Originally Posted by
anotherbrian
I've been tubeless for 16 years. First MTB, then Hutchinson's road tubeless tires with regular road rims (Mavic Open Pros), now tubeless-approved rims and tires.
For my regularly ridden bikes, brevets and not, I wouldn't go back to tubes.
The sealant does dry out and needs to be maintained, so the infrequently ridden bikes (couple times a year) still have tubes ... or will go back to tubes the next time I ride them.
But I recently found a box of old tubes all with snake bite punctures and was reminded of the days running too low of pressure on Conti 4000S tires (28's measuring 32) for the plushness. I've not had a snake bite since, and I run much lower pressures (50psi on Hutchinson Sector 32's, with a combined bike+rider of 200lbs'ish) than I ever did back then.
My biggest complaint using tubeless road tires (shimano tubeless wheels with Hutchinson fusion 4/5) is that once you remove the tire for cleaning, tire and rim, once per year it is almost impossible to re-seal the tire even using a compressor. Many times, adding sealant solves the problem, but sometimes it doesn't, and I have install a new tire even though the original it not that worn.
I use inner tubes for training, and tubeless for races and brevets so my tubeless tires do not accumulate so many klm.
Since now I race only a few times a year, and limit my brevet to 200/300klm weather permitting I am going back to inner tubes.
I also had issues with rim corrosion. I've replaced 3 Shimano rims due to corrosion using Stan's sealant.
Recently, there was a post that Stan's and Shimano rims is a no-no. I never pick this up.
After contacting both suppliers one blames the other while the customer bears the expense.