travbikeman

Am about to order some new tires for my bike. I was curious if anyone over 275lbs ride tubeless and what's your experience on these?

Any problems with going tubeless for those of us clydes?

Most likely will stick with tubes at first, but am thinking of this coming spring on making this kind of change. Ride mostly rails to trails and the C&O canal. I don't ride too often on pavement, but sometimes do with a few trails like Western MD rail and W&O rail.

Thanks!

c_m_shooter

Tubeless is not needed for the riding you describe. Tubeless is for lower tire pressures on singletrack rides. I hear some are going tubeless on road bikes, but I am not sure why. I tried it on a cyclocross bike years ago with bad results. Good road tires just don't flat that often, and I ride through a section of road regularly that looks like gravel, but is actually broken glass.

expatbrit

YMMV. I have issues with flats fairly regularly.I don't ride gatorskins, but have gone thru' a decent range.

My take on tubeless -- not 275, but not light -- is that it's better if you can run at a lower pressure/higher volume. I tried it on 25mm tyres with ... less success than I'd like. On 28mm it's gotten me home more than once where I'd otherwise need to do a lot of work.

The downside? If you DO have to tube it roadside, it's a lot more work and messy. I've also had challenges fitting the tyre; GP5000TLs run /great/ and are pretty bloody good at not flatting, but installing is a huge sodding pain.

I think if you get flats semi-regularly (and in summer, on good tyres, I'm getting 1 every 2-3 weeks) then it's worthwhile IF your frame will take a 28mm or larger. You can run lower pressure, have better flat 'recovery', and a more comfy ride. However, be prepared for more fussy installs (better have a compressor) and the huge pain if you DO have to do a tube roadside. There's tradeoffs -- I'm back to tubeless this year, but have flip-flopped regularly.\

What I will say is -- good road tyres flat pretty bloody often here. I avoid glass patches, I try and pay attention, and I don't ride a tonne of miles (100 or so a week). I'd LOVE to be c_m_shooter and not flat, but not my life!

jaxgtr

I'm not 275, but float around 200. I've had tubeless on my MTB for a couple of years and never had any issue with them. I went tubeless on my Domane, and I like it for running wider tires and less pressure. I'd say go for it. I would get flats on the road quite often and I dont ride on really crappy roads.

travbikeman

Tire size I'm most likely going to buy are 700x40 or 42's for my Sub Cross. Have noticed every tire I have looked at via Bike Tires Direct in these sizes are tubeless, but my understanding can still use tubes.

Plus my new wheelset with Velocity rims are tubeless ready. The idea of a bigger supple tire and possibly going tubeless is for more comfort without worrying about pinch flats.

I might just wait to lose more weight and once below 250, may try the tubeless setup then.

banana jam 

You're fine on tubeless just watch your tire pressure and check it each ride. Likely you'll find tubeless more forgiving than tubes. At #235 I ride Conti 5000TL at their max inflation with great success.

BIGDCYCLES

I rode my gravel bike a ton set up tubeless on 700x42 tires. I was around 275 and never had an issue. Just maintained pressure and added a little sealant every few months.

Robalero

I'm at 225 right now and ride tubeless. I use them on two gravel bikes and one road bike. 700 x 35 on all three of them. I actually prefer them over the standard tube tires as they tend to be more forgiving on the type of rough roads I ride. Like mentioned before, check the air pressure before every ride as they do tend to lose air pressure all by themselves.

RubeRad

You don't say what kind of tires/rims/bike. The wider the tires, the lower the pressure, the better tubeless works. It should work great for any MTB tires 2" and up, and it's worth it to make sure you get tires that are rated Tubeless-Ready, because then you don't get weeping sidewalls, etc.

I went through a few iterations of having trouble getting my rims/beads to seal well, but then I started doing 'ghetto' tubeless, where instead of rim tape, I sacrifice an innertube, slice it all the way around and splay it out over the rim, then put the tire in, blast air to inflate, with the splayed tube squeezed between the rim and bead. Once the bead is well stuck in there, deflate and add sealant through the removable presta core. (Or you could scoop/pour sealant in before inflation, but it could be messier that way)

travbikeman

I now have VELOCITY AILERON rims/wheels that were built by Pro Wheelbuilder with 36 spoke rear rims to better handle my riding. It's going on a Scott Sub Cross 30 with new Panaracer GravelKing SK 700x43.

I decided to just put tubes in for now, and wow that was tough getting the tires on. Going to wait until I lose more weight and possibly get a gravel/touring bike that I will fit these new wheels to. Will then test out tubeless.

Was more curious if going tubeless would help cushion the ride on rails to trails and canal trails like the C&O.

