pdoege

I think there are three kinds of holes.
1. Holes that seal with sealant - not a concern
2. Holes that almost seal with sealant but open at operating pressure (eg. fine at 20PSI, leak at 70PSI) - Rubberized superglue works
3. Holes that are too large for sealant or glue - Patches/Boots/Gorilla tape on the inside works

Rubberized super glue lasts the life of the tire in my experience. It takes about 5 minutes to cure, it isn't faster than changing a tube. You can glue holes shut after a ride to prevent the latex from being pushed out of the hole and leaking again.

Not to be argumentative, but I've found that holes that are too big for superglue are too big for plugs and strings. There isn't enough surface area for the expanding part and they pull out under braking. Forcing a plug into a "just slightly too small hole" in a deflated tire is really frustrating. They work best on "sweet spot" sized holes that don't occur that often for me. However, if you have tires that are hard to mount they are the only game in town. YMMV!

WhyFi

I find that I'm mildly interested in the notion of plugs but, as you say, I've yet to have a puncture in that Goldilocks zone. In the two years that I've been tubeless, I've had several seal without issue and two cuts that totaled the tire, but nothing in between.

FlashBazbo

Back closer to the original topic . . . I've been running tubeless 35mm tires on a gravel bike for several hundred miles. I like tubeless for tires 35mm and larger on rough roads and gravel. My experiences have been generally positive. I haven't yet found a tubeless 25mm tire that would give me any real advantages over tubed, so I haven't made the switch for my road racing bike. I have an open mind -- I'm looking forward to trying Conti's 5000TL -- but I don't see a good reason to switch on that bike, even though I like tubeless a lot on my gravel bike. I haven't had any flats on my tubeless tires, but I haven't had any flats on my tubed tires during this time, either.

Other observations: (1) Although I can use lower pressures with my tubeless tires, my experiments with this have tended to indicate that I don't want to. Unless a road/trail is extremely rough and the race is very long, the fastest setup with both tubeless and tubed tires (for me) has been with pressures within the acceptable range for both types of tires. On a road? Even a very rough road? Both tires work well at the pressures I want to use.

(2) Often, tubed tires provide lower rolling resistance, even at the same pressure as a tubeless tire. This is borne out even on the rolling resistance testing websites. At this point, there generally isn't a performance advantage to tubeless tires on the roads / trails that I ride. In fact, tubeless tires (even the ones I really like) feel a little heavy to me compared to equivalent tubed tires. (And if you look at the specs, add in the weight of tubes and goop for the respective tires, the tubeless tires really are a little heavy.)

(3) If I only rode one bike, I would be a lot more enthusiastic about tubeless. Tubeless tires are designed to be ridden on a day-to-day basis. Since I divide my miles/time among 3 different bikes, tubeless requires a lot more maintenance and attention than tubed tires on all three bikes would. When tubeless tires stay idle for very long, you've got to make sure you check them and "wake them up" before taking them for a ride. (With tubed, you just air them up and go. You don't have to check your fluid or top it up.)

So, I may be that rarest of creatures. This may be the most controversial of positions -- somebody who has used both types and who, frankly, isn't moved either way. I am passionate neither for nor against tubeless tires. Now that I have experience with them, I'm . . . pretty neutral. I can take them or leave them. Meh. And since my wheelsets are all tubeless ready, I can switch back and forth at will. At some point, I will probably end up with all my tires of one type or the other -- just for convenience's sake -- but today, I don't much care which way it ends up.

Bryan C. 

Got a flat today and thought about this thread on the ride home. I have a few thousand mostly trouble free miles on tubeless tires, about 3k on road tubeless. Today, mixed results. Got a cut, measured 3/8" (9mm) across on the rear tire. Needed 2 plugs to stop it from leaking. After about 3 miles heard it leaking again and found both plugs had pulled out. I cut the tail ends to around 1/4" which ended up being a bit too long since they pulled out. Inserted another plug, but only one this time. Inflated it with the last of my co2 cylinder and made the last few miles to my house in good shape.

Bryan C. 

Sorry, previous post doesn't want to update easily while on my phone.

The tire held around 30 psi for the rest of the ride home and was still holding 3 hours later. I did notice the cut was only leaking a small amount after both plugs ripped out. Seems that the Orange Seal was doing its job, although not very quickly. Curious to see how well it was sealed so I aired it up to my usual 75 psi and it held. Well at least for about 10 mins until it leaked about 15 psi out of the tire.

These are the Schwalbe Pro 1 tubeless tires. They roll and grip well, but they don't seem to be very puncture or cut resistant. I might try to patch it from the inside but I have another tire to swap on until I figure out what my next pair of tires will be.

On longer rides I carry a spare tube and 2 co2 cartridges. Less than 50 miles and local I usually just bring my plug kit and an inflator. Doubt I will change that.

Overall mixed results. I didn't have to walk home. I still spent less time dealing with the plugs than swapping in a tube and a boot would take. But next time I really think a 2nd co2 cartridge would be a good thing to carry.

