Tubeless road bike wheels

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Since there are several different tubeless road wheels now on the market, I just wondered if any of the serious roadies here on BITOG were running tubeless. If so, what are your thoughts?

I'm considering going the Stan's route, and converting my wheels to tubeless. I've used the Stan's system in the past with excellent result on mountain bike wheels.
 
Originally Posted By: oilboy123
I did not know they existed?

Sew-ups, which had to be glued to the rim, were probably popular before your time. I know them from when I was little. One of our neighbors had sew-ups on his racing bike around the time I learned riding a bike. And his bike was already old back then. I don't know if there is still a market for sew-ups.

The (relatively) recent tubeless tires are all clinchers, as far as I know. From a semi-professional level and up they may make sense, being lighter, less prone to pinch flats and being possibly more balanced. To me it's a gimmick I don't need. If I were to buy or build a new bike, I might consider going tubeless. I would not consider converting conventional clincher wheels to accept tubeless tires.
 
Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
wavinwayne - Do you mean for using "sew ups", tubulars, singles on?

Tyre Brands such as Clement, Vittoria, Continental etc????


What are singles on?
 
Why do you want to run tubeless? I don't see any advantage on a road bike, on a mt bike you can run low presures which is a huge advantage. If you go the Stan's route any weight savings would be minimial if any.
 
Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
wavinwayne - Do you mean for using "sew ups", tubulars, singles on?

Tyre Brands such as Clement, Vittoria, Continental etc????


No Doug, he means an actual tubeless clincher tire like already exists for mountain bikes.
I have NO idea of how well they work, their rolling resistance, durability, or puncture resistance.
But it sounds like a cool idea except for having to potentially replace VERY expensive wheels already in one's possession.

HOW does one 'convert' regular clinchers to tubeless???

Until this most recent bike ALL of my road bikes in the past were tubular tired.

And YES mori, there still is a market/need for tubulars in the racing/high performance community!!!
Half (or more) of the Pro peloton in Europe (and elsewhere) is still using tubulars, and I would venture to guess that ALL of them use tubulars in the time trials and mountain stages dues to lower rolling resistance, and possibly slightly lower weights.
MANY amateurs also still believe in them and will gladly put up with their inconvenience for the lower rolling resistance (even thought the best clincher tires with a thin/light latex inner tube now come close!).

You could practically bet your life that ALL of the athletes riding the Laoshan Velodrome at the Beijing Olympics are on tubulars as well!!
 
Some rims can be converted to tubeless by using a special rim strip and valve stem. I haven't seen the tubeless tires to see what's special about them. I'm thinking the only real advantage in road use is rolling weight. Off road use allows for less pressure/better traction and reduced risk of pinch flats due to low pressure.
 
Couple of things to note (not that it really matters):

1. I was not asking about tubular or sew-ups. I know about them.

2. Conventional wheels can be converted to tubeless, via the "Stan's Tubeless" system. Google "Stan's Tubeless", and you will see exactly what all it involves. A complete road conversion kit, complete with tires, valves, sealant, and rim tape, can be had for around $130.00

Also, from what I've seen on Stan's website, it looks like the road wheel conversion is even easier to do than the mountain bike wheel conversion. FWIW, I used the Stan's tubeless rim strips to convert a conventional MTB wheelset to tubeless. I ran those wheels for hundreds of hard, rocky, technical mountain bike miles, and the Stan's system was flawless.
 
One additional note about the Stan's tubeless conversion system.

For mountain bike wheels, you can use any tire with the Stan's system, because of the sealant involved, and the much lower air pressure in MTB tires.

With the road wheel conversion kit, tubeless-specific road tires (there are VERY FEW of these currently) must be used (no exceptions). Stan states this clearly on his website.
 
Hi,
moribundman - My error - "on" should not be there!!

I agree - almost 100% of velodrome work is done on tubulars

I still use them - mainly D'ALESSANDRO and Continentals. My first were Dunlops in the 1950s "0" and "00" versions - but mainly at World Comp. level in Sprints and 1km TT, Clement silks - black and clear
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
moribundman - My error - "on" should not be there!!

I agree - almost 100% of velodrome work is done on tubulars

I still use them - mainly D'ALESSANDRO and Continentals. My first were Dunlops in the 1950s "0" and "00" versions - but mainly at World Comp. level in Sprints and 1km TT, Clement silks - black and clear


I also used Contis and Clement slick treaded silks (but ONLY black as the 'clears' would have flatted as soon as they touched our local track at the time!
shocked2.gif
).
In fact, it was soooo bad that people took to using file treaded ROAD Clement Seta 220s, and some were still getting punctures on those!!!

Have you been following the Olympic track events (stupid question, I know)??
I'll bet your TV coverage is slightly better than ours!
wink.gif
LOL.gif

What do you think of them dumping the Kilo TT for BMX (need I ask)?
 
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