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Well, I am currently tubeless. I have heard great things about them and some not so great things. I have had 2 flats in the last month. Both from thorns. One a fast leak and the other a painfully slow leak. I know the advantages – – lower pressure, better traction. But, after using tubes for so long, I think I am thinking about going back. One of the biggest drawbacks is the fact that even if you can repair the problem, you can’t pump up the tire again unless you have a compressor. Been there. Using the lower pressure whigs me out as it feels like the tire is wobbling left and right. Before each ride, I always seem to need to pump them up as they magically lose pressure in the garage. Wierd. It’s only been about a month and maybe I am pulling the plug too soon.
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I currently run tubes, but they’re heavy, DH tubes. And I still get thorn flats. My rims aren’t tubeless-ready, but I know how to shady-tree them to work as such. Getting rid of tubes will cut a tleast 1-2lbs off your bike weight, and that’s becoming more inportant since my Nomad weighs so much.
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I run tubes and my biggest problem has to be pinch flats. I ride a lot of rooty areas and hit them pretty hard. I used to run my pressures around 32 psi but have been forced to up it to about 36 and have not had a flat since. it does make for a rougher ride though.
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I was really skeptical about getting rid of my tubes but I got an opportunity to ride on borrowed tubeless rims for a month or so and I really like them and I’m converting my newest wheelset to tubeless using Stan’s.
I like the fact that with the tubeless you can always take out the valve stem in the field and put in a tube if necessary. I’ve been running the Stan’s fluid in the tubeless and I haven’t had any problems (300+ miles on this setup so far). I’ve heard that if you’re running Stan’s fluid you’ll want the valve stems that you can easily remove the valve to clean it out and refill it.
I agree with the weight savings that Bomb was talking about. I run 2.3/2.4 tires on my Kona and the correct tubes weigh a ton!
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How much does the Stan’s weigh?
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The amount you put in depends on the tire size but it’s roughly 2-4oz per tire.
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I ride a lot of rooty areas and hit them pretty hard.
You gotta float them roots…. hit the first set, unweight, and butterfly yourself across the rest, if it’s a shorter condensed rootgarden. Just pinging through a bunch of wood-snakers not only pinches tubes and overworks your suspension, but it’s hell on your wheels for keepin’ them trued.
I run pretty high pressures in my tires, but at the speeds I ride, I need to. I never pinch-flatted from hitting anything, but I’ve spun a tire on the rim at lower pressures when braking hard, and sheared off valve-stems.
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I’m getting better at unweighting the the bike on section like this. I was just hiting them wide open sitting on the saddle and the back tire was always the one getting pinched. It has helped alot.
I must have jinxed myself by getting on this thread because I got my first thorn yesterday that i have gotten since last fall and I have no patches. The closest bike shop is 40 miles away and Wal Mart’s patches suck to say the least. They are this thin clear material that has a thin layer of adheasive on it, like a sticker, and they will not stick no matter how well I clean the area. You cannot by a tube with a presta valve unless you go to the bike shop. Looks like a road trip this evening.
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Gotta throw down on this, Stan’s is the best set up, been using it for years. Only one flat when a root had a 3/8 inch nubin straight up and tore a huge hole, sealed it just enough to ride a bit, till it filled with mud. Works pretty good, I can break anything in short order
Riding is life all else is waiting
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Hoe do you get the stan’s in a presta valve?
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Uh—– the kit has a valve that unscrews, old style was pop tire, pour in
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Just a tip…..
If you get a puncture, and you’ve got no patches or spare tubes (and you’re a good ways in the backcountry); you can pull the tube out, knot it tightly on both sides of the puncture, and air it back up. It won’t be the smoothest ride, but it’ll get you back to the trailhead.
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You can also put grass in the tire, just make sure you stuff alot in, enough that the tire doesnt press down that much or at all. If there is not enough grass in your tire it will ruin your rims.
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A buddy tried the grass, stick, leaf thing, turned to powder in maybe 1/8 mile. But it was great to watch and laugh, what are buddys for Eh?
