Re: tubes vs tubeless? you decide.

On 2/16/2025 6:33 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

zen cycle <funkmasterxx@hotmail.com> wrote:

An article on Cycling News
>
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/i-use-inner-tubes-on-all-my-road-bikes-heres-why-i-still-havent-embraced-tubeless/
>
It's a long read, and not very well written (imho), but I generally
agree with the points he makes.
>

It’s certainly true that sealant struggles as the pressures rise, and even
with wide road tyres ie 32mm your talking 60/80psi which will reduce the
size of the cut that sealant can seal or mean that it will not seal until
it’s dropped low enough.
 Which can happen with gravel tyres as well though rarely mostly I’m just
not aware of it! More that I notice a wee blue scab when cleaning the bike
post ride!
 The advantages are clearly much less for road, this said a remarkably
number of people can’t cope with punctures ie removing a tyre and putting a
new tube in, even my reduced capacity for home maintenance can cope with
that!
 And so the advantages I think will be more individual for some a puncture
is ride ending event anyway so tubeless reduces that at the extra cost of
getting it topped up every 6 months or so.
 I’m unconvinced by the tyres are going to blow off the rim argument that
I’d chalk to him being a bit conservative roadie!
 This said I’m not convinced that tubeless is a need for all folks, I only
run it on the gravel bike, the commute bikes have tubes as does the MTB,
which is mainly that the maintenance costs/effort doesn’t for me warrant
it.
 Roger Merriman
 

I had a conversation with a bike shop owner just last week on the subject. I was renting an MTB for our stay in St. Croix, and he made sure I was aware the the bike had tubes. We had a conversation over the benefits of tubeless off road, and both agreed that unless you ride off road at least several times a week, trying to maintain a tubeless setup isn't really worth the effort. I have tubeless wheels/tires on my MTBs but switched back to tubes because the sealant won't do it's job well when the bike sits for two weeks at a time (I spend the vast majority of time on the road).