Going Tubeless for Road: Individual Results Will Vary

The roads where I live just outside Osaka are generally in pretty good condition ( a lot better than the potholes in spring in my hometown of Montreal). Apart from the debris from the factories and recycling center on the route of my daily commute and the occasional poor job of cleaning up after a road accident, things are not too bad. I really feel that getting a flat has as much to do with riding style and just plain bad luck as with the quality of tires that I happen to be using. After doing a good 1500 km on my Schwalbe Ultremo ZX tubeless tires, the inevitable finally happened and I did get my first puncture. I say puncture because the tire never did go completely flat and it was not until the morning of my next ride that I discovered the puncture.

With the rear tire feeling a little soft, I inflated it to prepare for the daily commute only to be greeted with a shower of sealant reminiscent of a decapitation scene from a Samurai drama. Luckily I have more than one bike so the repair job could wait. And that was a good thing because repairing a tubeless tire can be a chore.

The tire obviously got me home but when trying to re-inflate it, the sealant would not hold beyond about 60 PSI.

The puncture was obviously easy to find.

In all fairness, this puncture would have done in any tire (the culprit remains unknown).

Being the paranoid type, I picked up a set of 'special' tubeless tire levers from IRC at my LBS when I bought the tires. The special pointed end is actually intended for mounting the tires and is supposed to help in seating the bead. You can put tubeless tires on without tools but you obviously can't remove them without tools. Any set of plastic tire levers, used with a little care, would have done the job equally well. Fortunately, they were not expensive and they are quite strong.

I am glad I did not have to do this job for the first time on the road. The mess from the sealant was not too bad but it was messy, as in you should remove the remaining sealant before remounting the tire. You would also need to clean out this stuff to install an inner tube (and a recommended rim strip) if out on the road.

What was a bigger problem was the sealant that had hardened along the bead. There was enough of it to make remounting the tires a problem if not removed and it does not come off so easily. 

I prepared the inside of the tire surrounding the puncture in the same way I would prepare an inner tube for patching.

The puncture is much less obvious from the inside but it is there in the center.

I patched the tire the same way I would an inner tube. Unfortunately, you can't verify the quality of your handiwork the same way you can with an inner tube before going about re-installing the tire.

Remounting the tire was actually a little easier the second time around following the instructions I outlined in the first part of the post. Seating the bead around the valve was a little tricky, as before.

There isn't a whole lot of room on either side of the valve.

Pushing the valve in while keeping it oriented then pulling down on it and then tightening the retaining screw seems to make the job easier. It worked for me as no air leaked from around the valve.

With the tire remounted (and new sealant added) and cleaned up a little, there is a noticeable 'gouge' in the surface of the tire. It has held up for 2 weeks of commuting  (250 km +) and a 100 km weekend ride. It holds air quite nicely at 120 PSI much as it did before the repair.

There is a useful review of these tires here: www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/components/tyres/road/product/review-schwalbe-ultremo-zx-tubeless-tyre-13-47232#null

The gouge in the tire does make me question the remaining lifespan of the tires. I have done about 12,000 km of touring on a set of Vittoria Randonneurs with only a couple of flats (that I can remember), some pretty reasonably priced tires. That makes these tires truly seem pretty expensive for what I have gotten out of them so far. But this post is more about the tubeless experience than these particular tires.

If you are hesitant to go tubeless because the installation seems daunting, please don't be. Following the manufacturer's instructions is important and it probably does get easier with each attempt.

If you are hesitant to go tubeless because the thought of repairing the tires (especially out in the middle of nowhere on a cold rainy day) turns you off, well it is not really much more difficult or time consuming than repairing or replacing a tube (please disregard any moaning I did earlier in the post). Is the ride a whole lot better? I am not as in love with the ride as some people seem to be but having the option to run tires at lower pressure without getting a pinch flat can be nice and useful. This particular tire, used with sealant did work really well and can provide some really good puncture resistance - individual results may vary.

Going Tubeless for Road: Individual Results Will Vary

After making a wheel upgrade to a set of DT Swiss RR 1450 Tricons (www.dtswiss.com/Wheels/Road-Wheels/RR-1450-TRICON-sup-%C2%AE-sup) the opportunity to go tubeless presented itself. There is already plenty of information on going tubeless for anyone interested in making the switch so I will not bother going into great detail on this.

Advantages

Lower Tire Pressure

If you are the kind of person like I am who likes to inflate your tires to the maximum recommended PSI you may have suffered from a "skittish" ride where your (front) wheel seems to be jumping around on every little bit of debris that you can't avoid running over. By riding with tires at lower pressure, the tire is more compliant with debris and the road surface in general so you get a smoother, more comfortable ride. I have always felt that max tire pressure makes my ride (seem) faster but I can't say that riding at 90 - 100 PSI makes any great difference in real speed, in other words,  it does not make me any slower than I already am.

No Pinch Flats

Properly inflating tires obviously avoids this outcome (along with riding style) but tubeless tires eliminate this problem so I do believe this is a real advantage.

