Tubeless and sidewall cuts?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Mayhew on September 7, 2011 at 9:38am

I wouldn't run tubeless in general, as it doesn't work.

 

But also, I wouldn't trust a booted tire for tubeless given how precarious they are in the first place. It would make a good training tire though.

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Permalink Reply by David whitlock on September 7, 2011 at 10:15am

Yea, tell that to every mt biker out there. 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Studnicki on September 7, 2011 at 11:45am

Amazingly, I cut the sidewall on a tubeless mtb tire, booted it, and raced on that tire all year.  This was more out of neccessity than anything else.  I used a large Rema patch on the inside and a small one on the outside, cleaning the areas, sanding, and using the same vulcanizing fluid as it if was a tube.  There was a slight bump there once inflated, but since I ran 25psi max, it wasn't that bad.  There's always a right way to do the wrong thing.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mayhew on September 7, 2011 at 1:31pm

Tubeless technology is mature and works quite well for MTBing. Not so well for 'cross. To reverse that, tubulars are the best option for 'cross and you don't see crossers telling MTBers they should get tubulars.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Hendricks on September 7, 2011 at 8:13pm

I don't know any MTBers telling 'crossers anything, much less that they should run tubeless.  I don't even know any 'crossers telling other 'crossers to switch to tubeless.  I would like the tubular faithful to stop telling those of us who choose tubeless that tubeless won't work.  It does, if it's done right.

 

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Permalink Reply by cxchiva on September 7, 2011 at 11:17pm

Seriously, I run both road and cyclocross with tubeless setups and will never go back, and don't understand why more people don't see the light. I have not flatted once in 3 seasons of road and cyclocross racing. Tubulars are an expensive option that not everyone can afford. And if someone is anti-tubeless they are usually the riders who turn their bike upside down to change their tire or take their bike into the LBS to have their derailleur adjusted.

In answer to the question, I wouldn't run a repaired tubeless tire unless the punture was quite small, and like someone mentioned, only for training.

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Permalink Reply by ZenNMotion on September 7, 2011 at 11:32pm

The OP asked about using a patched tire in a tubeless setup.  Chris was nice enough to reply with good advice. I know him from local reputation and results, he's too modest to say so , but there are few on this forum with his level of skill and experience, so take or leave his suggestions as you wish.  Whats with the attitude dudes?  It's just tires, roll what you bring and don't worry about the other guy's rubber.  Chris' advice is solid if you're not too proud to learn something.

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Permalink Reply by c-note on September 7, 2011 at 10:32pm

Yes, it can and has been done. I'm the sort who would rather race on a new tire though. Anyone who says tubeless doesn't work for cyclocross doesn't know enough about tubeless, period.

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Permalink Reply by andrew on September 8, 2011 at 2:11am

i agree, I wouldn't race it unless it was a small cut, and thus you probably wouldn't need a boot in that case.

 

As to tubeless in cyclocross, FWIW, I'm personally a huge fan of tubeless in cyclocross, and if forced to choose to ride and race one setup for the rest of my life (thankfully I prob won't have to), I'd choose tubeless over clinchers or tubulars for cyclocross. Like tubulars it requires attention to detail, but it's awesome when you get it dialed, just like a good glue job. For more info on some of the particulars, see Going Tubeless, our 3 part series. It does work very, very well with the right ingredients. 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by J.D. Kimple on September 12, 2011 at 12:45pm

Thanks, Andrew. It was your three-part series that gave me the gumption to try. Now I find out about 20% of the guys in our series are going or have gone tubeless.

 

With the advice above, I went with a different tire to complete my setup (CrossBlaster up front, Kommando in the rear). Taking it out to my "training grounds" I've got the tire pressure pretty dialed in. And after several days of not using those tires I went back and checked the pressure and guess what - no loss. Hey, tubeless works! And I never thought I'd get a tire with so little tread to grip in the mud and loose stuff so well.

Thanks to CX Magazine for giving me the idea and tools to get a successful tubeless setup going. I'm pretty excited to start putting them to use.

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by andrew on September 12, 2011 at 12:57pm

thanks JD for the follow-up.  that's awesome. that's really fast, light combo - one of my favorites really.  that cross blaster on a wide rim is great - sub 300g tire. the cinder-x has a similar tread and is wider, but the casing/bead make it much harder to seal, fwiw.

 

what pressure did you go with, and how much do you weigh if that's not too private?

 

20% of the racers? that's amazing.

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Permalink Reply by J.D. Kimple on September 13, 2011 at 3:59am

Andrew;

I'm about 180-ish, and right now I can go with 27-28 lbs. up front, 29 in back. I can drop a few lbs. if it gets real muddy and isn't too rocky. I'd like to go with wider rims but Fulcrum 7's are what I have for now. I have found I can go about 25 in the back but I start to burp air a bit and pluck grass. Less than 24-25 up front and it will start to get too squirmy and the sidwalls will fold.

After reading others responses to air pressures in general it seems a bit low. And no, I'm not known as much of a finesse rider. I'm more of a bull-in-a-china-shop type rider. I may go up a bit when I start with the serious practice and/or racing. But for now it seems a good starting point.

 

And perhaps I've overstated it a bit with the 20%, I was kind of gauging it on the "core" group of guys I've gotten to know. But it's still a lot more than I thought.

 

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