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Does tubless work on gravel tyres at 'road' pressures?
Been running tubeless on our MTBs for ages with few issues, but not sure if it will work on my new gravel bike. Mid ride yesteday there was a loud whoosh from my back tyre which hissed like a catherine wheel and went flat in seconds. Gunk did nowt
Went to a mate's house and used his track pump to find the hole.... anchovied it up and then inflated the tyre... flying anchovy followed by more hissing.... bigger anchovy with much less pressure and then sped off home. Halfway hoome another whoosh/hiss followed by a walk.
Bought a Hutchinson Touareg from Decathlon today and just about to fit it, but based on experience so far I'm not convinced it is going to work. Do tubeless anchovy repairs work with higher (~40PSI) pressures, or are you supposed to walk home and then mushroom plug it or just bin the tyre every time.... or was my tyre just a bit shit (Girona RSL) and didn't have enough TPI to hold an anchovy....
tell me
I don’t think even pro road racers use tubs anymore!
Doh!
Does tubless work on gravel tyres at 'road' pressures?
not with standard anchovies in my experience.
with Dynaplug yes.
Larger volume tyres don’t need to be at high “road” pressures. What pressure were you running them at and what width are the tyres?
I’ve never managed to get them to seal when it punctures and plugs don’t seem to stay in once the tyre is inflated back to over 40psi. I just stuck tubes back in. Never have any bother with tubeless on MTB.
I run gravel grinders at about 35 psi originally when I put them on I ran them at maximum pressure which was 55 and I had puncture after puncture. When I dropped the pressure down to 35 I'm not any slower, I'm more comfortable and I have less punctures
Larger volume tyres don’t need to be at high “road” pressures
Mm indeed, of course not. Hence my quotes. It was at 40 psi the second time. As to the pressure first time round:
"No comment" 😉
I typically run 40ish psi in 40mm tyres and have had very little luck with punctures sealing themselves.
That said one of my few successful repairs on the trailside was using an anchovy.
I would go back to tubes but will commit next year and get some tougher tyres (the new Panaracer+ models) AND run inserts, so at least I can enjoy slightly lower pressures.
Stan’s won’t seal road/gravel IME but Challenge Smart Seal does. I run road tyres at 65 psi and they seal OK with Challenge. Gravel at 45-50 fine with Challenge. Silca (previous version to the current offering which I have not tried) works too but it only lasts about a week before balling up inside the tyre and becoming impossible to remove - utter garbage
I ran Gravel King slicks in 40mm this summer for road use at about 40-45psi (tubeless) they rode well and were comfy, but I had mostly bad luck with flats TBH (all on the rear). But anchovies did work at those pressures for me at least.
first off I think the tyre choice was just a poor one on my part, GKs just have a very poor resistance to cutting, one sharp bit of flint and they’re done for. Sealant makes a big difference too, I just started using Vitoria in all my tyres and it seems to last longer and seal a bit better (only one hole so far so not exactly a conclusive test).
I do think I’ll try a different rear tyre at least next summer (if not a pair), the Schwalbes and vittorias on my other gravel and MTB wheels have been relatively bulletproof, so maybe one of those two brands, perhaps I switch the rear to TPU the feel/ride is almost as good (IMO/IME).
But yeah, sticking to tubes on the winter road bike again this year…
GKs just have a very poor resistance to cutting, one sharp bit of flint and they’re done for
I suffered the same with Gravelkings SS and now understood why there are numerous posts from fellow sufferers on STW.
I've used Stans sealant and normal anchovies in road tyres for years. Works fine IME.
I've been on road and gravel tubeless for a few years now and have no problems with Stans regular and anchovies, the road tyres are 28 or 30mm at 55 / 60 psi - perhaps I've been lucky!
I use my gravel bike primarily for commuting and tubeless has been great for all the tiny shards of glass that seem to end up in my tyres. I’ve had several punctures that hiss a bit and seal up fine. So far (4years) the system hasn’t failed although I’ve never had to deal with a bigger hole.
Schwalbe G-one 40mm/ Stans/ 50psi.
I previously ran 38mm G-Ones at around 40-50psi and small pink-prick type punctures sealed up fine, but when I got a larger sidewall cut (around 3mm) that had to be plugged it would slowly leak air and seep sealant over the course of a ride. That could be down the quality of the plugs though as they were just cheap ones from Amazon. The tyres also had done around 2000 miles by then.
