VegasJen

Wanted to do a back-to-back comparison today between my new-to-me Shiv and my older tri bike, a Ridley Cheetah. I have a Reynolds 80mm tubeless carbon wheel set on the Shiv and the Cheetah is still running conventional alloy wheels with butyl tubes. Rode the same route, or at least that was the plan, with both bikes.

The Shiv is quite obviously faster but I rode the 26 mile route on the Shiv literally problem free. Got home, took a quick potty break and hydrated. Jumped on the Cheetah and started the same route. Actually got 14 miles into the route before the (first) obligatory roadside puncture repair. Decided to give up duplicating the entire route about six miles later with the second puncture. I didn't bother changing it as it was a slow enough leak, but in the shortened route, I still had to stop twice and top off air to get me home.

I am BEYOND SICK AND TIRED of getting punctures!

slow rollin

I am happy I don't live in vegas, or wherever you are with punctures galore. Goat heads are bad off road here so I went tubeless in 2011, but on the road I have been fine with "heavy duty" road tires like gatorskins.

RCMoeur 

Looks at posting date, wonders whether to take her seriously...

It's too bad they stopped making SpinSkins. Those were great for fast road tires, weighed almost nothing, and stopped a lot of pointy sharp stuff. About the only thing that defeated them were thorns coming in on the edge or side, or a big ol' sheet metal screw right through the tread.

They come up occasionally on eBay for rather high prices.

The good news is they can last through multiple tires. Even as the edges fray, the center section still provides protection. I have several with well over the recommended 5,000 mile service life and I'll keep using them until they completely come apart - which doesn't look to be any time soon.

Steve B.

I’ve used tubes in my road bikes for 35 years. I haven’t had a flat in 3-4 years. Maybe it’s where you ride ?, popular place to toss beer bottles out the car window ??

HTupolev

The main caveat with tire liners (and protection belts integrated beneath the tread of a tire) isn't the weight, its the rolling resistance.

50PlusCycling

Too many of the kinds of punctures I've gotten on the road are beyond the ability of tubeless sealant to seal. This isn't a fun thing to find out the hard way. I've recently begun using those Aliexpress lightweight tubes. You can still get flats with them, but they are so light the wheels roll faster, and after decades of experience, I can change a tube faster than shaving my face.

jgwilliams

Got to say, I'm sold as well. I didn't have a good start with my MTB when I got a flat on the very first ride that wouldn't seal. Learned the hard way that you need to carry a tubeless repair kit. Since then, though, my experience has been very positive. I think that first flat was largely down to the Goodyear tyres fitted by the manufacturer. I've since fitted Maxxis Minions which give the impression of being much more durable, although I've not done enough mileage on them yet to have a fair comparison.

I was a little more hesitant with regard to road bike tyres, but having now done 2,600 miles without a flat (on Vittoria Corsa N.Ext 28mm) I'm pretty impressed. Twice I've arrived home to find I've lost pressure during the ride and once I've had to stop to add a bit more air, so the sealant is clearly working. We don't have goat heads around here, but we do get a lot of flints washing into the roads when it rains, and the rain has been relentless of late.

SylvainG

I hope I'm not jinxing myself but in over 35,000km, I've got only 5 flats. Last one was last week though. A 1cm long nail went through my rear tire (always the rear) when I went over a bridge's expansion joint. Two of the flats were pinched tube and the other three by objects through the tire/tube.

RCMoeur 

That was (is) an advantage of SpinSkins - they are a thin light layer of very flexible dense-weave Kevlar fabric. Nothing like plastic or foam liners. Tire suppleness and rolling resistance is basically unaffected.

alcjphil

I am beyond worrying about jinxes when it comes to tubeless road tires. 13 years and counting and I have only once had to even do a repair on the road. It helps to have wheels properly designed for road tubeless. In my case Campagnolo Shamal 2way fit. No taping required and they had tubeless valves factory installed. All I have ever had to do is install new tires by hand, no tools required and pump then up. I remove valve cores and inject sealant, then pump them up again. As long as they hold air I just keep riding them. There was one flat that happened in my living room. All of a sudden, my front tire deflated. Time for new tires which I already had on hand. When I checked, the rear tire was worn down to the tire carcass, No on the road flats with that set of tires even though I rode them that far without sealant

HTupolev

When using tougher materials, thinner and lighter doesn't necessarily equate to less rolling resistance, if the material and/or construction introduces more hysteresis.