Safety

Tubeless tires require a very strong bead. If you have a catastrophic blowout, the tire will not come of the rim, hopefully making it a little easier to come to a stop without crashing. Thankfully I have not had any need to put this to the test but this seems entirely believable. Riding in Japan just about anywhere involves climbing. On a typical weekend ride I'll do 600 - 1000 m of climbing. I find that tubeless tires, if nothing else,  instill confidence on the descents.

Other

Decreased rolling resistance. "There is no friction between the inner tube and the tire" ... Sounds nice in theory. If there is any truth to this, it is certainly not something I have 'felt' in any way while riding. Some people may point out that there is no longer a need to carry a puncture kit or buy/ carry (spare) inner tubes. This is simply not true as fixing a flat on the road will probably necessitate using an inner tube and the patch kit to repair your tire when sealant is not sufficient is the same as you would use to repair an inner tube when you get a flat.

Puncture Resistance

This is a more accurate phrase to use than 'no more flats'. Just as I was planning to post something about going tubeless, I had my first experience with a puncture. This is one of the main points I hope to make in this post. In my limited experience with tubeless tires (about 1500 km on this set), running tubeless tires with sealant can definitely help you finish your ride and get you home. I'm getting to it, please be patient and read on.

Disadvantages

Price - Lack of Selection - Availability

A lot depends, obviously, on where you live. Living in Japan, near a major city, IRC tubeless tires are pretty easy to find and their entry level tubeless tire can be found for about US$52 (LBS or online). Hutchinson tubeless are probably the next easiest to find but are rather pricier at about US$ 75 or so for the Fusion 3s. The Schwalbe Ultremo ZX tubeless tires I opted for were about US$ 55 at my LBS. I don't know of any road tubeless tires for under US$ 50. A good LBS in my area typically has 3 -5 choices of tubeless tires (probably because Shimano's entry level tubeless ready wheelsets are easy to find and usually competitively priced). The situation where you live is probably similar or may be worse; tubeless tires are pretty expensive (compared to ordinary clinchers with decent tubes) and there is not a whole lot of choice, if you can even find them.

Weight

If anything, tubeless tires are a little bit heavier than clincher / tube combinations because of the way they are made. Assuming you add sealant for the tubeless tire, they are even 'heavier'. This is more a topic for weight weenies. Let's just say that if you were hoping to save weight by virtue of not having a tube, there is in fact no advantage (or disadvantage).

Installation

This was the biggest concern I had before going for tubeless tires; the endless horror stories in forums and posts about the difficulty of installing tubeless tires, mainly because tools are not supposed to be used for installation. I am sure that it may difficult for many people. This is really the second point I hope to make in this post. 

Much to my surprise, the installation was easier than for some clinchers I have used. The combination of the DT Swiss wheels and Ultremo ZX tires I used worked very well. With different wheels and tires it may indeed be a lot more difficult (thus the title of the post). If you are put off making the choice for tubeless tires based on this fear alone, please don't be (don't choose tubeless for one of the other valid points already mentioned). 

Installation

There are plenty of good how to videos on YouTube for installing tubeless tires. I found this one from Hutchinson to be the most useful: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBa88zZossE.

The only points I can add to this:

• The 'tool' used in the video to apply the water / soap solution costs about US$ 10 at my LBS. Unless I actually wanted to carry something with me on a ride for emergency repairs, this tool is a waste (some people will carry a small container of talcum powder for installing a tube when on tour, kinda like that I guess). I just mixed up a 50 - 50 solution of water and liquid soap for washing dishes and applied it by hand. The solution does make a huge difference. The 'special' solution sold by some companies for installing tubeless tires also seems to be completely unnecessary.
• I had to purchase a valve core removal tool. It was not included with any of my purchases (wheel, tires, sealant). You will need one and it sucks to start a job and not have all the tools.
• I used to install clinchers starting at the valve as this part of the tire seemed the most difficult to seat. With tubeless tires in particular, this is a bad idea. Absolutely finish at the valve, the 'extra' tire material you have to work with will help get it on. 
• I found wearing gloves gave me a better grip on the tire and probably saved some skin.
• Once I got the tire on the rim, I pushed the valve up into the tire and then tightened the retaining screw to put it back into place. I found it easier to seat the tire next to the valve this way. It can be a tight fit (see pictures part 2).
• CO2 cartridges are pricey where I live. Schwalbe claim that the Ultremo ZX tubeless tires can be initially inflated with a floor pump. I am not saying it was easy, but they can be. Out on the road would be another story.
• I used Hutchinson's Protect'Air Max sealant in my installation. After deflating the tires, removing the tires, removing the core from the valve, adding the sealant and replacing the valve core, it is important to move the tires around or else the sealant will come up through the valve and make a nice mess (and make the core of the valve rather 'sticky' for subsequent inflation - you can guess why I am adding this comment).

The next biggest worry I had and of equal or greater importance is what would happen when I eventually had to remove the tire for repair. How difficult would it be to remove the tire and how messy would it be to deal with the sealant? This is the subject of the part 2 of the post.