I haven't had a tubeless flat yet, but based on Epic's experiences and reading about tubeless on other forums, such as SlowTwitch and RoadBikeReview and MTBR I'll share my thoughts.
- The tubeless tire has more butyl rubber and thickness. My Padrones weigh 290 grams, my Conti 4000S's weighed around 230, so maybe more resistant to punctures.
- The leak may be slower, maybe even slow enough to ride home, similar to getting a screw or nail in a car tire. With tubes, once the tube ruptures the air comes out quickly.
- Hutchinson's "Rep Air" is a tubeless repair kit. You put a couple of drops of their special glue in the cut and it glues the tire back together. Inflate the tire and ride it. The kit also includes tubeless patches so you can glue those to the inside of the tire if the external glue doesn't do the job. Then use a CO2 cartridge or pump (whichever you use now) and inflate the tire back up (noting that you can limp home at 40-50 pounds of pressure if need be). CAVEAT -- if you have to unseat the bead of tubeless, the odds are good that you won't get it reseated with a hand pump, hence the CO2 cartridge.
- Hutchinson "Fast Air" or Vittoria/Geax "PitStop" are pressurized cans of sealant. Press the can against the valve stem and it reinflates the tire while it injects foam that will find and repair the leak.
- Call a cab or beg a ride back to the car and deal with the flat after a beer.
You could also prep the tire with liquid sealant (as with Mountain Bikes) and it would seal the leak immediately and you would never have to stop. I'm not doing that -- I will reconsider if I wind up having more flats with tubeless, but I only get 1 per year or less (the Vectran breaker on the Conti's has been excellent in that respect).
In place of a spare tube and tire levers, my seat pouch now carries the tubeless repair kit, a Hutchinson Fast'Air, and a CO2 cartridge inflator.
Anything more than that, I'm willing to call AAA.
Home
Login
Register