and error...but do you prefer to use rim tape and a rim strip with a valve?

I have a tubeless ready Panaracer tire, non-tubeless specific clincher rim. I have Stan's yellow rim tape and a Stan's rim strip with a valve. Not sure if I should try just the rim strip? Or go ahead and use a wrap of yellow tape, then the strip.

Thanks!

The yellow tape is for sealing, the molded strip makes a shape that's like UST and helps the tire seat. You should use them both.

My first tubeless setup a few years ago I did with two rounds of Gorilla tape (which fulfills both functions) in a very old wheel. That worked okayyyish. More recently with "real" tubeless rims and thin tape it's been much more satisfactory.

Ah, this makes sense! Thanks!

I set up my CX wheels a few years ago and haven't done any more tubeless installations. Those wheels were Mavic Ksyrium SLs, which don't have open spoke areas.

Will use the tape and the rim strip. Thanks!!