Good old fashioned Continental rubber tubes! I've had 1 flat in 11 years. I do a lot of riding on rough gravel fire roads and rough pavement country roads. Nothing about tubeless appeals to me enough to make the switch.
The following satire is for road bikes only- Is it the sealant, maybe I need more sealant, or is it one of the 26 bacon strips plugs, or is it the rim tape or did i just burp the tire? Or my favorite, damn I can’t get the tire to seal. But it’s so gratifying when you see the sealant plug the hole. Thing is there wouldn’t be a cut or hole if you had a traditional tire with a high TPI rating. The new era tires have a very low TPI and it’s how they make them so light weightAND it’s great for sales because they wear faster than traditional tires. And no when you get a puncture with a tubeless tire, you are not necessarily going to puncture with a tire and a tube in the same moment. Again traditional tires with the higher TPI deflect instead of absorb or get penetrated by a puncturing object. And then there’s the expense of tubliss. Continental 5000 or 4000 and fresh tubes forget about it for a long time. Zero mess, zero questioning one of six things it could be causing you a flat. Just tires and tubes no sealant no gloves no protective eyewear no white lab coat no rapid inflator needed, none of it.
I'm 100% a tubeless advocate. Been using tubeless on my road bikes the last four years. Only had one puncture on the road bikes this year that didn't deal on its own, but a Dynaplug had me up and running within a couple minutes. Coincidentally on my morning commute to the office on my gravel bike the other day I had my first ever puncture that wouldn't seal on that bike. Sealant was all dried out because I was negligent in topping it off. Spare tube got me to the office with no issue. Tubeless is more work to set up, but overall much more convenient in my opinion.
on the other hand, I havent had a puncture on any of my bikes (which all use tubes) in the last 9 years or so, except for one time when I drove over a glass bottle in the dark and it shredded my tire.
As a cyclist who is severely allergic to latex I have a big fear of being sprayed with latex sealant in the way you describe. It is possible this could cause an anaphylactic reaction, especially if it goes in my mouth. There are latex free options and I had hoped they would become the industry standard.
That's a very fair comment, and totally understandable. It wasn't even on my Radar, I didn't know that there was such a thing as Latex allergy. Have you bene in contact with anyone from the industry regarding this? How common is the allergy?
@@CycletheNation I haven't spoken to anyone in the industry. I believe the allergy is quite widespread as a low level skin irritation but reasonably rare as a severe allergy. Latex has been removed from most hospitals and dentists in the UK because of the issue.
@@Randomidentifier Try milKit. Latex free, and as a bonus it doesn't dry out and can be refresh simply with water. I was finding I only needed to add air every 7-10 days with Hutchinson Fusion5 tyres.
@@CycletheNationusually its quite rare allergy. About 2 % of german& austrian population have it, but in certain jobs up to 17%, because you can develop an allergy from regular contact. Thats why its recommended to avoid latex as much as possible.
Started tubed Went tubeless Back to tubes Back to tubeless Back to tubes My best experience with tubeless is with milKit, which is the second time tubeless. Latex, IMO, is a waste of time and weight as it dries out. My worst sealant was Silca ... way too thin, dried really quickly and you end up with fibres balled somewhere inside the tyre. I swapped to tubes again as I commute everyday and I don't want to be dealing with sealant if it doesn't seal (which it has and a Dynaplug was never going to seal a cut). I seem to carry more stuff for tubeless, just in case, rather than a couple of tubes and a pump. I like the idea of tubeless, but in reality it's a faff and mess I don't need to worry about.
Tried everything over the years. Settled on training tyres, Continental's Ultra Sport, with TPU from AliExpress. Over 7000 miles now since last puncture, and when it happens, easy to fix. Now for all you wannabes using paper thin race tyres, good luck with that😊
Im not a fan of tubeless on a road bike , although I do currently have on my road bike!. the feel is better than butyl tubes but TPU,s are good but don't hold air as good as butyl in my experience. The amount of faffery on road bike tubeless tyres is unreal when you have a leak. Ive had valves not seal properly or the tape not sealing properly. On my downhill bike I have tubeless and smash into rock gardens ,off drops with no issues , probably the lower pressure helps. I had a puncture the other week on my road bike and I was so glad I had a tyre glide tool to unseat the tyre to put in a tube (as tubeless tyres can be a bit tight). So my set up for now is tubeless and carry 2 x TPU,s as they are compact and light.
Tubeless on a mtb sure ....but still won't use on a road bike ...sealant is so messy to change and clean, plus if bike sits for a while sealant does pool and dry inside the rim ..also presta valves get mucked up ...worth the pain using for a mtb bike for self sealing...but on good roads for a road bike it's justva pain inthe ass to use ...I may get one flat a year on the road ..so just not wirrh the mess and having to keep sealant fresh in the rim
Granted, it's a bit messy, but that's something I'd rather deal with than changing a tube when it's cold / wet / windy - and you can change the valve cores (I've needed to do that). 'But on good roads for a road bike' - that's kinda the dealbreaker for me - we don't really have any good roads. :) Thanks for your input either way, it's interesting to hear everyone's opinions
Good old fashioned Continental rubber tubes! I've had 1 flat in 11 years. I do a lot of riding on rough gravel fire roads and rough pavement country roads. Nothing about tubeless appeals to me enough to make the switch.
