Sorry, I should have been more clear. Continental has designed the GP5000 TL to be airtight without the requirement of sealant. They still recommend their own sealant as extra protection, but the tires should (operative word “should”) mount and hold air without the need for sealant.
On my Reynolds Assaults, the 28mm TLs are holding air with no issue. On my Hunt Aero30s, I replaced the tubeless valve stem on one of the wheels and used some sealant after seating the tire to make sure the new valve didn’t get a bit leaky. The other Aero30 is sealant free and holding air without issue.
So far, the claim is holding true on 2 sets of wheels. I’m not sure how long my peace of mind will last before I put sealant in all them to avoid risking a silly small puncture on the road.
I just ordered 5000TL in 25s for my assaults. I’m a bit worried about them bulging out of the aero shape, yet I see you have 28s on yours? What is your rim internal/external width and do the Continentals overhang at all? Thinking maybe you have newer version of rim?
Mine are 17 internal 25 external. Panaracer Race A TL measure about 24.8 mm. Super tough tires, even ride then on dirt roads, but trying the gp5000 TL for summer given the super low rolling resistance they are reporting. Just not sure how the profile will line up yet.
The 5000TL are nothing like the 4000S2. On my FLO wheels internal 17mm and external 24.2. The picture is a 28 tire on a FLO carbon front wheel with disc brakes.
Thanks - that is encouraging to see on a 17mm internal width rim! I heard they improved this quite a bit from the 4000s and just wasn’t sure if it would be enough! I will post caliper data and a summary of install pain to this thread as soon as I get them mounted.
I’m also curious - any particular reason why you are running 28s rather than the 25 mm if the rims are presumably a deeper aero shape? I thought it was necessary to always keep max tire width as close to or slightly below the rim width to ensure the airflow works optimally.
in theory it sounds great, and of course every mtb’er and cx rider will preach it. But the road bead is AWFUL, and if it fails, you might get stranded. That happened to me, and finally a friend said, “Is changing a tube THAT bad?” Ride solid tires and flats shouldn’t be that big of a deal on the ride. Avoid potholes and junk in the road. I’m not a fan of road tubeless after giving it more than a full year to experience the good and bad, for me. Just my 2 cents! Good luck!
That was my issue with one of my Hutchinson Sector 28s, will never buy them again. All other tires have been great. Got 1500+ miles on Specialized S-Works Pro road tubeless, fantastic tire.
When I first started riding a couple of years ago was surprised to see friends on Strava with ride ending sidewall failures on tubes. Then it happened to me, on a tube tire.
Being able to change a tube didn’t change the fact a ride can be over, clincher or tubeless. Another 2 cents makes it almost a nickel
Being a bigger guy (92.5kg) i like the extra volume the 28’s provide. Not sure about the areo science as I am not that deep into, slowly getting there though. My 4000’s measured at 32 on the same FLO wheels.
Ive done about 16,000km on Pro Ones (28mm) tubeless. Only had 1 ride i didnt make it home, due to tape failure (i didnt bother putting a tube in, but I could have)
Plenty of rides I didnt even know i had a puncture till afterwards, finding sealant everywhere.
A couple of rides ive limped home on low pressure but made it.
I’ve never put a tube in there.
I am only running 60-65psi (im 70kg) which I think helps with sealing, as well as more comfort and being faster on some of the rougher rides I rode.
A friend had a bad experience on London-Edinburgh-London in 2017; had a flat that would not seal, put a tube in, punctured again, now have a tube covered in sealant that needs patching. He finished the event but it sounded frustrating.
My lessons from his experience: have options for plugging the hole as a first line of defence (Dynaplug, and two different types of anchovies, and glue to help them seal), and have a couple of lightweight spare tubes and some Park Tool tyre boots as well. On an event that only takes place once every 4 years, you don’t want to be under prepared!
I had a puncture on LEL 2013 myself - a flint in the front tyre (Grand Prix 4 Seasons). Pull out the flint, swap the tube, CO2, off you go. Trouble was, LEL is a 4-5 day event and this was on day 1, and I didn’t think to add air at one of the checkpoints later. So on day 3 or so enough CO2 had escaped, and I hit a stone in Scotland, and got a snake bite and had to do it all again.
