Sidewall cut this weekend. Sealant is useless, but the cut isn’t that big.
Should be no problem to fix with a bank note, a tube and some air right? At least it will get me home to replace the tire.
Valve out, tube in, bank note in place.
After 25min and covered in sealant, I cannot get the tire back on the rim, even with tire levers.
My wife was not amused at having to pick me up.
I’m going to give road tubeless another shot, but if this happens again, I’m back to latex tubes and non-tubeless tires.
I ordered a 5000 TL as a replacement, but my buddy says the 5000’s can be a bitch to mount as well as he has the same wheelset.
I mean, it could be the wheelset, but I think generally trying to get a blown tubeless tire that is covered in slick sealant on a roadside might just be impossible with almost any road tire/rim combo.
My CX/gravel tires seem to have a bit more leeway and I’m not as worried about having to fix one of those road side.
I love tubeless on the mtb, but have no plans to do it on the road bike. A few folks on our team have tried it and my observation is that it can really suck at times (at least if you ride with others). Does it seal some stuff that would cause a flat with traditional tube? Yes. Does it spray sealant all over you, your bike, and others riding behind you at times? Absolutely. The worst part is when it sort of seals, the group starts up again, then starts to spray/leak again. Rinse, repeat until we’ve wasted a bunch of time and the rider finally says to go on without him because next step is trying to install a tube and he’s fed up and doesn’t want to make the group wait any longer.
Again, not saying it doesn’t have a place, but I would never run them on group rides.
Tubeless just works much better/quicker with lower pressure applications and where you don’t run as much risk of spraying your friends with sealant.
The ONLY reason to ride tubeless on road and at road pressures at this point is so you can ride a CorsaSpeed TLR or GP5000… the 2 lowest Crr tires we’ve ever seen/tested.
Now, you can get the same advantage without adding any rolling resistance while adding puncture resistance by just running either of these with latex tubes. I’ve ridden/tested both of these tires with latex tubes and TL and can attest no difference in feel or Crr, but with added puncture resistance and none of the hassle of sealant. Or you can put sealant in the latex tube and have the added benefit of the sealant having to traverse the punctured tire and tube when it escapes which does make it more likely to seal the flat.
Either way, throw some tubes in there and you will be better off. Sealant really doesn’t seem to be the solution we want it to be until you get to pressures in the <40psi sort of range and even then it’s a bit iffy at times.
The ONLY reason to ride tubeless on road and at road pressures at this point is so you can ride a CorsaSpeed TLR or GP5000… the 2 lowest Crr tires we’ve ever seen/tested.
Now, you can get the same advantage without adding any rolling resistance while adding puncture resistance by just running either of these with latex tubes. I’ve ridden/tested both of these tires with latex tubes and TL and can attest no difference in feel or Crr, but with added puncture resistance and none of the hassle of sealant. Or you can put sealant in the latex tube and have the added benefit of the sealant having to traverse the punctured tire and tube when it escapes which does make it more likely to seal the flat.
Either way, throw some tubes in there and you will be better off. Sealant really doesn’t seem to be the solution we want it to be until you get to pressures in the <40psi sort of range and even then it’s a bit iffy at times.
I’ve been running tubless for years and never had a problem. I’ve been sprayed with sealant once or twice, but I guess I prefer that instead of having to change a flat tire.
I actually run my FlOs tubless on my TT bike and I think it’s awesome. Especially for someone my size (190lbs) to be able to run lower PSI without pinch flatting. I used to flat ALL the time with tubes.
The only downside I’ve ever seen to tubeless (beyond the initial setup) is that on my race tires I have to change the sealant at the start of each season.
With regards to getting a tubeless tire back on. I think most people forget that you’re supposed to do the valve spot last when mounting. I used to struggle a bit with this and then someone told me that. Once I learned that it’s been a breeze. That being said, I’ve never had to put a road tubless tire back on on the side of the road…because I’ve never flatted.
I did find that I needed to carry a very small set of tweezers with me in my kit. Like the kind you’d take out of a swiss army knife. I’ve had a few times where a tiny rock got stuck in the tire and prevented it from sealing completely. So I use the tweezers to pull the rock out.
. I’ve ridden/tested both of these tires with latex tubes and TL and can attest no difference in feel or Crr, but with added puncture resistance and none of the hassle of sealant.
How do you measure or verify that latex tubes add puncture resistance? I understand the theory that the super-stretchy latex tube can do matrix-fu around some sharp object that penetrates the casing. It’s a nice theory. Not sure I believe it that the effect is measurable in the real world, at least without evidence.
when it escapes which does make it more likely to seal the flat.
How do you measure that sealant works better with tubes? (my anecdotal experience based on two years doing latex+sealant vs. two years doing pure tubeless is just the opposite - pure tubeless has seemed to be far superior in sealing flats). I have no idea why. But roughly I think that given a puncture, tube+sealant was effective in preventing an unrideable condition about 50% of the time, and pure tubeless about 90% of the time. Again, purely anecdotal.
