What road tubeless Tires ?

New to road tubeless.. but familiar with MTB tubeless.

What tubeless tire shall I get for my Spesh Roubaix bike with Shimano Ultegra tubeless WH-6700 wheels ?
Looking at the Hutchinson intensive 2.5... Longevity should be better than the Fusion 3, but albeit a bit heavier.
Is $130.00 per pair a good price ? (eBay)
Also, what Tubeless valves ? Stan's or other brand ?

Is it possible/safe or even makes sense to convert a regular tire into tubeless ?
I have the Specialized Roubaix Pro 23/25 tires.
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/road-tires/endurance-road-tires/roubaix-road-tubeless

 

First off do not convert a non-road tubeless to tubeless! With the super high pressue used you're asking for trouble.

Any of the Hutchinson's are good. They are a bit undersized. eBay is great source to get them reasonably priced.

The Shimano wheels should come with valve stems. I'd stick with those since the rim/valve hole is offset.

 

Thanks for the detailed answer.
So what tire would you recommend for weekend rides and a monthly Century ?
the intensive or the Fusion 3 ???
I weigh 178 lbs

 

I have no clue about which tires to get, but could you give a follow up once you lay down a few hundred miles with them? I'm interested in getting some tubeless wheels for the road bike.

 

Hutchison Atom is a nice tire, I've been on them for about a year now. This is something that turned up recently though:


I don't know if the picture is there, but the tire is splitting down the center. When I asked the Hutchison guy at Interbike he told me not to use Stan's, but use their sealant. So I'm due for a new set of tubeless, just not sure what I'm going to invest in yet.

BTW, This is happening to both tires.

 

Will do.
My understanding is that Hutchinson is almost only game in town.
Didn't read great review on the Maxis.
Schwalbe ZX Ultremo Tubeless should be available sometimes before the end of the year.

The Atom is light weight for Racing, the Intensive has good life-span and puncture resistance, better grip on wet tarmac and the only one that comes at 25 mm profile (actual 23.5 ???) but a bit heaver while the Fusion 3 is kind of in between...
So I am undecided between the Fusion and the intensive.

http://www.hutchinsontires.com/en/catalogue-route.php?fiche=intensive-rtl.php&univers=4&pid=10
http://www.hutchinsontires.com/en/catalogue-route.php?fiche=fusion3-rtl.php&univers=4&pid=116
http://www.hutchinsontires.com/en/catalogue-route.php?fiche=atom-comp.php&univers=4&pid=115

 

I've been using the Fusion 3s for the past year and have been very happy with them. Reasonably light weight, reasonably durable, great cornering traction and very comfortable. I haven't used the Intensives so can't provide a direct comparison. I would be interested in a true 25mm tubeless (the Fusion 3s are narrow for a 23 mm tire and your post suggests that the Intensives are somewhat undersized for a 25mm tire.)

The one problem with using Shimano tubeless valve stems is that the valve cores aren't removable. That means when your sealant dries out, you can't add more sealant through the valve stem, but instead must remove a section of the tire from the bead. That might not seem like a big deal -- and it isn't with mountain tubeless -- but it is a major PITA with road tubeless. I've heard that some of the Stans tubeless valve stems will work with Shimano road tubeless rims, but don't actually know if that is true.

 

How many miles and months do you have on those tires?

 

I'd say 3000+ miles in 10/11 months. The tire and Wheelset (Shamano Dura-Ace) roll great, this is something that I noticed a couple months ago, but I'm still riding on them...cause I'm stupid. New tires for myself for Christmas!!!

 

Thanks for the tips.
I will do some additional research, but a removable valve core is a must.
Here is a link to a relevant discussion
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/wh...s-shimano-wh-7850-c24-tl-tubeless-253906.html

I am also inclined to go with the intensive. maybe a bit heavier but long lasting and a bit wider.

 

Quick Update:

The new WH-6700 Ultegra tubeless wheels arrived today.
Looks great and non-blingy...
No need for rim strip as the spokes don't go through the outer rim surface.
Weight as advertised about 1650 grams w/o cassette.
Probably 300 gr more than I could do with Stan's Alpha 340, but still better than my 1800 plus gr current wheel-set (Crappy DT-swiss Axis 3.0)
I replaced the valves with Caffe Latex valves (those has removable core unlike the Shimano ones) - thanks for Beachcruiser's tip.
Waiting now for the Hutchinson Intensive 25 tubeless to arrive - probably sometimes next week.

 

I've ran Intensive and Fusion for a couple years now, and found the Intensives to be more durable. That's all I run now. I run Stans and have seen the splitting, so I'd run Hutchinson's fluid. I'm 175lbs and I run 85psi fr and 90psi rear, and the ride is so much nicer. The lower psi should also make them less susceptible to cuts.

IRC has just entered the game with a couple road tubeless tires.

Take care,

Matt

 

Thx Matt, so are you saying that the splitting is definitely because of the Stan's sealant ?

 

I’ve been tubeless for over 2 year and have only had 2 flats that no tire would have survived. I just received a new set of WH-6700s. I tried Kool-stop brake pads and they really worked great for stopping but also wore down my rims. The rain up here in Seattle accelerated the wear. I’ve been using Fusion 3 the whole time with Stans. But I use one half little red cup just to stop the leaking that comes from the poorly sealed sidewalls (Hutchinson needs to do a better job sealing these things). Afterwards I forget about it until the tires are worn out. I weigh 215 and run 105 in front and 110 rear and they seem very comfy.

 

Got the tires (Hutch intensive 25) and the Hutch Sealant today.
Spent a couple of hours mounting it.
Front wheel was a breeze and it worked at first try.
I struggled with the Rear wheel mainly due to air leaking from the valve (it is off-center and there is an asymmetric spacer to compensate - from some reason it leaked from there)
I was able to mount it with my floor pump - no problem. Removing the core makes it east to sit the bids.
Once I saw the the wheels are holding air, I added 1 oz of Hutch sealant through the valve (removed the core) using a Stan's syringe.. easy ...
Shake it all around and Inflated to 110 psi and will see in the morning how it holds.
Fully installed (WH-6700 wheel-set, tires, sealant) I shaved about 150 gr from the bike weight.

Looks like recommended PSI for my weight (178 lbs) is 101-109 psi. Isn't that on the high side ?

 

That might be a little high but it's best to mess around with pressure until you find what's best for you. I found 105 front and 110 rear was best for me (215lbs). I noticed the difference in handling mostly when riding the very fast and windy Mercer Island that I like to ride around up here.

 

atoms

i've been running the same atoms with stans for about 2 years now with 2k+miles with no splitting. I do see typical side wall cracks but they're still holding up.