[Closed] Tubeless on a road bike, worth it?

I run GP5000s with latex tubes on my summer bike and GP4000s IIs on my winter bike (also latex tubes).

Probably get about one puncture every 5000 km and one of those was something that cut the tyre open so tubeless would have failed completely.

Just don't see any real benefit in tubless for road use.

No one I ride with has made the move either - tyres are just so good, punctures are really rare - we go for months on group rides before anyone has one - in the old days every group ride would have 1 or 2 punctures.

Like the OP I'm about to get new wheels and tyres, so it's not an additional cost to upgrade perfectly good existing kit. Rather the cost impact is pretty negligible. So I expect I'm going to go tubeless as much as anything because every other bike tyre I've got nowadays is tubeless so it doesn't feel like a step in the dark at all, or an inconvenience. But I could be proved wrong if reliability turns out worse than tubed. I expect my tyres will hit the odd rougher surface and be 28s or even 32s. Historically though I didn't get very many road punctures.

I’ll add that faff of fixing a tubeless tyre is nothing compared to a tubed one. Find the hold, stick in a plug, inflate with co2 - job done. Less than 2 minutes. I can’t take off a tyre, take out the tube, find the hole, fix it, put it back in, inflate with co2 any quicker & that’s for sure!

(I’ve had 3 or 4 punctures this winter but the roads round me are just cr@p & the rain has washed so much debris onto them too of late..)

Well, I've changed my stance on this a bit now. Been riding through winter and our local road maintenance has got poorer. Net result was an un-fixable puncture and call for 4-wheel help!

Can't help but think I could have fixed it with a tubeless repair (or not had the problem at all).
Do those anchovies work OK at low temperatures?

tyres are just so good, punctures are really rare – we go for months on group rides before anyone has one

Of course having just posted that I then go and puncture 30 odd miles from home, but luckily it was a sunny day and easy to fix.....

I had my first (known) road tubeless puncture yesterday. Felt myself run over something metallic, slowed down, when I realised the wet drops on my leg were sealant I knew what'd happened. But by the time I got off and found the puncture it'd sealed. Didn't even lose enough pressure to warrant getting my pump out. It wasn't in the centre line either.

10/10 would puncture again.

Anyone experienced problems with leaky sidewalls on new tyres?

I'm using WTB Expanse 32 with tan sidewalls and Mucoff sealant

Tyres are new although have used for a few weeks set up with tubes. I gave them a wipe inside and out with a dry cloth before going tubeless.

The beads are nice and snug on the rims (Hunt) so don't think that's the issue.

Immediately after inflating sealant was oozing through the side walls

2 days later it's still coming through but only a few small spots which I wipe off, and they come back after a few minutes. It's losing pressure but very slowly.

Is this normal? Will it settle down after a few days, maybe needs more sealant or jiggling?

Do they use tubeless in racing? TDF etc?

At least one team was on clincher tyres this year, whether they were set up tubeless I don't know but Google should be able to tell you.

@petefromearth Mucoff sealant is not the best for sealing and dries up quite quickly too in my experience.

Thanks, what's the sealant of choice? Stans?

If I changed brand, would that mean a full de-goop beforehand to avoid mixing them?

I clean my sealant out when putting in a different brand. I use orange sealant and works well.
I did get leaky sidewalls from tan wall Corsa Speed, but was fine when riding, just when standing still. As I check the pressure before every ride it wasn’t an issue.
Clinchers are used in the TDF, two teams who were going to ise tubeless I believe changed to clincher (Bora and DQS). Possibly Israel Start Up and Qhubeka may still be on Tubeless.

https://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/feature/isn_maxxis_tubeless/

I was advised to use Stan's Race. Sealed one puncture, and another eventually when I remembered I had anchovies.

Have come to the conclusion road tubeless just not worth it. Today’s fiasco involved a not particularly big tyre cut which spaffed orange seal all over me and my frame for 50 yards before sealing, before then unsealing and doing the same for another 50 yards. After this happened about 3 times I stopped to put in a plug, only the hole was too small to fit one. By the time I had forced one in the tyre had completely deflated and given I only had one co2 cannister with me decided I’d stick in a tube and take my chances with that rather than risk the tubeless failing again

Not the first time this has happened, I’ll be going back to tubes from now on I reckon.

Some people are just unlucky I guess, mate of mine seems not to have much luck either.

At risk of angering the puncture gods my last one was years ago now.

Stans Race is the one to use. Only downside is you can't top up through the valve.