RubeRad

yeah, one benefit of tubeless is you can lower the tire pressure and not worry about pinch-flats, but still you don't want to be banging your rims on rocks all the time.

Looks like online Scott Sub Cross 30 comes stock with 700x45, and I bet you could stuff more in there. If you want to maximize cushion, you want the largest, most supple tires you can fit, at the lowest pressure you can get away with (without rimstrikes or washing out on turns).

Meanwhile, you can get some of the benefits of tubeless if you just get tubes with removable cores, and put sealant in the tubes. Should make you immune to thorns, staples, etc.

TRIBUNAL

I'm 350lbs+water+rockhounding tools+15lb battery+60lb bike with motor, I'm new to mountain biking and I don't know a lot yet. I bought the bike used, thought it was tubeless, not knowing or caring much about that. 29"x3"Plus tires on a Surly Krampus XL frame. I took the bike up the mountains of Colorado this past summer without a single tire problem. After the first snowfall, September 8th, I decided to move on to southern California. After riding there a few weeks I heard a leaking tire while out on the trail on this ranch in escondido. Luckily I could make it back without stopping as I didn't even have a pump or patch with me. It turned out my tires were tubeless and in the south west US apparently there's these nasty little thorns that go right through your tires, the thorns are everywhere. The front tire wasn't leaking but I could see the thorns there too.
I just have to say at this point with all my mountain trail rides, I had not even checked the tire pressure once since I bought it, which sounds crazy looking back on it. Most of my trail rides were off the trails. Apparently in the southwest US, you have to convert to tubeless, so I did. I bought the tire tape from the local scumbag bike shop in Escondido, Ca, Bike Bling, which had bad reviews, the tape was half the needed diameter but the guy said it would definitely work if I just went around twice. It definitely did not and I definitely wasn't happy about it as it cost $15. I didn't bring it back because, being a newbie, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and say maybe I just didn't do it right.... doubtful.. I went and bought gorilla tape instead and just did the cheaper tubeless conversion, I would recommend just doing this. I did two layers and sealed it up with ATV Slime which people said was better. I took it out to this ranch a few times there and had no issues at all.
I just did the front tire and took it out for a ride while I am visiting family here in Georgia, yes I took my bike on the plane with me and it was easy, only charged a second check-on bag fee $40 Delta. There's not much for trails and no bike lanes in the sh1thole that is Georgia, but I had a good time until the bafang motor broke (hall sensors) and I had to pedal back off the side of the road. The second tire i did, does loose pressure slowly, I fill it up before I leave. I believe the reason the first one works better is because it got the slime in al the cracks because the tape wasn't working the first time. I may just need to tighten the valve stem more. the second tire worked on the first try. I have not tested it out much but i'm happy with the tubeless so far and my weight is pushing it way more then your light 275 , but I also don't ride the bike too crazy on the trails, as my upper body strength is still under where it needs to be, but getting closer with every ride. Unfortunately now I'm down waiting for parts from china.
Good luck, go tubeless! Although, the tubes worked without an issue on some bad ass trails in Co, so I don't know which is better or correct yet, but in the southwest, I don't have a choice anymore.
EDIT: Also should mention I have not tried lower tire pressures yet, I ride with pressure maxed out at 35lbs.

RubeRad

Hey man, I live down in Poway -- that 'ranch in Escondido', yer talkin Daley ranch yeah? protip I've heard for goathead thorns: just leave 'em in.

Also I ride a Krampus, no motor though. v1 Krampus (green) that I bought used, with rabbit-hole rims. They have the original (I think) blue nylon(?) rimstrip, and as described above, I use split tubes for liners. Can't remember 24" or 26" for the 700 rims. I know another guy with a Krampus (lives in PQ), he did his Rabbit Holes tubeless with non-gorilla navajo-patterned duct tape. He said he had to carefully lay down a strip with the patterned back showing through the holes, and then strips on either side to tape that down to the rim.

Russ Roth

[QUOTE=travbikeman;21815523]I now have VELOCITY AILERON rims/wheels that were built by Pro Wheelbuilder with 36 spoke rear rims to better handle my riding. It's going on a Scott Sub Cross 30 with new Panaracer GravelKing SK 700x43.

I decided to just put tubes in for now, and wow that was tough getting the tires on. Going to wait until I lose more weight and possibly get a gravel/touring bike that I will fit these new wheels to. Will then test out tubeless. [/QUOTE]
I'd guess most of the trouble is the tire. I've got 2 sets of those rims and a third on the way and have no trouble putting tires on the rims. Conti and challenge tires so far. Really happy with them.