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After all that talk the other day, I ended up flatting out the tubeless even with the Stan’s inside. I tried pumping it up and continuing but the Stan’s just kept spraying out of the hole. I eventually had to cut my losses and put a tube in…Then I ended up with TWO MORE FLATS before the day was over.
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This is a bad luck thread. I cannot buy a patch kit anywhere near home that is not the sticker type that just does not hold. I have ordered five vulcanize patch kits online and ten tubes. I will not be without a bike for the whole weekend again. Now I am in Manhattan until thursday. I am Jonesin for a ride.
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I hear ya! It was those sticky patches that were the reason for the third flat of the day…They just wouldn’t stick and I ended up walking the last couple of miles because I was sick and tired of trying to fix flats for the day.
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I was out today at lunch in Manhattan and walked passed a bike shop and just had to go inside. I figured that if they had tubes for mountain bikes that I would pick one up instead of going by my office to pick the ones up that I have ordered. I hate going in to the office when I’m off. Well anyways this shop had all kinds of bike from kids bike, road bike, mountain, downhill, cheap, exspensive and they can order anything. The shop is Bicycle Habitat and it is on 244 Lafayette Street. If anyone is in town on business this is a good place to visit after work. I will be going back after work tomorrow. It helps with the jonesin, but it makes me want to spend money.
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I got in two rides yesterday without a flat. Man that was a good day. Today it is raining and here in southern Virginia that means red mud. I will not be riding today. Its supposed to clear this afternoon so maybe tomrrow evening and Monday I will be getting some more riding time. Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend.
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A lot of pinch-flatting has to do with the tire you run as well…. Tires with thinner sidewalls and tread seem to pinch-flat easier than say, my Continental Gravity tires. There’s been more than a few times when I was sure I had pinch-flatted after a particularly hard hit, only to keep rolling no worries.
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A lot of pinch-flatting has to do with the tire you run as well…. Tires with thinner sidewalls and tread seem to pinch-flat easier than say, my Continental Gravity tires. There’s been more than a few times when I was sure I had pinch-flatted after a particularly hard hit, only to keep rolling no worries.
Yeah, that’s what I thought too…I guess when it rains, it pours…BTW, it was the Conti Gravity that I had all the trouble with. A nice tire, but a rock at treeline was just too sharp and punched a hole through the bottom of the tire…Stan’s was squirting everywhere…I tried sealing it by pushing a bunch of dirt on the hole to help it congeal but it didn’t work…So I opted to throw in the tube but I guess it just wasn’t my day and all the jeep roads around Montezuma, CO were a bit too rocky. I ended up with the pinch flat I’m guessing because I didn’t have the pressure up high enough to begin with…Then it was those sticky patches failing…and I finally conceded defeat after 40+miles above 10k feet (the first flat happened at about mile 15). I ended up walking my bike back through Keystone because I was so tired of taking that Conti on and off the rim.
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I have tried the sticky patches from bell and slime and they do not work. Period.
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I gotta apologize for being a jinx by starting this thread with talk about tube or tubeless and flat tires and the such. I was out this Sunday riding with someone who was on tubeless. When all of a sudden his front tire blew off his rim with such a thundering boom that if you were yards away you would think it was a gunshot! He proceeded to slap a tube in and we were on our way again. Stan’s can only do so much. Again, sorry everyone. 😕 [quote][/quote]
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I`m usually the first to jump on the "new" bandwagon (one of the first in my neck of the woods with full suspension i.e. 1995 Proflex 855) but I have yet to change over to tubeless. I don`t know if it is the several people I`ve seen walking back to the trailhead pushing their bike, or if I`m suddenly becoming a Luddite. I guess I need to ride a bike equipped with tubeless first before making a decision.
