ridinginjeans

(Following up to a previous thread regarding tubeless tires)

My first experience with tubeless tires happened a few months ag when I purchased a new Santa Cruz Tall Boy. Came with SRAM wheelset and Maxxis tubeless tires. And now I get why they’re so popular in the MTB crowd. You can run really low pressure, much lower than what I would do with tubes. I’m running around 20 psi on my XL Tall Boy (I’m 6’3” and weigh 162). It has been amazing for traction and trail feel. No bottom-outs.

i changed to Vittoria Barzos, and the process was simple. I was afraid of the set up but it was simple. A bit messy but not that bad.

Love tubeless for my mountain bike.

walnutz

Yup, I recently made the switch and ride rigid. It’s great.

telebianchi

I just went tubeless on my rigid Raleigh XXIX. I had already "got" tubeless years ago but never had it on my older mountain bikes. But the amount of difference I could tell still surprised me.

Original rims were clincher 21 mm wide Weinmanns. New wheels are nothing fancy WTB ST i25. Same tires on both wheel sets: 29x4 Goma up front and 29x2.25 Racing Ralph out back. That there is some more grip in corners or climbing was no revelation - I expected that. What I didn't see coming was just that everything rides smoother. It's almost like there's tiny 10 mm shocks on the bike now to soak up the chatter.

In a park near me there is a quarter mile double track downhill that, per Strava segments, averages 5% grade. Lots of exposed roots and rocks but nothing terrible. I've even ridden my CX and gravel bikes down it. But now with the tubeless tires on the mountain bike I'm flying down that hill (flying being relative to my own experience and skills; most of my friends zip right by me ). My past two rides I was within a couple of seconds of beating PRs that I had set five and six years ago on a Giant Trance full suspension 26er. The only thing that kept from setting new marks this past week was I was at the end of long rides and my legs were feeling it so I slowed things down near the end. I'll definitely go back and get those little virtual trophies. And there are other areas on the trails where it just feels different, like somebody had come in and cleared out half the rocks.

So I didn't need to "get" all the benefits of going tubeless, but now that I've done it I can really explain it better if someone were to ask.

For contrast, my gravel bike came with clinchers which I rode until the worn tread was slipping out causing issues with climbing even moderate hills. Going tubeless on that bike, which included slightly wider tires, was a nicer ride but nowhere near as much difference as on the mountain bike.

Wooderson

I'll get razzed for this, but I stopped carrying flat provisions on my local trails. I've only flatted twice in eight years, one was a cut sidewall, the other when a rock took out my valve stem.

Before tubeless, I flatted around 10x per year (Texas thorns).

And yes, running lower pressures can make a huge difference, too.

walnutz

That’s crazy lol. I actually learned a tubeless lesson yesterday and had to get picked up. I didn’t have enough sealant in my front tire (already used my spare tube-long story) and got a snake bite flat. Was probably running a tad too low anyway. Won’t make that mistake again. Still sold on tubeless though, just getting over the learning curve.

I second what someone else said about tubeless=suspension. I ride rigid now and don’t miss the squish. I feel way more connected to the trail.