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.