Cajer wrote:
I guess I'm one of those people that still prefer latex tubes over tubeless. I haven't had a flat in ~2 years and I also ride on smooth pavement so there's also no reason to go wide/super low pressures. To me dealing with sealant and additional difficulty mounting tires is just additional faff. Like with almost all technologies, there are regimes where they operate best. If you're looking at doing gravel/all-road/ride on shitty roads, I have no doubt that tubeless makes sense and there are no downsides to hookless rims. However I am much more skeptical of it for racing/riding on good roads.
My issue with the tubeless/hookless/super wide rim marketing material is they advertise it as a benefit for all conditions and don't state the test conditions (while only testing in the most favorable conditions), when it is no improvement or a regression for some use cases. I marketing is marketing, but it still drives me crazy as most people listen to marketing/allot of articles aren't fully informed about the topics involved (not yours).
Either way I am super interested to hear about the bio-physiological effects of vibration on performance in normal/good not poor road conditions, even if I have a hunch it's going to be small or insignificant.
i, like you, have gone 2 years without a flat with tubes. but then the flats all come one atop the other, bam bam. at least, that's my experience. feast or famine.
here's my biggest remaining hurdle with all these new wheels and tires. every now and then you find a combo that just won't bead up. hooked or hookless. that's the problem with wider rims. but it's mostly limited to 25mm tires. if you're trying to put a 25mm tire on a 23mm or 23mm inner bead width rim - hooked or hookless - you may find it hard to get enough of the tire over the rim well. this is why i pointed out that sometimes a good option is a tire that's made by the wheel company. of course, it's got to be a good tire. but the wheel makers aren't going to produce a tire that can't easily, reliably mount on a wheel. in general if it's a 28mm tire or larger you're home free.
but as to this "difficulty about mounting tires," the difficulty is limited to this. i never really got behind road tubeless until the 2019 ETRTO manual was published, and the first tires came out that conformed to that spec. then the wheels started coming out. we're about to see the 2022 manual drop. over these 3 or 4 years a new generation of wheel and tire mean you don't have these fitment issues. almost every tire mounts hands-only, hooked or hookless. have the ETRTO step in to referee made all the difference.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman