tsappenfield

I'm going to buy a new wheel set for my road bike. Educate me about tubeless ready rims and tubeless tires. Can you mount clincher tires on a tubeless ready rim? Would you be better off mounting a tubeless tire on such rims? How difficult is it to seal such tires to the rim? What about flats? What about removing the tires? Are tubeless tires faster than say clinchers with latex tubes? Are tubeless tires a good a good option for racers?
Tsapp

alcjphil

First thing to remember is that a tubeless road tire is a clincher tire that does not require an inner tube to hold air. You can also mount a regular clincher with inner tube on a tubeless ready wheel, you just have to remove the tubeless valve. Since I bought my Campagnolo Shamal 2way fit wheels I have always used tubeless tires, but that was my choice. I could just as easily have used conventional tires if I had felt like doing so. I have some friends who own the same wheels and some have gone back to using conventional tires. Personally, I find road tubeless tires quite easy to install and inflate. Others have not had the same experience. The last time I changed a tire, I installed it on the rim and pumped it up using my floor pump, no difficulty at all

ThermionicScott 

As long as they're not too far off spec, regular clincher tires work fine on tubeless-ready rims. One of the most important things is not to use traditional cloth rim tape on them.

cpach

I like road tubeless. The primary advantages are that they seal most punctures without intervention, do not pinch flat and thus can be run at lower pressures over rougher terrain. They generally have slightly lower rolling resistance than a tire of similar construction run with a tube, and because you can rely on the sealant for a lot of flat protection you can also run a tire with less flat protection and subsequently less rolling resistance. Weight is often a wash; the tubeless bead, reinforced sidewalls, and sealant are counterbalanced by the lack of a tube; some tubeless setups are lighter than tubes, others aren't. The tires with the absolute lowest rolling resistance now are tubeless. They are fine for racers; if anything, the relatively tight fit might in some cases help keep the tire on if there's a flat, and you're less likely to flat in the first place. They certainly roll fast enough. Many domestic pros race tubeless, though most pro tour riders are still on tubulars most of the time, for reasons of tradition, the secure mounting of the tires, and the weight.

The disadvantages are that product options are still less diverse than for standard clinchers, they tend to be a bit more expensive, and if you get a puncture that sealant does not fix it can be messy and perhaps a bit harder to replace with a tube. You need to add new sealant every few months and periodically clean out the dried sealant in the tire (yearlyish). You may or may be able to seat the tire with a standard floor pump--it helps to remove the valve core from the valve stem. You can buy pumps now with a pressure reservoir for seating tubeless tires if the standard floor pump isn't doing it and you don't have access to a compressor.

You can run standard clinchers on tubeless rims. It may make tire mounting somewhat more difficult but is usually not a problem.