Who's Riding the Roads Tubeless?

I think Endoverendo is or was planning to go sans tubes. Anyone else?

I'm interested in feedback:
How long have you been running tubeless?
What is your set up (tubless wheels/tires or conversion)?
Would you do it again?
How hard was it to install?
Impression(s)?
Notice any difference?
Have you had any flats/blow outs/leaks/crashes as a result of/etc.?

Give us the low down. I'm running tubeless on my MTB and dig it. But I really don't flat on the roads. I have flatted twice in 1.5 years due to blown tubes and another time because a tire blew off the rim due to exceeding the manufacture recommended ma PSI (120 vs 100) (and prolly a bonehead install job by me). (Damn now I jinks myself [me on my knees] 'please road bike gods forgive me'.) So I'm really not sure what going tubeless really gets me on the road.

 

im curious too....i wonder what the max psi is for the road tubeless setup?

 

I've been tempted. But I think if I do buy "race" wheels they'll just be proven Tubulars.

 

I saw an add for Hutchenson tubeless tires stating a 90 psi. The funny thing was it was as if this was high or something. I normally run 100 in my current tire (Conti Ultra Gator Skin) and ran 120 psi in my previous tire (some Vitorria two tone tire).

 

I'm really curious as to why. What's wrong with clinchers or tubulars?

 

i don't know how many flats have been caused by some small little thorn or piece of glass....even rollin the thick stuff. it would be nice to do worry about that...i haven't ripped a sidewall on the road bike yet. tubeless road may be a good solution.

 

I've heard claims of less rolling resistance but I can't imagine it is anything substantial. I'm curious of any real world feedback.

 

My buddy rides tubeless with the Michelin Pro 3's and says they're great. I'll try to link him to this thread so he can give his opinion.

 

Only tubeless available currently are Dura-Ace wheels and I think only one compatible tire. They may have stopped as it wasn't selling.

No real point to tubeless. Get a hefty tire (Gatorskins are king) and keep your head up.

 

Stans has a conversion kit for road.

 

Any new thoughts on road tubeless setup after a 1.5 years?

I have a demo set of the Duraace 7850 carbon that I was thinking of riding on the breathless..

 

I was interested in running road tubeless for cross racing... but almost think that getting tubular wheels are cheaper than clincher so why bother? :?:

 

Actually shimano has the new ultegra wheel set out that is tubeless. Alex wheels has a tubeless wheelset as well as one more company that is think is fulcrum but can't be sure. The way you get less rolling resistance with tubeless is due to the fact that you eliminate the friction between the tube and the tire and plus you can run lower tire pressure. I have a friend who rides tubeless and he loves it. He does all day rides on them and uses them for crits and swears by them. As of now there is only one company that makes a tubeless tire. It has more to do with the beads stretching which I am sure we have all experienced when putting a folding tire on a wheel that seems to barely fit and then after so many miles it slips right on. You can run tires with wire beads though.

As for cross that is a little bit of a hit and miss. The point of tubless is to run as low of a psi as possible but then you tend to get your tires to burp. It could be the fact that a road wheel is not really wide enough to handle the width of cross tire. If you built a cross wheel with stan's rims you probably get better results

 

I mounted up some of the Atoms tires on my shimano wheels using stans tape and sealant. It mounted fine and held pressure real well.

Now I just have to make the sacrifice of taking time off the mountain bike and put in the torture I call road riding. That being said I'm not sure I'd be a good candidate to accurately describe the difference in ride quality. I just don't put enough time on my road bike.

 

I have been using the Hutchinson Fusion tubeless tires with the Dura Ace 7850 tubeless wheelset for about 3 months. (I previously used Michelin Pro 3s on Ksyrium SLs). I run 85 psi front, 90 psi rear. The improvement in ride quality is definitely noticeable -- much more supple and compliant, almost as good as tubulars. What surprised me was the improvement in cornering performance. It is hard to describe, but the tires feel much more "planted" and just stick in the corners, much better than the Michelin Pro 3s, which have excellent levels of grip compared to most clinchers. I run sealant in the tires and haven't had any flats yet, but 3 months isn't long enough to reach any conclusions about resistance to flats or the effectiveness of the sealant.

 

I was riding DA wheels and Hutchinson Atoms for Breathless Agony yesterday. They were great to have for the various road conditions and light enough for the climbs. For my usual rides with my Fusions I run 87psi. I'm noticeably faster on descents now and don't feel like I have to swerve around glass and debris as much. So far only one leak from a big wire that eventually sealed itself. Tire selection isn't that great and they are $$ but Bontrager is releasing a new tire, so it feels like the early days of 29ers still.

 

I also demo'd a pair of the 7850 with Fusions yesterday for the BA ride. First time running tubeless - this wheelset is a lot lighter than my current training wheels which made a nice difference, the tubeless worked great going up jack rabbit on the rough roads. Never had a problem all day. Still not sure I would go tubeless ong term yet as fixing a leak would be a PITA since the tires are extremely hard to remove. It did make for a great ride and fun on the descents!

 

I am not much of a roadie. That said, I have been riding TUFO tubular tires designed for clincher rims. The man at the other end of the phone recommended pumping the tires to 145 psi. His thought was you would roll over everything, even glass, rocks, ect. The resistance to the road would be very minimal. One thing I don't like is that you feel the road even more. I reduce the psi down to 110 to see how they feel on my next ride. I like the tires so far. I did ride over glass and road trash. I got home looked at the tires, and they look brand new. Impressive

 

I'm not riding tubeless, but after riding my Bionicon Urban Road commuter bike across a grass/dirt median and filling both tubes with about 10 goatheads each, I didn't want to hassle with patches, and only had one spare tube.

I took a syringe and injected the tubes with Stans, straight through the tires without even removing the wheels. Pulled the goat heads out and never patched the tubes or did anything special. They took a couple of days and a couple of injections before they sealed, but they did.

That was about 2500 miles ago.

I gave a close look at both tires a few days ago and notice there are cuts, embedded glass chunks and the tires are pretty dried out and cracking, but still rolling and still holding air reliably.

 

I have been curious about this....I run tubeless on my MTB and love it.

here is a short article from RBA on setting it up;
http://www.roadbikeaction.com/fly.aspx?layout=content&taxid=68&cid=169

link to stan's road setup;
http://www.notubes.com/product_info.php/cPath/21_58/products_id/485