trail wrote:
gregk wrote:
Thanks for the comment. I think there's an important clarification to make, whether you support tubeless or traditional clincher tires. I have seen both sides make the argument of "I'm running X setup, and haven't had a flat in _____ time period, therefore my setup is good." While this certainly isn't a worthless data point, I hesitate to put too much emphasis on it. The reason is that the biggest driver of puncture resistance is the thickness/material/construction of the tire tread, casing, and any puncture resistant layers - not whether the tire has a tube or not. Tube pinch flats are another story, but they virtually disappear with proper inflation pressure and tire size.
I respectfully disagree with both of your assertions.
First, pinch flats risk reduces with tubeless full stop. Yes, I can reduce it with tubes by jacking up the pressure and then calling it "proper pressure" when I stop pinch flatting. That's not how I like to determine "proper pressure." "Proper pressure," to me, is the the pressure that gives the best combination of comfort and rolling resistance.
Second, I disagree with your definition of a flat as a puncture. A primary benefit of tubeless is that you can puncture and *not flat*. I measure "flats" by the number of times I have to stop at the side of the road. Not by the number of times something penetrates my tire.
So I think you're discounting the benefits of tubeless on both counts.
Fair enough. I guess I've never found that my "proper pressure" requires a psi low enough that I'm regularly striking rims on the pavement. I do admittedly run a bit higher pressure on carbon clinchers in some cases purely due to the safety concern of striking the rim hard (especially on rocks... at more than one recent gravel bike product launch ridden on MTB trails). I've tried a wide variety of tire sizes and pressures, just to be clear. The only bike that I really find works best when I'm hitting the rim a lot is the fat bike, which I no longer own. And I don't want to stray from our topic at hand of road tubeless.
Yes, there is a difference between a flat and a puncture. I do think that the more important figure to track for tubeless is punctures that seal before the tire becomes completely flat.