I haven't seen any data on SpinSkins specifically, but when bicyclerollingresistance put various tire liners to the drum, the thin and lightweight liner based on aramid fibers (Panaracer FlatAway) was the worst performer in the rolling resistance test.

SoSmellyAir

Do so; she frequently posts to complain about flats. Maybe she rides in Fallujah.

mstateglfr 

If a puncture is too large to seal with tubeless sealant, then a spare tube is needed.
If a puncture slices open a tire and pops a tube, then a spare tube is needed.

Either way in your scenario, a new tube is needed. But tubeless will seal up any small punctures which would have otherwise made you stop and change the tube.

VegasJen

I bought a pair of gatorskins four or five years ago. All excited, I put them on. First ride out, got a puncture.
I've tried tire liners once or twice but I haven't figured out how to get them to stay centered in the tire while mounting the tire on the wheel.

As for rolling resistance and all that, I'm hardly worried about that for my trainer bikes. I'll just run tubeless on my Shiv for triathlon, but if nothing else, a little rolling resistance on a training bike should only add to my strength training. I'll take a few extra watts over sitting on the shoulder of the road replacing tubes any day.
Not so much glass but I do get a lot of wire from blown steel belted tires.
Not Fallujah. Worse. The desert. I even stay on paved roads, but the wild things that grow out here have evolved nasty ways of protecting themselves. Even sagebrush (what become tumbleweeds when they die) have these nasty little pokey things growing on them. Mesquite trees can be quite vicious. I have a bunch of mesquite (they're weeds out here) on my property. I've actually had mesquite thorns puncture the soles of my shoes on more than a few occasions. Hell, last year, I was doing some clean up work on my property. Had gloves on. Didn't matter. Had a thorn go through my fingernail before breaking off.

Troul 

It might be a little more cash upfront, but consider putting together a tubeless plug kit to have on hand.
A selection of assorted tip styles has came in handy, whereas if only one style was stowed, it probably would have resulted in a long walk.

NumbersGuy

Where do you ride? I ride on the south shore of Long Island all the time and while flats aren't a frequent occurrence, I probably get at least a few a year. None in 3-4 years would be fantastic so maybe I need to change my routes. Montauk Highway seems to get me every so often with tiny pieces of wire.

VegasJen

Since I'm still new to the tubeless scene, I'm still figuring things out. I started out only carrying a plug kit, but that resulted in a walk of shame and damsel in distress call to a neighbor a few weeks back. I have since added to my kit a couple TPU tubes to cover all my bases.

Wileyrat

I carry a plug kit and a tube, just in case.

Steve B.

Riding all over L.I., the last was a tear on the sidewalk while on the LIE, on some GP5000’s, which otherwise are durable tires. Ive been lucky

CrimsonEclipse

Did you get the walk of shame on tubeless tires?

VegasJen

Yes. I had a through-and-through puncture somehow. Only thing I can think of is I picked up a nail. It was scheduled to be a 60 mile ride and I was stopping about every 10 miles just to do a little pinch test of the tires. I had just stopped at my second turn around at mile 40 and everything looked great. Started a long, down hill section, got about 8 miles in and I could feel it. It went down really fast. I believe it was a through-and-through because I don't remember hitting anything that could have given me a snake bite, and at the speed I was riding, I was most certainly paying attention.

CrimsonEclipse

Consider Schwalbe Marathon Plus.
Yeah, I know they are slower, but that's the price of armor.
Train with the Marathons, race with the light/fast tires.

I have them on all of my bikes save the Fat bike, which have Marathon Jumbo Jims

(I don't get paid by Schwalbe, but I freakin should)

VegasJen

Ya, I put a pair of Schwalbe Marathons on another bike. It's the only bike I've been able to ride in the last six months where I didn't have at least one puncture on my ride.

SylvainG

Ironically, I had three punctures in my Marathon that I use in early spring and late fall that I do with my Grand Prix 4000/5000 (two punctures) that I use from May until October and I ride way more miles during those months. What's even more ironic is I put the Marathon to lower the chance of having a flat when it's cold

VegasJen

I'm sure it's a matter of numbers. More miles, higher the odds of a puncture. Since I triathlon, my training involves several other disciplines besides just cycling. I'm sure that by BF standards, I don't really average a lot of miles per year. I only ride 2-3 times a week at most and of that I'm probably 40-50 miles on a light week and only 100-120 on a heavy week.