Two Wheel Blogs

First of all, I need to say I LIKE tubeless and the kit I got from NoTubes.com is great. I have found it to do everything as advertised.

BUT! There is always a 'but'. I wonder how many people have experienced this type of failure (that I am about to mention). This is something to consider for certain.

The Basics of Tubeless
I need to give a bit of background on tubeless conversions. Basically, a person takes the tubes out of the tire, and through the use of a liquid latex based sealer and possibly a special rim strip, inflates, seals and rides a standard tire with no tubes. The advantages are numerous: You can run lower pressures with out concern of pinch flat, flats become very rare and you therefore can basically eliminate one need to stop due to flat during a race (this can be the difference between victory and DNF), and the tire performs differently without a tube (they are more supple and many tires tend to get better traction without a tube at the same pressure as an identical tire with a tube).

One of the greatest advantages (the almost inevitable sealing effect of the latex when a puncture occurs) may also be a big disadvantage.

For one thing, because the sealer seals, you won't even know if a thorn is in your tire. What is more, as you use the stuff it dries up and you have to put in more sealer (about monthly). This dried sealer builds up inside the tire and creates a thick irregular film on the inside of the tire casing (see photo). In addition to the added weight of all this stuff building up in a critical location (for the weight conscious), it will obscure foreign bodies from sight and feel.

In the photo you see the inside of the tire (tire was turned inside out for the picture). In the lower portion, I have peeled back (with great effort) the latex residue. In the upper portion you can see the thick (about 2mm in places) latex buildup. The surface is very irregular with a botryoidal (look it up it basically means a surface that looks bubbly) texture.

The Long Term Problem
Imagine this: You get a nasty cut that the sealer won't heal, or your sealer dries up, or for whatever reason, you need to put a tube in. You are diligent and check for thorns and feel/see none, but because of this thick film you miss a few and put your only tube in and inflate it. The tube then flattens the film against the casing and allows the thorn(s) to puncture your tube.

It is a real possibility. Of all the opponents of tubeless, I have never seen this scenario mentioned (I suspect most people who hate tubeless don't get this far).

Something to consider. As I say, I still like the concept of tubeless, but I am slowly learning the many pitfalls of the system (I have not used tubes for over a year now). Then again, we all know the many pitfalls of tubes.

It is taking forever to get the pictures from my camera to the PC so I will post the image later....