OP, I ran tubeless on my mtb with Stan's tubeless rims and the factory tubeless tires. Any if the trails I rode that had a lot of rock if the handlebars turned in a rock field I occasionally burped a tire. Still had the same number of flats in one season but more rides ruined due to the flats. I saw no improvement in ride quality. My wife weighs half my weight and has had none of the burping issues so they may be weight related, really don't know. Haven't seen any good reason to do it with the gravel bike.

RubeRad

Does that mean you're allowed to have a 2nd wife?

travbikeman

Thanks everyone! The more I think about it, the more I have just decided to stick with tubes for now. But, I do like that idea of getting tubes with removable stem to put sealant in them. I often ride in bear country with no cell phone coverage on the C&O. That would be a nice bit of insurance on potential flats.

I bought my Sub Cross this past Jan, at a really nice discount since the new LBS in PA bought other LBS bikes that were not selling before Covid. So I got the 2018 Sub Cross with 700x42 Schwalbe's off brand Smart Sam tires. I've only ridden 600 miles this year since there are just so many crowds of people on the trails the closer to DC I would get. But these Schwalbes really wore out quickly. Plus after getting involved in an accident from sliding on a trail, new tires and wheels are replacing the out of true weaker rear wheel.

Appreciate everyone's advise!

wthensler 

I do most of my riding on roads, and have migrated from 23 - 25mm road tires to 28-32mm tubeless. Night and day difference between ride quality. I used to run 100-110psi with tubes, tubeless I'm at 60-65psi. With the rough roads, it's like a different bike.

I should mention that my impetus for switching was flatting out - I just got tired of changing flats all the time. With tubes - zero flats to date.

DrIsotope

Riding on <most> tubeless/tubeless-ready tires with a tube in them is frankly going to ride like garbage-- because a tubeless tire is essentially an "open tubular," or a clincher that's merged with a tube. So you'd be riding on two tubes. Heavy for no reason.

If you wanna run tubeless, buy tubeless tires. If you wanna run tubes, buy clinchers. The clinchers will be cheaper to boot.

Russ Roth

Would you want a second wife? One is more then enough difficulty to deal with, two is just a terrible idea.

TRIBUNAL

Haha wow, yes it was daily ranch, I couldn't think of the name. My friend had just told me about the place as I was staying in that area. It's a lot more crowded then I like. I was taking as many trips as I could to Palomar as well, there's some great roads/trails going up there that rarely have anyone on them, but its a little far. Thanks for the info on the tape, I may have to try that if mine doesn't stop leaking. I have the red Krampus, I wish I could have found the green version, well I did see one a week after I bought mine, all well.
See ya out there when I get back

RubeRad

Some day I want to sell my green and buy a red. Not because of color, I think green looks nicer, but the frame redesign looks impressive: stiffer even without jump tube (little triangle betw seat and top tubes), redesigned bottom bracket yoke, no gusseting under head/down tubes, thru-axles, internal dropper-post cable routing, more braze-ons for racks and such. Read this for a full run-down.

travbikeman

Augh, I should have asked this question of you all before buying the tires and installing them with the tubes. Well, I'm testing them out on the C&O this weekend with tubes and will make a decision afterwards on keeping tubes or removing. sigh, the Sub Cross is a heavy bike anyhow...But only paid $73 for both tires

squirtdad

that is not quite correct.

both open tubular and tubeless are clincher tires

open tubular are theoretically built like tubular tires, high thread count, light weight, and give close to tubular feel especially with latex tube. theoretically a vitorria corsa g+ clincher will be very similar to a corsa G+ tubular

purpose built tubeless tires will have heaver sidewalls, features to prevent air loss, and special bead (as an example conti calls out the bead on the 5000TL vs 5000) they are in no way "merged with a tube" they are a clincher tire optimized for running without tubes

I know from previous post's DrIsotope has had good luck with avoiding goat head flats with tubeless

for how and where i ride I don't see advantages for me.in tubeless....and the big disadvantage of if you do get a flat that sealant can't fill, removing, putting a tube in and remounting is and can be difficult.

I personally prefer tubular. seems less hassle than tubeless to me. ymmv

totally agree get the purpose built tire and ride it that way....other wise it will be a compromise and not work as well as clincher with tube or tubleless

TRIBUNAL

I feel like such a newbie, most of the terminology I don't understand yet. I didn't realize the colors were indicative of a different model. I like the front suspension I guess they have on some of them, thats one upgrade I intend on making very soon because the downhill ride kills me sometimes down these mountain roads.

travbikeman

I rode this past weekend on the C&O with the new Panaracer Gravel SK with tubes at 50psi front and 55 psi rear. Honestly, I thought they rode great! But I rode on the sections with the newer stones. So chances are most tires would have done ok on that section. But frankly, I felt these tires had a nice lighter and better feel to them compared to my prior tires the Impac Smartpacs (generic Schwalbe SmartSam tires).