TUBES V’S TUBELESS
Bling! We all love it and we’ve all spent many an hour dreaming about what next purchase will adorn our steed of choice. Aesthetics, an expression of individuality or simply the desire to have the latest gucci kit are all perfectly valid reasons for doing so and sometimes, even legitimate performance gains are the desired effect (shocking I know!). But where best to spend those hard earned dollars? Carbon bolts for your bottle cage and titanium jokey wheels with ceramic bearings might be the proverbial ducks whatnots but they might not be best bang for your buck. Wheels are often touted as the most sensitive area of the bike with respect to weight due to the amplified effect that rotating mass has on the dynamic characteristics of a bike. In English, this basically means that weight saved on the wheels is worth more than the same weight saved elsewhere. Wheels then will often be one of the first areas considered for that upgrade and for us hairy legged dirt dwellers, this means considering one of the most pressing issues of our time. No, not the global financial crisis but whether or not to go tubeless?
As with any potential new purchase, the decision ultimately comes down to whether or not you are getting value for money. How much does it cost and is it worth it? After doing the appropriate ‘googling’ I had virtually written off the need for a tubeless conversion because of the often inconsistent (and sometimes complete rubbish) reasons both for and against being provided. There really is very little to separate the two though when you look at the fundamental issues of cost and weight subjectively.
As far as cost goes, there are a number of ways to go tubeless on your rig and indeed some of them are, financially, actually quite painless. Conversion kits like ‘Stans’ are the easiest as they allow you to run tubeless tyres on your existing wheelset and can be bought for about the same cost as a decent pair of racing tyres. Alternatively, you could purchase a tubeless rim and lace them to your existing hub which, particularly if you have a good relationship with your local bike shop, probably won’t cost you much more than a conversion kit and have the added benefit of upping that ‘bling’ factor. Clearly, the most expensive option is simply to buy an entirely new tubeless ready wheelset. This requires a much bigger initial outlay but does afford you the luxury of keeping your existing wheelset for training or commuting duties. Eventually, as tubeless technology gains popularity manufacturers will undoubtedly release tubeless options across a wider range of price points making the technology even more accessible and at the end of the day, whether you are running tubes or not the more you spend the more performance you get.
As for weight, I believe the claim that tubeless systems will reduce the weight of your wheelset to be fundamentally flawed. Look at any tire series and it’s clear that the tubeless version of that tyre is always heavier than a lightweight racing one due to the requirement for a reinforced sidewall. What the promoters of lightweight tubeless systems don’t tell you is that to get any meaningful weight savings you need to run them with a non-tubeless tyre and while this arrangement will be measurably lighter, it does not come without additional cost. The risk of pinch flats is simply substituted with the risk of burping the tyre or a spectacularly catastrophic sidewall failure and it’s hard to look cool in a full body cast. Only XC weight weenies with their shorter races and a requirement for ultimate performance should consider this type of arrangement. For the rest of us looking for a setup capable of doing everything up to 24’s with a minimum of fuss and maintenance, a proper tubeless tyre is really the only way to go.
So if tubeless costs more or less the same and is not markedly lighter why should you bother? The answer, unfortunately, lies in the waffly, often romantic statements about “improved ride control” and “increased bump sensitivity” which are very difficult to convey effectively via the written word. It may seem counter intuitive given that higher pressures are faster on the road but have you ever stopped to consider that when the Paris-Roubaix rolls around with its punishing stretches of cobblestones the pro tour teams swap their high pressure tubulars on deep section carbon rims for wide clinchers on box section alloy ones? As the road surface deteriorates, lower pressures give more control, grip and ultimately speed! Interestingly, F1 and WRC cars run pressures as low as 15psi and the tyre forms an integral part of the suspension system. With such low pressures the tyres themselves mould to the road surface and soak up the small high frequency bumps that would otherwise rattle the cars forcing them to slow down. I believe that this is the same phenomenon that is experienced with tubeless MTB tyres. Lower pressures allow the tyre to mould itself to the trail surface actually cutting down on rolling resistance while increasing the available grip. The final kicker is that even for those who couldn’t care less about going fast, a tubeless setup will noticeably improve the general ride quality as the low pressure tyres provide a virtual buffer between you and the ground which lets you get on with the business of just enjoying the ride. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?
By far the best advice I can offer is for you to beg, borrow or steal a set of tubeless wheels and ride them for yourself. You might need to tweak your suspension a little to get the best out of them but I challenge anyone to fang a few laps on tubeless wheels and not resolve to make them their very next upgrade. I know I couldn’t and despite opting for the whole new wheelset route I do not regret it for an instant. Perhaps the most persuasive argument for the affirmative though is the fact that tubeless tyres have been universally adopted by the ranks of the MTB elite. Full Suspension vs Hardtail, 29ers vs 26. These are other examples of competing standards which have split the MTB community and to date there has not really be a clear victor with at least some pro’s falling on both sides of the respective fences. Every single one of them though is running tubeless tyres which as far as I’m concerned is incontrovertible proof that tubeless is faster.
And even if you’re not intent on hunting Messer’s Absalon and Sauser down for their rainbow jerseys, a tubeless setup will improve your overall riding experience to such a degree that, having made the choice to go tubeless, it now hardly seems like a choice at all. For new bike purchases in the not too distant future, I suspect that if the bike doesn’t come with tubeless wheels already (unlikely), swapping some tubeless ones in will become as commonplace as putting on bottle cages and a computer. Admittedly, new standards are thrust upon us with alarming regularity and one has to wonder whether they are really necessary (the n ew 15mm front axle springs to mind) but tubeless tyres have been proven at the very highest levels of MTB competition and are clearly here to stay.
Just do it. Do it and don’t look back.
Words by Shane Taylor.
