Tubeless tyres don’t work. Period.

August 13, 2023 at 10:22 | Posted in bicycles | 1 Comment
Tags: bicycle, bike, puncture, tubeless

I have now been riding my fancy new bike for about six months. It’s been a lot of fun; I’ve done more longer rides, gone much faster down the hills and cleaned my bicycle much more often than in the last five years or so. So all in all, this has been a success. Except for one thing.

I have had a lot of punctures. Six, to be precise. That’s a puncture every 4 weeks. Actually a bit worse than that, as we were away on holiday for one of those months. Mrs Chillikebab had to come and rescue me in the car on at least two occasions. On my other bike, that’s only happened once in 15 years.

This is because I don’t get punctures. I used to, years and years ago. But then I discovered 32mm tyres with puncture protection, and now hardly ever get a flat. If I do get one, it’s because of something pretty catastrophic, and it happens very rarely. Like every three years or something.

However, my new fancy bicycle was equipped with the latest puncture-proof technology. No longer must we use (apparently) uncomfortable, heavy puncture-resistant tyres*. Instead we can ride around on lightweight racing tyres which are sealed onto the wheel and do not have an inner tube! That’s right, we can also save a precious few grammes on tubes as well!

So how do they work? Well, they are sort of coated inside with this gloopy latex stuff. I think you actually spray it in via the valve. And if you do get a puncture – some pesky shard of glass pierces the tyre, for example – well, the gloopy stuff sort of oozes out of the hole, hardens, and voila! The puncture is sealed.

This, according to bicycle internet gurus, is fantastic. It offers peace of mind, is maintenance-free, and much easier than faffing around with hard-case tyres and inner tubes.

Well, I can report, dear readers, that this is bollocks. My experiences of tubeless tyres has been one of endless slow punctures, flats that will not reinflate, and having to remove a tyre by the side of the road in order to fit an inner-tube into it. This whole thing simply DOES NOT WORK. I can only assume that people who think it does work have never actually tried proper tyres – you know, the ones that don’t get punctures.

Anyway, today I had finally had enough. I took the bike (replete with yet another flat tyre) to the bike shop, and had them replace the tyres with proper ones. With puncture resistance. And inner tubes.

So at least I can ride again without the fear of being stranded.

 

*I do not know what an ‘uncomfortable’ tyre is. And I cannot tell the difference between heavy and light tyres. It’s just a tyre. It goes round. Just put more or less air in until it feels right.