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I've had several flats on the Sammy Slicks which came with my CAADX, which is really annoying compared to my tubeless MTB and even to my road bike.
The bike is used 50/50 on road and on canal towpaths / easy offroad.
I'd like to either run tubeless on the CX, or reluctantly go to some form of slime / punture proof tyres etc. I'm currently running a Stans Crest rim on the front and would change to one on the back if needs be.
Any advice - can the Sammy Slicks be run tubeless, albeit up to the pressure limits on the rim (around 52PSI for a 35 section tyre based on the rim sticker).
Is may be better to run tubes to be able to run higher pressure, so slime tubes / tougher tyres maybe?
New G-one from schwalbe is tubeless.
Why do you want to run such high pressures mark?
I'm running 38psi on my cross, albeit with 40c tyres and the difference when taking it on rocky stuff is brilliant! Lower the better unless you are just doing a road ride surely?
Put some slime inner tubes in , worked for me , zero flats .
Sorry just re-read the 'easy offroad' bit so ignore my post.
Is 50psi really that low for 35c tyres though?
plenty of tubeless CX tyres - Vittoria XG and XL, WTB Nano and Crosswolf, plus the G-One, as wiggles says.
Check they'll fit on the rim though - Stans are notoriously bad for being tight. I don't use them any more for this reason.
Well since nobody else has asked yet...
[i]
what caused the punctures?[/i]
that may well sway the recommendations!
Thanks all.
The reason for wanting to run higher pressures is that there's a fair amount of road use so keeping them fast rolling would help. The off-road use is mainly canal towpaths, disused railways, moderately gentle bridlepaths etc. Anything actually fun off-road would be ridden on my MTB.
As a trial, I'll run my existing tyres at 50PSI for a few commutes to see whether the extra pressure is really needed or not.
The punctures have been caused by thorns every time so far, so tubeless would make this issue disappear.
None of the MTB tyres that I've run tubeless have actually been tubeless, not had an issue so far. Would that experience translate to the CX tyres?
No. You need tubeless tyres really, for CX/road use. Reasons being they run higher pressures so porous sidewalls (on non-tubeless tyres) will take some sealing, and on the higher pressures (on road) you need a dedicated tubeless bead so it doesn't blow off the rim.
If it's just towpaths etc. then the Schwalbe G-One, and indeed S-One, are definite candidates as they'll be fine on road and are tougher than you think.
The punctures have been caused by thorns every time so far
in that case you're either going to needs something [i]very[/i] puncture resistant (along with all the downsides of that extra weight and thicknes and stiffness), or do as you have suggested and go tubeless.
But....2 thorn punctures could just be bad luck from riding in a thorny area. FWIW, I put some new tyres on once, got 2 or 3 punctures within a few days and was ready to bin them in post-purchase rage-fit, but then for one reason or another left them on, ran them for another ~4,000 miles or so and never suffered another puncture, just for a bit of contrast like. Sometimes it's just luck either way 😉