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the only major thing that’s keeping me from going tubeless right now is the fact that I ride my bike whenever and whereever I can, which equates to a LOT of pavement pounding, and from what I’ve seen the tire choices for tubeless aren’t that well suited to pavement riding. if I had the $$$ for another set of wheels I’d get tubeless rims, get them built to pretty much the same spec as the current rims, and get tubeless tires then put more street-friendly tires on my current wheelset (holy rollers anyone?) and use them for commuting and general pavement pounding. of course, if holy rollers can be had in a tubeless-friendly variety, I know I’d switch
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Still on the tubes, and probably always will be, nothing doing bout going to the less side, as fascinated by the tubeless and those who use them, it just seems like an odd idea to me, but that’s just my opinion.
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"aabiking" wrote
Hoe do you get the stan’s in a presta valve?
Typically you dont. Unless the valve has a removable core. To go tubeless you put in presta valve stems with a removable core. In case of a flat during a ride you can easily convert back to riding a tube until you can get back and fix your tires.
That being said, the only time I’ve ever flatted with Stan’s is when I KNEW it had been over 6 months and needed to re-apply the Stans but got lazy. Otherwise I have had quite literally a dozen goatheads sticking out of my tire and it held true every time.
I don’t care about weight savings – if I did I wouldn’t have had that donut this morning!. I don’t care about riding lower tire pressures for traction. I care about not having to stop and replace tubes mid-ride. Period.
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"Asfyxiate" wrote
Still on the tubes, and probably always will be, nothing doing bout going to the less side, as fascinated by the tubeless and those who use them, it just seems like an odd idea to me, but that’s just my opinion.
Odd? Not getting flats is odd? OK.
I love hearing stories about how people had to push/carry bikes back to the TH because the flatted with a tubeless set-up. Just because people ride ill-equipped doesn’t make the technology limited. I’m guessing these people don’t carry extra tubes no matter what.
BTW – You can apply Stans into presta valve tubes, fairly easily. I did this to my wife’s bike and she stopped flatting (she would get a flat EVERY time she went out – no kidding). When you take the valve head(?) off just make sure you hold on to the small pin, apply the Stan’s and put the head back on. Schrader valves are even easier.
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Easy there chunder, some people are only comfortable with the familiar. Nothing wrong with that.
I have tubeless ready rims but I still run tubes. If WTB would make their tires tubeless ready I would be all about trying it. I’ve only had one flat tube and that wasn’t on the trail. No, I don’t cary spare tubes and a pump with me. Just more crap to have to carry around. But then again, I am never more than 2 miles from my vehicle. I can bike all day long, walking a few miles is cake
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"Code_Rage" wrote
But then again, I am never more than 2 miles from my vehicle. I can bike all day long, walking a few miles is cake
😮 Sorry.
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"Beaker" wrote
😮 Sorry.
No worries man.
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In my opinion, tubes are as outdated as rim brakes. If you like pinch flats, heavier weight, and less traction; use tubes!!
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Personally I prefer tubless wheel sets as well as tubeless tires. For one thing they usually are constructed better (rim and tires). Also I find that if I do get a flat with tubeless the Stan’s that i have in my wheels will seal up the leaks and if that doesn’t work i always have one spare flyweight tube as back up on those long rides.
I use Mavic Crossmax wheels which are tubeless construction, straight pull spokes, very light and don’t need rim tape gotta love it. One thing that i never enjoyed doing was replacing rim tape and dealing with flat tubes.
Mavic have a a few rims on the market that are tubeless as well (XM819/ EX823), for those who prefer to choose their hubs..There are a few others that have tubeless systems out there as well such as Shimano, DT, Bontrager and Stan’s of course.
Cheers
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I have tried both, tubeless wheels blow away tubed any day of the week, I understand the resistance to change but completely agree with what that one guy said: tubed tires are like v-brakes and tubeless tires are hydro. disc. They are lighter, roll truer, can run lower pressures 25-30 psi and fix small punctures and if all else fails you can all ways throw a tube in there.
My wheels: Bontrager Pro Rhythm with Hutchinson Light Pythons…If you ever tried this combination of Wheels and Tires you would forget that tubed wheels ever exsisted
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