Going tubeless on the MTB

[tuffer]

Hit a big piece of flint last weekend and split a tyre so decided to take the opportunity to go tubeless. Purchased a new Schwalbe Racing Ralph (and a Garmin edge 800 on the spur of the moment, I hate it when they place tempting goods close to the till) as well as a Stan's no tube kit. Fitting it yesterday was a complete bd, snapped 3 tyre levers and could not get it to seal. I had removed the original rim tape as I thought the supplied one was not sitting correctly, anyway once putting it all back in it worked first time and all was good.
Went out for a ride last night and I swear the bike felt lighter and quicker to accelerate, only done the rear wheel so far but impressed with the results if not the ease of fitment. My only concern is if I get another large tear in the tyre and have to fit a tube whilst on in the sticks, going to be a right mess.

[P-Jay]

Now, if your thread was more in the 'should I' vein, I would have said no - it's a massive pain the in arse for a largely psychosomatic performance advantage and should be filed away with single-speeds, fixies and rigid MTBs as something to keep bike geeks busy whilst the rest of us enjoying actual riding.

But as you've already done it, I'll keep my opinions entirely to myself.

[tuffer]

Yeah, I reckon it will be a fad that will last until the next big puncture and then it will be consigned to the "Meh" bin.

[planetsurfer]

Worth the effort for big tyres and downhilling/freeride.
Not worth the effort for cross country.

[anonymous-user]

With UST rims, so it's just "stick on tyre, pump up" then yup, i'd go tubeless (and i have) but on my other bike with normal wheels, no, can't be bothered with all the faff'ing around....... ;-)

[bumrar]

I went tubeless recently when I was going for some new wheels anyway, so went for stans flow ZTR tubeless rims. Can honestly say I didn't find fitting them too much hassle, and Im pretty sure I did notice a slight improvement in 'performance', but that could be down to swapping from panaracer fire XC pro's to schwalbe nobby nic evo tyres. Not had any punctures yet and Ive been running lower pressures than when using tubes

Ste

[P-Jay]

Max_Torque said:

With UST rims, so it's just "stick on tyre, pump up" then yup, i'd go tubeless (and i have) but on my other bike with normal wheels, no, can't be bothered with all the faff'ing around....... ;-)

If only it was that easy...

I've got some Fulcrum Red Zone wheels, and some LUST highrollers, not a million pound set-up, but not budget stuff ether.

Changing tyres is a nightmare, not impossible, not exactly difficult once you've got the knack, but very time consuming and I wouldn’t fancy it on a wet hillside in a howling wind.

Tyres cost twice as much and you don't get the same choice - fancy a soft compound Maxxis for the front? Nope, don't exist.

They leak all the time, even when the bead is perfect and the carcass as virginal as Mary.

If you do deform the tyre as much as to cause a pinch flat on a normal set-up (the ONLY listed advantage of a tubeless set-up) they'll often 'burp' at the bead and you'll lose air - trying to diagnose the 'leak' afterwards is an exorcise in utter frustration.

The tyres still get punctures, but you've got to repair the tyre, rather than the tube, but it's twice the work.

I've complained about it before on other MTB forums and the advice from the tubeless faithful is always the same - add some sealant - if you're going to do that, what's the point of a UST set-up? Plus sealant is the very reason I didn't want tubeless in the first place, because it even more of a faf, when all I want to do is ride my bloody bike.

Plus, and this applies to UST and 'Ghetto' set-ups, forget about weight saving - it's a myth. You're just replacing a rubber tube, which is a very efficient way to hold air, with ether rubber solution, or thicker tyres and rims. It might be a little lighter, but it equally might be a little heavier, but the difference will be tiny - I understand the difference between rotational mass and bike weight, but still - completely ineffectual to all but the very honed pro. Ask yourself this - have you ever, in your entire life every heard of a mountain biker commenting that their bike spins up fast because their tyres are almost worn out?.... I would bet the weight difference between a worn tyre, and a fresh one is much greater than the real difference between a tubed set-up and a tubless one.

/RANT

[planetsurfer]

Have to say, I don't use sealant and I haven't had any leakage.
I'm running Maxxis Minion 2.5s and Maxis Advantage 2.4s on Mavic DMAX UST and Crossmax UST wheels.
I've been running the 2.4s for about two years and haven't
inflated the tyres since downhilling in France last August.

[.Adam.]

Been tubeless on a bike for a couple of years now, got Stans 355 rims, and apart from the struggle to get the tyre on they've been great. Only had one puncture in that time, and that was only because the bike had been sitting all winter and I hadn't topped up the sealant!

P-Jay said:

The tyres still get punctures, but you've got to repair the tyre, rather than the tube, but it's twice the work.

I've complained about it before on other MTB forums and the advice from the tubeless faithful is always the same - add some sealant - if you're going to do that, what's the point of a UST set-up? Plus sealant is the very reason I didn't want tubeless in the first place, because it even more of a faf, when all I want to do is ride my bloody bike.

Must admit, I can't quite see the point of UST without sealant, unless you are doing it purely for the extra performance. The reason I went tubeless was just to eliminate punctures. I've pulled out many a thorn that would have caused a puncture if I didn't have sealant in the tyre.