My current 40mm Power Gravels are at 40psi but to my knowledge I haven't punctured those yet. I've had to run a tube on the front though as the rim is damaged so it wouldn't seal up tubeless.
I've had success with Peatys sealant and normal anchovies (Nukeproof in my case, which are quite sticky & malleable so that might be the difference) in both 50mm Pirelli Gravel M's and 32mm Gravelking Slicks on the road bike, that'll be at ~25psi in the Pirelli's and ~50psi in the GK's.
Just (re) set my Camino rear wheel up tubeless last night after I fkd a tyre on York's Alps-smooth roads and it somehow took out the rim tape at the same time.
Stans sealant which is my usual go-to with a non-tubeless specific Goodyear tyre - no problem at all but I run my gravel bike with pretty high pressures given I do longish road stretches from my doorstep and the off-road stuff is very much flat hardpack.
+1 for "yup, tubeless repairs at 40+psi work fine." You need a decent seat on whatever you have plugged the gap with, and as always, tip the wheel down to get some sealant around it before you start pumping, but it is doable. (When you said "road pressures" I thought you meant 80+, and I tend to run lower pressure on tarmac because I can, owing to tubeless. But that means ~60psi on my 35mm slicks, and I've managed to plug them before.) 35mm, G-One Speed, 55-60psi.
+1 also for "I had a completely miserable time on GravelKings".
I have 40c gravel tyres running at about 40psi, tubeless, and they're fine. I've pulled a couple of hawthorn twigs out of them so they're obviously sealing that kind of thing okay.
This is using boggo own-brand sealant from the Whaley Bridge bike shop.
I run my gravel tubeless tyres at 20psi. I’m not sure why you would run gravel tyres at road pressure like you lot do, my tyres are wider though 50mm. I run 50psi on my road tyres, 28mm wide. What does the Silca tyre pressure calculator suggest for your weight, tyre size and terrain?
I do remember pumping up my tubular tyres to 160psi, but that was many years ago. That was when everyone thought harder tyres were faster.
Why on earth are you guys using such high pressures?
I'm running max 30psi if I'm going mostly smooth road/champagne gravel but mostly I'm running 22-26 psi. And I'm 86kg!
(50mm Ramblers BTW)
I've had no trouble with orange seal, much off, squirt seal, wtb or halo sealant. When I've needed an anchovy strip it's worked apart from once when the hole needed 2.
That's been since 2018. Usually run no more that 35psi, less in the front. 40psi to seat tyres when swapping but 40psi feels iron hard even on 700x50
I'm a right bifter and I run my gravel tyres at about 25-30 psi (47-50 mm)
Why on earth are you guys using such high pressures?
40psi in 40mm tyres is just my safe space, with inserts and a trustworthy setup I'll go lower but recently I've been burping my rear tyre (dodgy rim) and without inserts I've hit the rim and pinch flatted a tyre more than once.
On the 29er with 52mm Mezcals I run 30psi.
Plus frankly even with inserts I'm not sure I like the squirming of lower pressure tyres!
Most of my gravel riding is high speed fire road stuff. No need to compromise rolling resistance for grip, so I'm generally running 40-50psi in 45-50mm tyres. No issue with tubeless punctures sealing.
I will say though that the only time ever had a problem was with a Gravelking. Racing to catch a ferry in the Hebrides and I got a puncture which wouldn't seal. Right slap bang in the middle of the tyre so hardly a bad location. Managed to get it temporarily sorted with anchovies but they kept working their way out.
Been running Pirelli Cinturato tyres for ages now with zero problems
Why on earth are you guys using such high pressures?
In my Road Wheelset (as per the Original Question) Gravel Wheels are around 32-35psi (700x40).
I've had a problem sealing a hole with anchovies, 33mm CX rear tyre @ 50psi. Gave up after two attempts and bought a tyre
The new tyre has a sidewall leak that won't seal with Stan's No Tubes fluid inside. It might coincide with where it was folded/old stock/poor storage at the retailer, no obvious external damage and leaks at several points, one above the other, for the full sidewall height.
It stays up for a couple of days so I can't be bothered to remove it and do something more permanent.