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Road Tubeless Tire Recommendations

Living Proof

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A few years ago, I purchased a BMC road bike built up by @Ron . It had 700 tubeless Schawble Pro One tires. For the first years, the tires held up very well in terms of flats and fit my road needs perfectly. Last season, not so great in terms of keeping inflated between rides. I'm thinking tires are now 5 years old, and, both are flat following winter downtime. My bike is stored in a shed, so heat in summer might just age the rubber. Rather than trying to get another year, I'd like to do a new set.

I'd appreciate any thoughts about alternatives? I have no fears about replacing in kind, just want to know if the technology has advanced and better options exist. BTW, I'm a casual 20 mile trip on flat land rider.
 

Jwrags

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@Ron will have plenty of ideas for you! He was just telling me about some new zoomer fast tires he is currently using.
 
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martyg

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Are you refreshing sealant?

FYI Specialized's director of tube and tire doesn't ride tubeless on road. He was also the director of R&D at Continental - not just bike ties, but all tires. The guy is one of the world leaders in tire knowledge.

If your goal is grab & go - as I have a gravel bike set up with tubeless, and it is a training "appliance", tubeless is a great option. I'm running 38mm ties on that bike, which allows me to use this bike to achieve training goals on a variety of surfaces. For performance applications, there are better options.
 

Ron

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Mike, get a new set of tires, the Conti 5K's are superb tires and have an unmatched ride quality and the lowest roll resistance other than a couple race tires (which you dont want). you need to keep about 30ML of Orange sealant in the tires. There is no comparison to the stiff and harsh ride of the old Schwalbe. There absolutely no reason to run tubes on a road tire .
 

Plai

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Specialized's director of tube and tire doesn't ride tubeless on road.

Any guesses on how often he replaces his tires? I also am still on inner-tubes because I don't want to deal with the mess, and inner tubes are cheap. I don't get too many road miles each season, say 500-700, but my current ride is probably 3-4 years old. This thread has me thinking replacing tires might be a safety issue.
 

Ron

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if they are just sitting around, I guess they could dry out. check the bead to see if its cracked. If you only ride a couple hundred miles, I would stick with latex tubes (if you dont care about speed, use butyl) but if you ride weekly, go tubeless, its not messy if you use a KOM injector ($12) from Amazon. get the one with the on/off valve. The benefits far outweigh any inconveniences There are zero drawbacks.
 

Erik Timmerman

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I use Hutchinson - don't even need sealant and they are still holding air from last summer. They are definitely heavier than more current offerings due to a full butyl liner.
 

Ron

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use a dynaplug. no need to take the tire off the vast majority of cases. knocking on wood but I haven't flatted in 4 years on tubeless. Thats the concept, the sealant seals up the leaks. YMMV but I haven't really had a hard time with tubeless tires. FWIW- I dont ride with a tube. I carry a patch (aka Boot) and a CO2 canister and a Dynaplug racer version. you will need a knife or razor blade to cut the end off.
 
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Ski&ride

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YMMV but I haven't really had a hard time with tubeless tires.
I haven’t tried yet. Largely deterred by reports from others in my club.

knocking on wood but I haven't flatted in 4 years on tubeless.
I haven’t flatted with my road bike for ... I don’t remember the last time I flatted!
 

Ron

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I haven’t tried yet. Largely deterred based on reports from others in my club.


I haven’t flatted with my toad bike for ... I don’t remember the last time I flatted!

exactly! so why not enjoy lower rolling resistance, no more pinch flats, more comfort via lower PSI's and improved grip?
 

Ski&ride

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exactly! so why not enjoy lower rolling resistance, no more pinch flats, more comfort via lower PSI's and improved grip?
By I haven’t had any pinch flats for all I can remember! :huh:

How low of PSI do you run?
 

Ron

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. So by going tubeless you will reduce your roll resistance by allowing lower pressures, equalling more tire contact and reducing hysteresis loses (the rougher the surface the more losses) . (and then we get into aero drag and ratios of tires to rim width) but on 21c (internal width) rims I was running conti 5K TL's at about 70, I switched over to 25c rims and I'm now at 58/60 It really depends on your rims. The narrower they are, the higher your pressure will be relatively speaking. Its a whole other ball of wax to get into with rim width, tire width and so on. It ties into rim depth for Roll resistance and aerodynamics = more speed for less work, AKA efficiency .
 

princo

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Continental 5000 TL. phenomenal tires, super easy to mount up and they are super smooth and fast. get the 28's and run them at about 70-80psi. Backcountry.com has them for 49.00 per tire.

I'm currently running Continental Grand Prix 4-Season (28mm@ 90psi) and looking at replacing them in the next couple of months. How do the Conti 5000 perform outside of summer? My DT Swiss wheels (18mm internal, 32mm high) are tubeless ready, so considering going tubeless, but still undecided. I run tubeless on MTB and gravel wheels, but some tubeless horror stories from my group road ride mates keep me going back and forth.
 
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Ron

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I rode them in as cold as 38* and they were fine. I dont really understand the "issues' with tubeless. I think some people just aren't handy or are doing weird stuff :). they aren't an issue at all. I will say if you have the means, go to wider rims; 23-25c internal, 30-32 external. Rim depth is another subject but there are some marginal gains especially if you dont average more than 18mph or spend a lot of time above that speed on the flats and rolling terrain. a 35-40mm deep wheel is about optimal. I ride a lot of flat/rolling and also a lot of sustained climbs so it makes sense to go deeper (50/55) The ride quality, handling and ability to run low pressures is supreme. The wider patch is noticeable on climbs too. Just a note though, you cant run Conti 5K TL's on Enve AR series rims. thats a real bummer but the new Schwalbe Pro One Addix TLE is close.
 

Erik Timmerman

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I agree about the horror stories @Ron I've had much harder times with various clincher tires than I've ever had with a road tubeless tire. I pinched 4-5 tubes in one day last year trying to install a set of Vittorias on Bontrager rims. I was being careful on the first one and getting more and more careful as I tore tube after tube!
 
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Ron

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Not supported at all by Enve but their wheels with the inner channel makes tire mounting stupid easy, you put both beads into the center channel and it effectively acts like mounting a tire to a smaller rim, I used my hands to mount the Schwalbe Pro One TLE's on the .45's.
 

Ski&ride

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I was running conti 5K TL's at about 70, I switched over to 25c rims and I'm now at 58/60
I’m running 60~70 psi on my regular tubed tires. Haven’t got any punch flats. For that matter, no flat of any kind for many years.

Last winter, I realized my tires should be replaced. I looked into going tubeless. But warnings from others less than great experience, coupled with lack of “advantages” (namely, I’m already running low pressure with no pinched flats), led me to staying with regular tires with tubes.

With the mileage I’m riding, I won’t be needing new tires for a few years. I will look into specific options at that time.
 

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