Tubeless MTB Wheels Win This Skeptic Over – Finally

Peace in our time: Wandering Justin learns to love tubeless wheels.

It’s been about a decade since tubeless wheelsets started appearing. When I was still working at Adventure Bicycle Company in Mesa (part-time, by that point), wheel giants Mavic sent a representative to our shop to show us how to work on them and convince us of the benefits.

I didn’t come away convinced. Not at all. Didn’t like ‘em. Didn’t want ‘em.

Let’s get this straight: I’m not old-school just to be contrary. I’m just a skeptic. If something is truly worth it, you’d better give me more than marketing hype to convince me. And be sure to pick the right features and benefits.

For instance, the Mavic dude really hung his presentation on the concept that tubeless tires would prevent pinch flats. That would let riders use lower tire pressures to get a smoother ride

My response was … BFD. Most of our customers at the time were riding various Santa Cruz full-suspensions bikes. Traction and smooth rides weren’t –and still aren’t- really concepts a Santa Cruz owner need lose any sleep over.

Now, let’s move ahead in time. I’ve become a tubeless believer. I know what you’re thinking: “What-what-what?!”

I was wrong. Kind of. It wasn’t lower tire pressures that convinced me.

See, many of the new generation of tubeless wheelsets require users to use tire sealant to help maintain a seal between the tire bead and the rim. The sealant also works to plug up punctures.

Okay, so maybe you’re thinking “Ah, Wandering Justin … you poor fool. Slime has been around for eons.” Sure, but Slime and its ilk were a lot heavier. Compound that with the weight of the tube and that Slime would eventually dry out and turn into a hunk of hard material in your tube and you have a loser.

Lose the tube. Make the sealant more liquidy. Make it lighter. Bingo, you have a winner! Had the Mavic rep hung his pitch on that, I would’ve knocked him over to get at his set of demo wheels.

It took awhile to win me over. I had my Fisher Cake 2 DLX for about three years before I gave it a try. It came with Bontrager Race tubeless wheels, but I continued using tubes. But the wheels never seemed to like tubes. The tire always had a pronounced bounce in its roll. I was tired of that, and decided to take the plunge to full-on tubeless use. The Bontrager manual insisted that you have to use sealant with this wheelset.

I noticed a smoother, less bouncy ride. But what really convinced me was my ride at Pima & Dynamite (more on that coming up soon). I had five punctures. On my old setup, that would’ve resulted in patching or replacing five tubes. That would totally suck. Instead, I just found the offending item (in each case, a big cactus spike), spun the hole to the 6 o’clock position on the wheel, waited for it to seal and used my pump to bring the pressure back up. Instead of wasting minutes, I was wasting seconds. Not bad!

By the way, NoTubes sealant is my preferred brand at the moment. What do you kids use?