Re: tubes vs tubeless? you decide.

On Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:04:35 -0600, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 2/16/2025 2:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 2/16/2025 12:51 PM, Mark J cleary wrote:

On 2/16/2025 9:54 AM, AMuzi wrote:

On 2/16/2025 4:57 AM, zen cycle 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.

>
+1
>
It's an immature technology (relying on what a former RBT
contributor called "frog snot") but it has its place. 
That place is observed trials, with ridiculously fat
tires under ridiculously close to zero pressure with a
lot of irregular bashing and twisting.  Tubes pinch and
shift in that environment.  The more your riding mimics
that, the more tubeless works for you.
>

>
I agree with guy completely. In fact I am not a retro
grouch at all but some things on bikes have not proven to
be all that much better. Tubeless tires for one. I rarely
have flats and I don't deal with sealant and setting up
tires. I can swap out a tire and tube in a hurry and if I
flat a new tube on the road to get back. My tubes have
multiple patches and last for years. My road bike riding
is all on pavement. I am not going around gravel and bad
surfaces unless I am forced by mistake.
>
Along with this I will mention another item that at least
for me has limited benefit. I don't like cables buried in
the tubes. THE standard exposed cables are quire easy to
change out and until they manage making buried cables as
easy as exposed I rather opt out.
>
My next list is the infamous press fit BB. I have BSA
threaded and even some manufactures have come back to this
standard. Much more reliable and almost no maintenance
ever needed. Buy a new BB and go forward.
>
I will say the disk brakes are better and while rim brakes
work fine disk allow better stopping in rain and when in
mountains and such. They also allow bigger tires and less
concern for wheel setup.
>
OK I am done but never a tubeless for me

 
Agreed. It seems that fashion often transforms "better under
this very limited circumstance" to "You gotta have this!!!"
 
Really, most "modern" examples of bicycling fashion are
chasing diminishing performance benefits. Any decent quality
bicycle is an amazingly efficient machine. Aero cables,
fancy bottom brackets, tubeless tires give practically
unmeasurable performance benefits.
 
And I suspect a fair number of tubeless setups are bought by
people who never learned to fix a flat.
 
But I'm an admitted retrogrouch.
 

>
For road bikes that probably explains a lot of adopters, but
there are purposes for which tubeless (even in this current
primitive state) solves real problems.

I go back to an era of tubes in vehicle tires..  also on tractors,
grain and hay wagons, and other farm machinery. That's where I learned
how to patch tire tubes. When my parents bought a new car in 1958, we
had to learn how to patch (plug) a tubeless tire. Our little
compressor didn't have enough volume to seat the tubless tires unless
we wrapped a comalong (sp?) around it

--
C'est bon
Soloman