I’ve been running tubless for years and never had a problem. I’ve been sprayed with sealant once or twice, but I guess I prefer that instead of having to change a flat tire.
Agree. I’m a huge tubeless fan. Never going back. The resistance to pinch flats, alone, is worth it to me (living in an area with a lot of rough roads). Everything else is gravy. Overall I’d anecdotally suggest I’ve cut down my standing-by-the-side-of-the-road-bent-over-a-rim time by about 75%.
I’ve been running tubless for years and never had a problem. I’ve been sprayed with sealant once or twice, but I guess I prefer that instead of having to change a flat tire.
Agree. I’m a huge tubeless fan. Never going back. The resistance to pinch flats, alone, is worth it to me (living in an area with a lot of rough roads). Everything else is gravy. Overall I’d anecdotally suggest I’ve cut down my standing-by-the-side-of-the-road time by about 75%.
I run 25s at 80 PSI and I don’t even notice the chip seal around my area anymore. I’ve not had a flat in years. Except for when I use my wheels with tubes.
Actually, I should say. 2 years ago I was riding my gravel bike on some logging roads. I hit a piece of obsidian that completely slashed my tire open from bead to bead. I had to put a tube in for that as well as a boot because the tire was trashed and I was somewhere cars couldn’t go.
I run 25s at 80 PSI and I don’t even notice the chip seal around my area anymore. I’ve not had a flat in years. Except for when I use my wheels with tubes.
Yeah, I tried running 80 PSI with latex tubes, and it was a pinch-flat-nado. There was one crit where I kept getting forced by the pack into the same damned pothole (which wasn’t that bad), and I went to the wheel pit 3 times before the officials had finally had enough and kicked me out of the race. That was the last time I attempted anything under 95PSI with tubes.
The ONLY reason to ride tubeless on road and at road pressures at this point is so you can ride a CorsaSpeed TLR or GP5000… the 2 lowest Crr tires we’ve ever seen/tested.
Now, you can get the same advantage without adding any rolling resistance while adding puncture resistance by just running either of these with latex tubes. I’ve ridden/tested both of these tires with latex tubes and TL and can attest no difference in feel or Crr, but with added puncture resistance and none of the hassle of sealant. Or you can put sealant in the latex tube and have the added benefit of the sealant having to traverse the punctured tire and tube when it escapes which does make it more likely to seal the flat.
Either way, throw some tubes in there and you will be better off. Sealant really doesn’t seem to be the solution we want it to be until you get to pressures in the <40psi sort of range and even then it’s a bit iffy at times.
Yep, this has been my experience as well. BUT, I did break down and purchase some 32mm 5000 TL and installed them tubeless last week against my better judgement as an experiment. They were a very difficult to mount, so I am definitely concerned about a flat in the field. I gotta say they do feel fantastic on my steel English in ‘road mode’. I’m really hoping they stretch a bit in advance of that inevitable flat…
FWIW, I think you get a little more leeway in larger tires. Besides, there is just more material to get a grip when trying to get the tire on.
My 25c Roadlites had been installed for about 2 months, and I doubt they have stretched at all. I don’t think you want bead stretching on tubeless tires.
Sidewall cuts are quite rare, and not where Tubeless provides a big advantage.
Stick with it and you will end up better for it. Your experience was based on the tire falling off the bead seat, and not that you got a sidewall cut. This aspect is largely dependent on rim and tire pairing.
Sidewall cuts are quite rare, and not where Tubeless provides a big advantage.
Stick with it and you will end up better for it. Your experience was based on the tire falling off the bead seat, and not that you got a sidewall cut. This aspect is largely dependent on rim and tire pairing.
Yeah, I have a 5000 TL in the mail. I will keep at it. I’m hoping the 5000’s are a little easier to seat.
I’m planning to do the east Maui loop in July and getting a flat I can’t fix on the remote back side of the island frightens me a bit.
Sidewall cuts are quite rare, and not where Tubeless provides a big advantage.
Stick with it and you will end up better for it. Your experience was based on the tire falling off the bead seat, and not that you got a sidewall cut. This aspect is largely dependent on rim and tire pairing.
Yeah, I have a 5000 TL in the mail. I will keep at it. I’m hoping the 5000’s are a little easier to seat.
I’m planning to do the east Maui loop in July and getting a flat I can’t fix on the remote back side of the island frightens me a bit.
I would suggest in cases like that you bring a worst case scenario kit. Which would be an extra tire.
Assuming Worst Case Scenario is that no one can come get you and without it you’ll be staying the night out there.
This reminds me of my experience with Slime mountain bike tubes. At lower pressures, they work great and you can ride years and years through all kinds of cactus and thorns no problem. But if you try to use many kinds of sealants at the high PSI of road tires, the pressure is too much for it to seal and you get sprayed and it makes a huge useless mess and you still have flat tires. I run latex tubes with sealant when I race road tris, and it’s nice to be able to just throw a tube in if you do get a flat. Road tubeless just isn’t there yet and sometimes I wonder if the pressures are too high for it to ever become reasonable.