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I've only been running tubeless a short while on my singletrack bike and love it. Whether it is my imagination or not they seem to feel more responsive and lighter feeling. The weight advantage if any, can only be 100grams, but they just feel great. Anyway, being such a keen convert I am wondering if tubeless is any good on a downhill bike. I did a little googling and there was a little murmur of burping. Is this a real worry. I'm not a light rider, so would the sidewall pressure be too much? To complicate things i am wanting to run non downhill tyres too to save weight I.e. magic mary tle.
I run tubeless on mine, mainly because the most common flat I get with tubes is snakebites, particularly at pressures I like to run. Basically all the same pros as for a trail bike.
I use a thicker casing for the rear tyre than the front.
I used to run tubeless for dh sometimes, but always in dh dualplies or sometimes something like a maxxis ust minion- saved a bit of weight without compromising reliability, for me, but then I'm far from the fastest.
The thing you hear most is that at the fast end, people just end their runs with less air than they started- not so much massive deflating burps but just constant minor losses from hard corners etc. I'm not rad enough 😆 And dh world cups have been won on tubeless so it's not hard and fast, after all it's not like tubes never fail.
The other thing though is that I shuffled tyres more for dh and so a lot of the time I just couldn't be assed with it. For something like the endurance downhill it seemed like a no-brainer, for day today use it sometimes felt like i was changing tyres every time I rode the thing and who can be bothered with tubeless for that? So as often as not I had middleweight tubes in
TL;DR- I liked it
Cool cheers for the replies. Do you think it is worth it if my tubes dh tyres are quite light and I don't really get punctures that much. I run nevegals that are about 890grams and I like the feel of them. Maybe I should stick with them.
I think you need at least Schwalbe Supergravity casing tyres on a DH bike.
If you have a 150mm rear end with faffy bolt-up system you will live to regret running single-ply Nevegals IMO.
Tubeless was fine for me with proper DH tyres, though I do have a compressor to seal them up. No notable burpage after probably the roughest day on a MTB I've ever had at Pila last summer.
Sure stick with tubes if you're happy. It depends on the rider and where you ride of course. Man made berms / trails etc 'smoother' stuff I have rolled tyres tubeless, but then it was probably my fault for not checking the pressure. However for me rock gardens and tubes, 100% guarantee I'd get a rear puncture. You may be different, but thinner lighter nevegals , it's risky.
I guess at that weight, they must be the heavier duty tubeless nevegals? Nevegal singleplies are 600-700g, I quite liked em in 2.35, the stick-e is a lovely mix of supple carcass and slow rebounding rubber... but wouldn't ever have them on a dh bike, they're not that grippy and not that tough (and the nevegal dualply was a nasty stiff lump of a thing that felt like it had 20psi more air than it did)
Definitely wouldn't be my choice, tubeless or tubed or anything.
I run maxxis dh tyres with tape and stans, definitely more grip, they just seem more supple than with tubes. Never had a burp that wasn't a destroyed tyre. I wouldn't use normal tyres on my dh bike, tried it once with normal muddish tyres at Revolution and had many crashes. If your not racing then tubeless thick and sticky ftw.
Managed the full 2016 SDA season on tubleless supergravity Magic Marys with no burping or other issues, I did crack a Lightbicycle rear rim during the Inners Sunday morning practice, but it held air for the race runs.
I do now have an Airshot in case of needing to change over to mud spikes in the field.
Whether it is my imagination or not they seem to feel more responsive and lighter feeling.
I suspect this is down to the difference in the way tyre+tube rebounds compared to tyre+goop.
I did a little googling and there was a little murmur of burping.
Two people have told me about this; one of them was Sam Blenkinsop - I believed him, the other - well, he was just one of 'us'.
You'll be fine as long as it's set up well.
My son races at World Cup level. When we were using demo bikes with tubes we would get a pinch flat every race. When he got his race bike we went tubeless and not a single flat and down to 24 psi at fort bill. Also he is not kind to the bike. We were running Sg magics and not a burp in sight. Maybe depends on rim ?
A lot of DH Tubeless options atm that allow low pressures to be run. Pro core, Deaneasy, ghetto pro core allow 'silly' low pressures without fear of punctures = maximum grip, (I run 16.5 Fr and 19 rear whatever the terrain, Incl FW!).
There's also Huck Norris and Flat Tyre Defender, but they don't lock the tyre bead on the rim like the above
(I run 16.5 Fr and 19 rear whatever the terrain, Incl FW!).
Maybe just a preference thing, but do those pressures not feel horrid?
Tubeless on DH bike with lighter tyres always sounds great until you ding rims and pinch beads. Of course, then you try Pro-core.... best thing ive bought for a bike in years, id put it way above better tyres or even a shock upgrade.
Looks like some supergravity mm's are the way to go. cheers for the very helpful advice ( nevegals I've run for a few years are 2.5 sticke single ply (with tubes), never really had lots of issues with punctures, but then I don't run them too low)