Re: tubes vs tubeless? you decide.

zen cycle <funkmasterxx@hotmail.com> wrote:

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).
 

The MTB I have absolutely can sit around for weeks occasionally months if
life gets the better of me, it does require transportation somewhere!

And I like that I can fix tubes, comfortable within my skill and knowledge
levels considering how remote and out of range of phone signal ie do need
to be fairly self sufficient!

I don’t like the squirm of lower pressures I’m heavy so do run higher
pressures to stop tyre squirm or rolling, which admittedly is more bike
park stuff ie high G berms and so on.

And playing with tyre pressure calculators seems validate where I’ve got to
by feel ie just below 30psi

Roger Merriman