The following satire is for road bikes only-
Is it the sealant, maybe I need more sealant, or is it one of the 26 bacon strips plugs, or is it the rim tape or did i just burp the tire? Or my favorite, damn I can’t get the tire to seal.
But it’s so gratifying when you see the sealant plug the hole.
Thing is there wouldn’t be a cut or hole if you had a traditional tire with a high TPI rating.
The new era tires have a very low TPI and it’s how they make them so light weightAND it’s great for sales because they wear faster than traditional tires. And no when you get a puncture with a tubeless tire, you are not necessarily going to puncture with a tire and a tube in the same moment. Again traditional tires with the higher TPI deflect instead of absorb or get penetrated by a puncturing object.
And then there’s the expense of tubliss.
Continental 5000 or 4000 and fresh tubes forget about it for a long time. Zero mess, zero questioning one of six things it could be causing you a flat. Just tires and tubes no sealant no gloves no protective eyewear no white lab coat no rapid inflator needed, none of it.
One word, two syllables... latex inner tubes! 😆
I'm 100% a tubeless advocate. Been using tubeless on my road bikes the last four years. Only had one puncture on the road bikes this year that didn't deal on its own, but a Dynaplug had me up and running within a couple minutes. Coincidentally on my morning commute to the office on my gravel bike the other day I had my first ever puncture that wouldn't seal on that bike. Sealant was all dried out because I was negligent in topping it off. Spare tube got me to the office with no issue. Tubeless is more work to set up, but overall much more convenient in my opinion.
on the other hand, I havent had a puncture on any of my bikes (which all use tubes) in the last 9 years or so, except for one time when I drove over a glass bottle in the dark and it shredded my tire.
4000 miles on tubeless this year with 60/40 road to gravel. Only one puncture and it was instantly sealed by my silca sealant. Tubes are antiquated.
Reason I put tubes in my tyres is that they otherwise would not hold air.
🤣
As a cyclist who is severely allergic to latex I have a big fear of being sprayed with latex sealant in the way you describe. It is possible this could cause an anaphylactic reaction, especially if it goes in my mouth. There are latex free options and I had hoped they would become the industry standard.
That's a very fair comment, and totally understandable. It wasn't even on my Radar, I didn't know that there was such a thing as Latex allergy. Have you bene in contact with anyone from the industry regarding this? How common is the allergy?
@@CycletheNation I haven't spoken to anyone in the industry. I believe the allergy is quite widespread as a low level skin irritation but reasonably rare as a severe allergy. Latex has been removed from most hospitals and dentists in the UK because of the issue.
@@Randomidentifier OK, noted.
I'll see if I can get some information on it, thanks for replying
@@Randomidentifier Try milKit. Latex free, and as a bonus it doesn't dry out and can be refresh simply with water. I was finding I only needed to add air every 7-10 days with Hutchinson Fusion5 tyres.
@@CycletheNationusually its quite rare allergy. About 2 % of german& austrian population have it, but in certain jobs up to 17%, because you can develop an allergy from regular contact. Thats why its recommended to avoid latex as much as possible.
Started tubed
Went tubeless
Back to tubes
Back to tubeless
Back to tubes
My best experience with tubeless is with milKit, which is the second time tubeless. Latex, IMO, is a waste of time and weight as it dries out. My worst sealant was Silca ... way too thin, dried really quickly and you end up with fibres balled somewhere inside the tyre.
I swapped to tubes again as I commute everyday and I don't want to be dealing with sealant if it doesn't seal (which it has and a Dynaplug was never going to seal a cut). I seem to carry more stuff for tubeless, just in case, rather than a couple of tubes and a pump.
I like the idea of tubeless, but in reality it's a faff and mess I don't need to worry about.
@@phil_d fair enough!
I'm back to tubes 🤕
Tried everything over the years. Settled on training tyres, Continental's Ultra Sport, with TPU from AliExpress. Over 7000 miles now since last puncture, and when it happens, easy to fix. Now for all you wannabes using paper thin race tyres, good luck with that😊
Im not a fan of tubeless on a road bike , although I do currently have on my road bike!. the feel is better than butyl tubes but TPU,s are good but don't hold air as good as butyl in my experience. The amount of faffery on road bike tubeless tyres is unreal when you have a leak. Ive had valves not seal properly or the tape not sealing properly. On my downhill bike I have tubeless and smash into rock gardens ,off drops with no issues , probably the lower pressure helps. I had a puncture the other week on my road bike and I was so glad I had a tyre glide tool to unseat the tyre to put in a tube (as tubeless tyres can be a bit tight). So my set up for now is tubeless and carry 2 x TPU,s as they are compact and light.
Tubeless on a mtb sure ....but still won't use on a road bike ...sealant is so messy to change and clean, plus if bike sits for a while sealant does pool and dry inside the rim ..also presta valves get mucked up ...worth the pain using for a mtb bike for self sealing...but on good roads for a road bike it's justva pain inthe ass to use ...I may get one flat a year on the road ..so just not wirrh the mess and having to keep sealant fresh in the rim
Granted, it's a bit messy, but that's something I'd rather deal with than changing a tube when it's cold / wet / windy - and you can change the valve cores (I've needed to do that). 'But on good roads for a road bike' - that's kinda the dealbreaker for me - we don't really have any good roads. :) Thanks for your input either way, it's interesting to hear everyone's opinions
Love tpu