Ok , in kona town now for the IMWC
67 year old femal hoping to take the top step
Have tried to tike all avenues in marginal gains etc , aero tests , fast Sox’s, helmets etc (re heat )
Have been in two minds about going tubeless , seems like a no brainer , but only thing putting me off is , if I do get a puncture , it does seem to be a major failure
Not sure I can get the tubeless tyre off , and a,so the tubes vale stem out to put in a new tube
Happy for all positive and negative opinions
Currently running gp 5000 with TPU tubes
I presume if I go tubeless it will be gp5000 TT I suppose
Go with GP5000TT with TPU tubes. According to Aero Coach tests rolling resistance is the same as a tubeless. This was my setup for last 3 seasons and it worked perfectly.
Stay with tubes - only so it doesn’t ruin your race day. Get some decent TPU tubes and high performance clinchers.
Yes tubeless is better in theory, rolls better (mostly), rides softer and for minor cuts and things you won’t see them if they happen.
But… get a cut or hole that doesn’t seal, you will be in a whole world of pain, trying to remove the tyre (with TLR tyre being harder to remove / fit than clinchers) getting covered in sealant, removing the valve and then trying to refit the tight tyre over the top of a tube, all from the roadside… grr. Game over.
When I swapped back to tubes and replaced the TLR tyres with non TLR tyres (same model / brand) - it was a revelation how easy I could whip on / off tyres.
Don’t get me wrong, love the idea of tubeless - but we don’t get a neutral bike to hand us a spare wheel…
On top of that, if you have race wheels, you will have to keep on top of maintaining them, rotating them, not letting them sit too long etc.
I have gone tubeless on both of my tri bikes and have no intention of ever going back. But there’s one key reason why. Where I live and train I am highly susceptible to punctures from goat heads and mesquite thorns. I have tried various tires and tubes prior but hardly anything made for a bike can withstand a mesquite thorn. Even with tubeless, I get punctures. The difference is that the sealant allows me to get home. Many times I don’t even know I have a puncture until I eventually pull the tire off and find remnants of thorns or steel belted tire or other shrapnel embedded in the tire. So that’s the primary reason why I run tubeless. They can be more difficult to maintain at each maintenance interval when compared to a tubed tire. But they’re far more easy to maintain if frequent punctures are a concern.
As for a puncture during a race, I have yet to have one (knock on wood) whether with tubes or tubeless. But even with my tubeless set up, I always carry a spare tube just in case. In the event that I did have a puncture that the sealant couldn’t stop, breaking the bead and dropping in a tube would take about the same amount of time as swapping a tube on a tube-only tire.
Ditto above. If you have a good tubed setup, there is not a huge upside for all the PITA to converting to tubeless.
I went tubeless on my road bike simply because it came to me that way. I will probably go tubeless on my tri bike when I get a new one, because it will probably come that way to me. But I would not convert a perfectly good tubed setup.
Clincher + TPU or Conti Supersonic is nearly as fast as tubeless, and if I flat I can change a tube in 3–5 minutes (even taking my time) and be rolling again. With tubeless, if the hole doesn’t seal, you’re risking a catastrophic failure. Why gamble your whole race for a few seconds of advantage? But that’s just me.
If the identical tire, Tubeless vs Latex would be uber marginal
I have never tested TPU, but from what I understand TPU are not all equal, some can be close to Latex, others close to Butyl, But this is what I have heard from guys like Josh Portner
Now a GP5000 we used 2 or 3 years ago with tubes are much slower than a 5000TT for example. Much slower. I “think” this is the tire the OP is running ?
@marcag
It’s not a watts issue, it’s the lower chance of a flat tyre
But once your out of Kona town the chances are very slim as u can ride on the highway not the filthy shoulder like we are riding at the moment
But the first 5 k or so on race day is pretty risky
Yeah
Sorry I should have been more , specific in OP
Just talked of MG to set the post up as we are trying to cover all bases
So tubeless seemed to be the next step
It it would be less chance of flats the extra pace would be a bonus
But not sure I want to risk not being able to fix it if I do flat on race day
What if…
You buy a 5000TT, you have her try to mount it on a spare wheel. If she is able to mount it, consider it. If not, don’t bother.
If she is able to mount it, consider running in tubeless or even with latex.
There is a significant rolling resistance difference between those two tires.
Marc ~ as always thanks for your insight. Just to make sure all the information between various threads is being amalgamated properly in my brain, is your basic recommendation GP 5000TT tubeless (28) for Ironman racing? I have new Wheels arriving and that was what I was leaning toward. Your confirmation would be nice
Many teams at the World Tour level are now using them for road racing. Many of the pros at IM Champs use them.
They have great Rolling resistance.
I benchmarked them against the Vittoria which is more fragile and they were as fast on the road. Sometimes roller tests or Velodromes numbers can vary.
They are more fragile than the 5000S but they are not a fragile tire. I use them every day
Some complain they are harder to mount. I have no trouble using a tire lever. But I have never tried mounting them with a tube.
There is something less kosher about using them in a hookless setup. I am trying to understand that but don’t have clear answers. But on a hooked wheel, this is what I would go with.
Sure, tubeless works fine at the WorldTour or pro Ironman level, but that’s apples to oranges. In the pro peloton, a flat means a bike change in 20 seconds. At Kona or Nice, a pro has a mechanic and spares on course.
For age-groupers, it’s a completely different game. If the sealant doesn’t plug the hole, you’re sitting on the side of the road with a tire that’s a nightmare to boot and tube. There’s no team car, neutral support is a gamble; you might be on your own. That makes a catastrophic failure a race-ender, not just a 20-second inconvenience.
