They lied to me… the adverts, the Youtube channels, the vlogs, the websites, the magazines…. They said tubless tires were the best thing in the world. Going tubless was like shedding the chains, a new liberation, the new disk brakes, the bees knees and I trusted them. I bought the tires, the new valves (really bling ones), the sealant, the rim tape…. even a compressor (why o why did I buy such a huge one? It only needed to be small enough for the tires, any thoughts of a completely air driven tool set were misplaced). I went for it, I ignored the pain getting the bead to seat and I set the bike up. Look at me, I am tireless, sorry, tubeless now. No more rubber inner tubey thingys for me… Well except in the saddle bag because apparently tubeless cannot survive everything…. (a bit like taking CO2 cycliders and a pump, because we’ve all seen mates f*** up with a CO2 cylinder so we take a pump as well… not just the pump because… WTF bin the cyclinders…).

I then espoused the wonders of tubeless to all my friends. “You have to do it… It’s the best…. blah, blah, blah)… And then things gradually dawned on me…

So why is tubeless so popular, coming from the evil that is known as mountain biking? Well, it is indeed a very cool concept. Most punctures fix themselves and the sealant plugs up even nail holes. You lose the weight of the butyl tube (but do gain in sealant). You can run a slightly lower air pressure with all the extra comfort it brings and rolling resistance is lowered bringing you more watts. Watts not to like here? See what I did there! Almost as sad as trying to convert the world to tubeless.

So what went wrong…. The truth is tubeless is a frickin pain. Seriously…. And that’s a little bit sad… As the pro’s all make great sense. So why is it a pain? Let’s be sad a right a list…

1. I don’t care how many videos I see about how easy and clean it is using sealant. I always seem to make a mess. I can do everything so pain shakenly to then knock the bottle over tidying up. Check this dude out building his gravel on the carpet… If my wife saw me doing that… Shudder… (Great video though, enjoy)
2. You have to top it up every 6 months – probably more… making more mess…
3. You have to clean the stuff you put the sealant in with – its another sticky mess…
4. Get a big enough leak when riding it pisses everywhere… Have fun picking it out of your components and even worse ripping off your leg hairs to remove it (not everyone on a bike shaves their legs)
5. Seating the tire is a b****
6. Unseating the tires is a B*****. Group ride fun breaking your thumbs as your mates watch you resort to an inner tube.
7. The valves start getting clogged up so you need to replace them or just have a wired pumping up experience.
8. Have fun sorting out “where the leak is” when you find air rushing out of the rim drain port
9. You have to carry inner tubes ANYWAY just in case…
10. Don’t use the bike for a period of time, great – you’ve got a lump of sealant now on one side.. Perhaps I need to rebuild a watch winder to rotate my wheels during winter when I leave the summer bike on the rack.
11. Putting on the rim tape is a pain.. dudes who make rim tapes, go take lessons from Scotch or Sellotape on how to make one side sticky…
12. You have to pump up tires once a weak cos air leaks all the time

There’s more but you get the point. Yes, some reading this will think I am exaggerating OR incompetent. Feel that way but deep down you understand, you just haven’t except the truth of it yet.

The truth is for mountain bikes and tire pressures below 70 psi it works… ad is great. I just don’t think it is there yet for road bikes. Hence my Slate with 650B wheels and 42mm tires… Tubeless. But for the Canyon Endurance.. tubes… all the way even with 30mm 700cc.

AND there is an alternative… TPU tubes… I shudder again but not with fear this time (let’s go no further into this)… TPU baby.. All the way… BUTYL is dead to me. TPU tubes are super lightweight, low rolling resistance, recyclable, hold air better than even butyl and just “feel” great on the ride. Super skinny you can get three in the smallest of saddlebags (‘cos we have to have a tiny saddle bag because the “Rules” say saddle bags are uncool, but then where do we put all our s***, jersey pockets are not the Tardis). The are only two downsides to TPU tubes. They are expensive… and leaks tend to be super hard to find without a water bath… 

And hence the reason why I haven’t quite left tubeless… I was using Tubilito tubes but I have swapped to the wonderful Revoloop. They have removable valves cores and hence in a belts and braces like approach I am using sealant in them… Will it work? Who knows but I am still learning….. And they ride great.. seriously try TPU inner tubes.. in a way a step back but a leap forward…