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For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/t

• pmoriarty 4y ago
  "Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding." Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
  • rascul 4y ago
    Not sure if they still make them, but some many years ago I tried out some Slime tubes that had the stuff built into the tube somehow. Not only did it not work to seal punctures, it was impossible to patch.
  • mbrameld 4y ago
    Not sure about road biking, but at least in the mountain and gravel communities it's almost universal. There are 3 popular sealant brands that I'm aware of: Stans, Orange Seal, and Slime.
    • davidw 4y ago
      I have been riding and racing bikes since 1990, and I think tubeless is one of the best real innovations. Fixing flats sucks.
  • twoWhlsGud 4y ago
    No. I've been riding a road tubeless setup in Seattle and surrounding countryside for half a decade now and the feel has nothing to do with Slime. 55mm x ISO 559 lightweight road tires with Orange Seal. (In the NW we like wide road tires : ) Something like 10k miles later I've had zero incidents where I had to fix something on the road. You do have to more maintenance (e.g. make sure you have adequate sealant in the tires periodically) but for regular year round use especially, it is a worthwhile trade.
  • uxp100 4y ago
    There are (small) differences in wheel and tire design to support the sealant based system, and that makes all the difference I guess. Slime tubes are pretty reviled, tubeless is the hot thing. Besides being more reliable it also allows for lower pressures, which is probably the main reason it has become popular. There is very little downside for riders (tubeless is just a bit slower than high end tubes that very few riders use), but for the home mechanic they’re a bit of a pain to work on.
  • JonChesterfield 4y ago
    I like the slime inner tubes. They've saved me a few times. Only on lowish pressure tyres though, I can't imagine they work well on a road bike.
  • asdff 4y ago
    People do get annoyed with tubeless to be honest. Its a mixed bag of people who like it because the rolling resistance is 1 watt lower, and people who hate it because its a lot more maintenance keeping up with sealant and hard to patch sometimes compared to just throwing in a new tube (which a lot of tubeless users end up doing when they get a puncture flat anyhow).
• turdprincess 4y ago
  I have two bikes - one tubleess, one tubed. On my tubed bike, other than 1 or 2 flats in the last 5 years, these tires have required 0 maintenance. Even after dusting the bike off from the winter, they pump right up and are ready to go. My tubeless tires are a constant source of headache. They are constantly going flat, sometimes weekly, requiring more sealant, stuck valve cores, etc. Overall, I'd say my tubeless tires require monthly maintenance, while my tubed tires have basically never required any thought at all. What am I missing here?
  • giraffe_lady 4y ago
    idk there's some finesse I had to learn when switching to tubeless. They do need a little maintenance and it took a while to get a feel for it and not cause more problems. If you're only getting 2 flats in five years though yeah stick with tubes. I get 3-4 a year and they're much less of an event with tubeless, so the extra routine work pays off.
  • gaetgu 4y ago
    That’s interesting. On my mountain bike that (used to) get a lot of constant use, tubeless was much better than my old MTV with tubes. When the tubes get a flat it is a whole process to get it patched, but tubeless both seem to get less flats and seal better with whatever I put in them. That being said, tubeless tires do require being used fairly regularly, which includes pumping them up (just topping them off) almost every time you go out. Right now I haven’t gone mountain biking in quite a while so I guarantee that my tires are flat
  • FpUser 4y ago
    Sometime I would go a year without flats and sometimes I would get like (this was worst ever) 5 in a month.
  • hellisothers 4y ago
    I have a similar experience with tubeless, maybe half the time I setup a tubeless tire it works for weeks without refills, the other half i have to reinflate one a week. However it’s worth it because the reason I go tubeless is to have very low PSI for comfort, like around 30 PSI, can’t get that with tubes.
• analog31 4y ago
  A lesson I've learned over years of cycling and maintaining other kinds of machines, is that all fluids require maintenance. Of course the air in the tires is also a fluid. But introducing yet another fluid to overcome a maintenance issue, is virtually guaranteed to introduce yet another maintenance issue. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of tradeoffs.
  • ggforpp 4y ago
    Well said. Tubeless is fora shaving off a few grams from the wheels, which translates to a very low (but measurable) energy saving on acceleration.