Originally Posted by
BlarneyHammer
I have a lot of curiosity about tubeless myself. Can we get a complete rundown of the pros and cons, and also get a description of worst-case scenarios, what causes them, and their likelihood?
Here's what I've gathered so far:
Pros
Slight weight reduction
Virtually no flats
Can run lower pressure
Better "feel"
Cons
More expensive
Less choices/availability
Initial setup can be annoying
More disastrous in the event of total failure
Seems like mountain bikers like tubeless more than anyone, but I've yet to understand why. The only reason that makes sense is they like low pressure more than anyone else.
Also, if the tires are glued to the rims, how do you take them off when your tires wear down?
I have been running tubeless on my mountain bike for about a year now. I trail ride pretty much daily and went from having to patch a tube at least weekly to not having a single flat in a year. We don't have goat heads but do have a lot of other thorns here and those are the typical source of flats, for them my tubeless setup has been 100% effective.
I have found that with my Stan's No Tubes wheels and tires that I was able to seat the tires easily with only a frame pump, but that may not be typical based on comments I have heard from others.
The sealant is not the messy nasty stuff that I experienced when I tried slime tubes. It is water soluble and easily rinses off of hands, clothing, and tools.
I like the feel of a light tire with supple sidewalls and going tubeless helps with that.
I pack really light so I am more likely to run skinny road bike tires for my on road touring, but if I were going to run fat tires on tour, I'd definitely consider tubeless. I'd probably carry a tube if on a long tour especially where services might be few and far between, but not expect to use it.
I have never tried road tubeless so I will not comment on that setup.