NoWhammies

@Bryan C. Can you tell me a bit about the plugs you used? I ride tubeless and have never used plugs. Do you have to take the tyre off to install them, or do you cram them in to hole from the outside of the tyre?

Also I'm interested to hear what tyre you are going to next. I have been riding with Pro Ones too, but am looking for another tyre that is a little more puncture resistant. Thank you.

Bryan C. 

The plugs get stuffed into the hole in the tire from the outside. No need to dismount the tire. After inserting just leave a little bit of the plug exposed and hold it in place with your finger while removing the installer tool. Trim the ends as needed, I carry a small swiss army knife with scissors for that. These are the "genuine Innovations" brand plugs.

I swapped out the tire this morning and found the real problem was that the tire was pretty well worn out. Since my front tire is still doing well I may just buy the same tire and move on with life. Hard to blame a worn out tire for getting damaged, mostly my fault for not keeping a better eye on it.

I have had very good luck with the now discontinued Specialized S-Works Turbo 180 TPI road tubeless tires in both 24c and 26c sizes. They now sell a slightly different Turbo tubeless tire only in the 28c size with a lower 120 TPI rating. I will probably try those next although they are a bit wider than I prefer. The 25c Schwalbes are measuring out to 30mm on my 29mm wide rim and don't want to go much bigger.

Metieval

a plug to get home fine, maybe.. but I could never deal with a plug going thummp thump thump thump thump thump thump thump
a plug would be irritating!

NoWhammies

Thanks for the tip on the plug(s). I have never used them before. I will definitely see if I can find them locally. Trouble is not many of the LBS around here deal in tubeless road tyres. I mean they will sell the Pro Ones, but they don't do much service beyond that. Good info about the tyres too. Thanks.

Psimet2001 

Plugs to fix tubeless issues have been around forever. We used to just call them "tubes".

Bryan C. 

Even with 2 plugs in the tire I never really felt it. The plugs are extremely small and soft. A non-issue really.

I was very good at changing a tube, mostly because I was constantly doing it. That got old really quick.

Racing Dan

Did anyone ever try gluing tubeless with "super glue" rather than using sealant. With an accelerator, super glue cures in literally seconds rather than minutes. If that worked there would be no reason for removing the tyre and no uncertainty with sealant that may or may not seal at a reasonable pressure.

pdoege

Scroll up. Post #101
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GreenAnvil

Trsnrtr

In my area, roads get treated with salt and sand or cinders mixture. I'm running Giant Gavia AC 0 tubeless tires and while wiping the tires down today, I found a small orange "smudge" on the rear tire. I peeled the surface off and sure enough, there was a small pinhole like we get from sharp cinders or sand. Never noticed the sealing on the ride and if I lost any air, it was minimal.

I know this is usual for you guys that ride tubeless regularly, but I just installed these a couple weeks ago just for this reason - multiple small hole flats in the Winter and want to reduce the number of roadside repairs with cold hands.

expatbrit

LOL. Once this crap starts where I am, I'll take the nice new wheels off my bike and remount the Fulcrum 5s. They'll be set up for tubeless - I have a set of 28mm Pro One's in a box, and some sealant, and even the recommended tape from Fulcrum. I've run generic tape on some Aileron rims previously with some degree of frustration. These are 28mm vs 25mm, and the new Pro One vs the old One.though I may end up on the Giant Defy 3 so I don't mess up the nice bike...



(1st world problems, anyone?!)

Trsnrtr

Sy Reene

get a ruler or tape measure and see if you have 27mm of clearance?

Racing Dan

Thanks. What I was contemplating was fast glue rather than changing the tube on the road. I hate that. It always happen when its cold and wet. Gluing and pumping seem somewhat easier, - If it works.

GreenAnvil

Agreed.

I have my doubts however because of this review: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/review...-aero-wheelset
The relevant part reads: "However, the Hunts did present a new nuisance in that the rim was too wide for my Shimano Ultegra R8000 brake calipers. I’ve not had this problem before and solved it by removing the spacer behind the brake pad housing – not ideal. Even then, the pads barely lifted off the rim and the modulation of the levers was non-existent."

trackelmann

damn, I'll have to try one out

mbw

I haven't seen it mentioned much, but I have had one great season on the Hutchison Sector 28 tires on my Domane SLR. They seem to roll pretty well and I never had more than a couple little nicks on them. No sealant leaks.

jadocs

Hey great thread. I have been riding tubeless for the first time since Saturday.......and guess what? I punctured! LOL

The sealant got me home after adding some air. I ended up patching the tire from the inside because my LBS only had Tubeless Patch kits. I ordered the Dynaplug kit mentioned above...so thanks for suggesting it guys.

My question is, does that brass looking tip that has the plug on it (Dynaplug kit) stay inside your tire? Obviously I know nothing about it. I saw a video on Dynaplug's site and it appeared that the brass looking tip that presses through the tire (which contains the plug) stays in there, because when he pulled it out just the tail of the plug was left.

jimincalif

Mark Manner

Yes, the brass plug tip stays in the tire, to hold the sticky sealant plug in place as it seals.