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I noticed in a review the other day that Conti GP5000 TL tyres don't require sealant to stay airtight. This attracted me as I always hated messing around with sealant and don't ever think I had it successfully seal a hole out on the trail (and this was 30psi MTB tyres). I'm only interested in going tubeless so I could run lower pressures.
I also don't think I'd trust the sealant to actually work as my frame dictates that I'd need to run 25mm tyres so doubt I could go much lower than 70psi.
So - given that I rarely suffer thorn or glass punctures, could I get away with it, and just accept that I might need to stick a tube in if I do puncture on glass or thorns mid-ride?
My concern is that a typical tyre actually suffers lots of micro-tears that don't puncture a tube but would cause a leak through a tyre without sealant...
It might work depending on the rims, but it's probably going to lose pressure more quickly and as you say if you get a puncture it's a pain. I've put Gp5000s on two wheelsets, both with Stans, and they've been really easy and faff free. Put tyres on, put in gloop, pumped up and rode.
It's doable but sealant often helps seal around the valve hole. So whether your tyre needs it or not for riding, you might need it to keep the tyre inflated to start with.
Put the sealant in through the valve with the the core removed and it's not really that much faff, is it.
I think using no sealant defeats one of the main advantages of tubeless and makes it a whole lot harder to even get it all working.
Seems kinda pointless
There is an easy way to find out. Install, pump up and see what happens after a day or so.
Tend to agree that a 25c tyre pumped up fairly hard doesn't work as well from a sealing up punctures point of view and if you rarely get punctures nothing to lose really as you would just be putting a tube into a tyre with a lot less mess.
What do you do after the puncture though, just consider it a tubed tyre? In which case why not just get tubed tyres and tubes?
Seems kinda pointless
Not at all, allows me to run perhaps 5 or 10psi lower than I'm comfortable running in tubes. That's the only benefit of road tubeless for me as I rarely puncture, so not buying it in an attempt to reduce punctures.
I think using no sealant defeats one of the main advantages of tubeless and makes it a whole lot harder to even get it all working.
Perhaps, but the friends I've seen running road tubeless have not made a convincing case for the sealing abilities of sealant! Or for that matter, the ease of repair using Stan's Darts.
What do you do after the puncture though, just consider it a tubed tyre? In which case why not just get tubed tyres and tubes?
Get home with emergency tube in tyre. Repair puncture on inside of tyre at my leisure. Re-install tyre without tube. A process made a lot less messy for not having used sealant in the first place.
There is an easy way to find out. Install, pump up and see what happens after a day or so.
You missed 'buy £80 worth of tyre that you probably won't then be able to return' first 😉
Food for thought, I googled but it sounds like nobody else has tried it. Remember the first UST systems were design to run without sealant, I MTBd without sealant for a few months on a UST system.
Get home with emergency tube in tyre. Repair puncture on inside of tyre at my leisure. Re-install tyre without tube. A process made a lot less messy for not having used sealant in the first place.
Good point.
I have installed tubeless tyres before that stay up so would think it would work but as said above you need to make sure the valve doesn't require any sealant to make it air tight and not sure how you would do that without using sealant.
It’ll work until your first puncture. I’ve don’t the same with Corsa speeds. I hope you can remove them on the road to put a tube in. That’s not easy with the Corsa’s.
So – given that I rarely suffer thorn or glass punctures, could I get away with it, and just accept that I might need to stick a tube in if I do puncture on glass or thorns mid-ride?
I've done it inadvertently when the sealant dried out and I forgot to put more in. I got a puncture so put a tube in, but wasn't able to get enough pressure on my mini pump to get the bead to properly pop back onto the rim, leaving me with 100km of the rear wheel feeling like it was vertically out of true. Which was very annoying. I guess it would be ok if you used gas.
That said, I've had no problem with 25c tyres sealing, albeit with some loss of pressure.
It’ll work until your first puncture.
Yeah, this is the million dollar question, basically I don't know how many times I've cut the carcass of my tyre without puncturing a tube, e.g. how many additional punctures would I suffer because the thorn/bit of glass/bit of shell hasn't had to cut through a tyre AND a tube. Probably a difficult question to answer.
I still don't get it, one of the key benefits of tubeless is the sealant which often means you don't notice you've had a puncture. GP5000s are a notoriously tight fit on some rims e.g. Hunt - I'd want to avoid it like the plague on a ride
It'd be like running tubed, but without the convenience of repairing the tube in the event of a puncture. ie. You'd have to repair the tyre. It'd work, of course, with plugs.. cos getting them tubeless tyres off and back on on the side of the road could be quite a bind.
I still don’t get it, one of the key benefits of tubeless is the sealant which often means you don’t notice you’ve had a puncture.
That's a key benefit for some, granted, but I puncture so infrequently that it's barely a benefit, certainly not worth the investment in tubeless kit and potential for sealant not actually sealing the holes which in my experience (i.e. witnessing others) is quite a common occurrence.
ONLY benefit of tubeless for me is being able to run lower pressures (and I suppose, since I use normal butyl tubes in my day-to-day bike, I'd maybe lower my rolling resistance a bit).
Ransos experience is kind of promising, apart from not getting tyre seated, but if I thought I couldn't get tyre on/off or seated at the roadside with a mini-pump then I'd bin the whole idea anyway, so I'd have to buy tyres, carefully unpackage and try them out in the garage first...
Basically I think I'm talking myself out of the idea again...
Infrequent puncturing on the road is kind of the reason I'm happier with sealant in road tubeless than on a mountain bike. Much less likely to be messing about with it.
You might find tyres are porous, even tubeless ready ones. IIRC UST was designed to run without sealant - they had to put so much rubber on the inside of the tyre to make it air tight that it made the tyre as heavy if not heavier than a tyre and a tube. And probably no benefit to rolling resistance.
UST was designed to run without sealant – they had to put so much rubber on the inside of the tyre to make it air tight that it made the tyre as heavy if not heavier than a tyre and a tube. And probably no benefit to rolling resistance.
Exactly why I gave it up, I used Maxxis ADvantage tyres, the UST models were narrower, harder compound, heavier, less supple. It was lose-lose-lose-lose! Ended up running my expensive 819 rims with normal tyres and sealant.
I read a review which specifically said the GP5000 TL had a liner which made it airtight, which was what got this train of thought started.