Modern sealants were a game-changer for those of us who ride amongst the ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris). Pre-sealant, I’d use up more than 150 Rema patches a year (I bought them in boxes of 100) and that was with pretty beefy tires.*
Instance: I installed a very supple lightweight tire on a Ram and got 5 punctures in the first 10 miles, this without sealant. I put sealant into my tubes and that solved the problem. That was Stan’s sealant; Orange Seal works ever better. Tubeless: I use light tubes for road tires, from 30 psi (very lightweight 42 mm) to 60 psi (even lighter 28 mm) and I find that the right sealant — Orange Seal original formula — in tubes works as well against small punctures (thorns to small nails) as it does in tubeless tires. For off road I use tubeless tires with another Orange Seal formula. So you don’t need tubeless to benefit from modern sealants. But tubeless setups add other benefits, especially in fat low pressure tires: first, sealants might not work as well in tubes at very low pressures; I ride my light 50 mm tires as low as 18 psi. The right sealant in tubeless tires as low as 12 psi works very well. Second, fat tubes weigh a lot; for a 50 mm 700C tire at least 150 grams and some are more like 200. So you save 1/3 to almost 12 lb per wheel. Lastly, pinch flats. Me, I never pinch flat even at 12 psi with tubes, but it’s a risk if you hit a rock or cottonwood root at speed. Tubeless tires don’t have tubes and so they never get pinch flats. The sealant is necessary to seal punctures and also perfectly seal the tire beads against the rim. Upshot: the right sealant lets one ride much, much nicer tires in areas where thorns would make them impossible otherwise; with tubeless tires it saves weight and prevents pinch flats. But, *con:* sealants are messy. If you use them, be prepared for periodic replenishing as the sealant dries out; for punctures spraying sealant on you and the bike — fenders help! And with tubes, finding your flatted tube swimming inside a tire full of leaked sealant that didn’t do its job sealing a particularly big hole. Still, balancing pro’s and con’s: If I didn’t live amongst goatheads, I’d not bother. A flat a week from debris is nothing for 3-4K miles (my earlier mileage) — I laugh when people complain about fixing 5 flats a year. But if sealant lets me ride very nice, light, and fragile tires that ride so nicely, it’s a godsend. On Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 6:35 PM Kat <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't want to derail the stem/clamp/handlebar part of this discussion > but call me tubeless-curious. I feel like I mainly see complaints about the > difficulty of sealant. Are the benefits (from what I can tell, less weight, > less flats) good enough to outweigh the fussiness of setup? > > For me, I can't recall the last time I had a flat honestly. Although I am > definitely jinxing myself by saying that. And I am not a weight weenie, so > I just don't get the appeal of tubeless. I'm ready to be enlightened though! > > Kat & her monogamous, do it all, Appaloosa > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgtLMwZPwcPL_Mkb446UWZFaLKhaL39LkAr%2Bq_rj8O-KWA%40mail.gmail.com.