I decided to put some slicks on a set up mountain bike rims to I can get some road miles on a hardtail I plan to use for Whiteface and Leadville this year. I had an extra set of Niner carbon wheels which I had replaced for XC use with a set of Enve M525’s. I figured the Niner’s would be perfect as the “road” wheelset.
After looking at options I ended up ordering a set of Schwalbe Marathon Supremes which are tubeless ready. The gorilla tape I had on the Niner rims was getting old, so I removed it and ended up retaping with some Stan’s tape. The Schwalbe’s were not too difficult to mount on the rim but I did warm them with a hairdryer. I then used a compressor to seat them into place. The bead snapped easily into place with about 20 - 30 lbs of pressure.
After seating I added some Stan’s Sealant. There was a little leakage through the tire in a couple of spots and little around the rim. I pumped the tires up to about 40 lbs and left overnight. The next day one of them was flat. I repumped up to 40 lbs, saw a little leakage of the sealant and then it stopped. I left for a couple of days. The same tire lost a bit of air but was flat after a couple of days. There was a little bit of sealant that had weaped through a few pinholes in the sidewall. I decided to pump the tire back up, this time to about 50 lbs and shake the sealant around a little more just to make sure everything was nicely sealed up…
Well as I shook the tire it blew off the rim with a VERY loud bang. I ended up pretty much covered in Stan’s head to toe and the workspace in the basement got a nice Stan’s shower. Other than some ringing in my ears and a bruise on my finger, no other harm done.
The takeaway for me is that I have to watch the pressures on these Niner rims. They are modelled after Stan’s wheels but I had a Maxxis Ikon blow of the rim once before, but at the time of seating with a compressor. I don’t think they lock the bead in that tight.
I’ll say one thing about the Enve road “tubeless optimized” wheels, both clincher and tubeless tires make loud popping noises when inflating the tire. There has never been any question that the tire bead is seating in the rim. Before switching to tubeless, the popping noises always surprised anyone that stopped to help me fix a flat.
Well today was one of those (embarassing) TIL days.
I learned that:
The rim strips that came on my Prime wheels were not in fact tubeless tape.
If the rubberized rim strips are tight enough, enough sealant and fuckery, the wheels will hold just enough air to make you think they are.
Orange Seal tape is complete crap. I tore through it several times with my very short fingernail. Despite cleaning the previously mounted wheel several times the tape would not stick but on the other wheel that had not seen any sealant was OK. It still didn’t seal well around the valve
Gorilla tape is way cheaper than Orange Seal, is easier to work with and seals tight first time
You need at least a 100psi blast and hold it for 10-15 seconds to seat the tire first time. A trip to the auto store to get some air compressor accessories is still cheaper than a track pump with a tubeless tank or a separate air tank.
My wheels came tubeless ready, and with tape after warranty replacement of one wheel. The Enve tape is a good bit thinner and maybe stretches easier than Gorilla tape…
I pretty much did what that tutorial says even though I hadn’t seen it before.
$3.99, 1"x30’ from the automotive store Gorilla Tape. I’ve seen numerous posts across the interwebs that people have been using it. I used a razor knife to trim ~5mm while it was still on the roll. It’s practically duct tape. What was nice is that I could hold it in a U-shape and get it seated right in the rim channel and work it out to the edge. The Orange seal was too flimsy to hold the U-shape and would stick to the side of the channel trying to push down into the channel
To me. the Orange Seal looked like 3m house wrap tape in orange instead of red.
I think with thin “film plastic” tapes, you need to keep them quite taut as you apply them to prevent wrinkles and air bubbles. The Gorilla tape is thick enough that slight tension is enough and can smooth out easily. It would be heavier but if 10-20g is deal breaker then…
Oh yeah, the other TIL, after getting everything done is a bad time to realize that that you didn’t line up the logo with the stem. Not going to be fixed any time soon.
I’ve done 6000 miles tubeless without a flat. I’ll never go back. Finished a 200 mile race last year and the next day found two small staples in my tire. Grabbed a pair of pliers, pulled them out, gave the wheels a spin, and rode another 1000 miles on those tires. Afterward was talking to friends and dozens of people all got a flat in that race from the same staples.
