Has anyone here used these long term? What’s your experience?
Been using the gravel ones for about 15 months. Really enjoying not hearing the “clang” of rim on rock, and the one time I did put a hole in the front tyre everything stayed together well enough to allow a safe stop and reinflation.
No idea what’s going on inside, as getting the tyres off is a 20-minute struggle involving multiple levers and clips. The included valves are nice, but I think leaveing the wheels hanging up with sealant in may have caused them to gum up a bit.
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Had mine since 2021, work great
I put on a pair last year for Big Sugar (along with 45’s). Worked great for Big Sugar and I loved them.
But for most of the gravel we have locally (groomed hard pack trails w/ kitty litter over the top), they were overkill…and the combo with the tires made the bike a bit sluggish in turns.
If lived anywhere where the gravel was even slightly chunkier, I’d probably still use them (w/ a faster tire). They are just overkill here.
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Consider me surprised that 40 grams makes that much difference, how light are your wheels?
Used them on my XC Bike race wheels this year, primarily for Lutsen and Leadville and associated training / recon rides on course.
Reasons I like them better than Tubolight - Absorb less sealant, smoother less pourous surface. Tubolight have a “cavity” on the rim side where if you fill through the valve all the sealant goes there as opposed to between liner and tire (It does disperse, but like vittoria design better) and I had a tubolight tear at the “Seam” and the Vittoria seams more robust in that regard.
I can’t say they protect better than a Tubolight though, and are pretty much the same weight or very close.
Interesting replies. So I’m starting a new job and hope to be commuting by bike (20km each way in London).
I have some Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres which I haven’t used so was planning on using those with Vittoria Air-Liners.
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Relatively light….DT240 hubs with Alex carbon rims. Didn’t weigh them when I got them, though.
But, as I said, it was the combo of the liners and the tires that made the bike feel sluggish. And it wasn’t necessarily weight, just the overall feel of the wheels coming out of turns. Our gravel around here is hard pack / kitty litter multiuser trails that has a number of flowy and several tight turns….in the context of our group rides, we are constantly accelerating out the turns and pinning it. They just weren’t great for that application.
Now, I also did not try the liners in other tires nor did I try the 45’s by themselves, so the issue could have been one or the other.
But even with that, they are just overkill for my daily riding….our gravel just doesn’t have any of the kind of chunk that would benefit from liner use.
I may end up getting another set of wheels for chunkier gravel and just have them “on call” for when I travel / go ride rougher stuff. If so, I would definitely put them back on.
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Ah….that is more info that is helpful. In that use case, they could definitely be of use, especially if you are currently running tubeless. Worst case scenario is if you fall, you can still easily get home or to work without having to slap in a tube if a plug doesn’t work.
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Bear in mind once they are in (on road rims with road tyres) they are pretty hard to get out. As in, really hard.
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I’ve only had them on my road bike this year for racing - specifically for the ride flat capability. I haven’t had to use it really, but did have a blowout on a social spin, and definitely reduced the potential issues/ danger. Plugged, pumped and off I went.
If I had a tubeless wheelset on my commuter I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for that reason too (currently run Marathon Plus for commuting). Actually, it is my medium term plan (if/ when N+1, and N+2 arrive).
I am still mulling over for the gravel bike - they would be great for local spins, not sure for the epic events. But then maybe the pliers/ slips wouldn’t be that much extra weight to carry for those?
I would look at Pirello Cinturato Velo TLRs for commuting in London - they roll nicely and do a great job of protecting against glass due to their thicker tread vs most road tyres…
I’ve needed the Vittoria tire pliers and clips.
The run flat capability works, have used it once.
I’m also a fan of Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR, have used 3 or 4 sets over the years.
Enjoy them. Have used in road, gravel, and mtb.
Road is a big struggle to get on for my rapide clx 2 wheels. They need to make longer valves because extenders suck. Have never needed the run flat.
I’d like to see a slightly bigger size for gravel, the gravel tires I have are bigger than the recommended size.
After inflating and deflating for about the recommended 1 year, the noodle can become stretched. I just cut it again and put them in the commuter wheels.
Mountain bike is there for a very different purpose. I do notice that silca sealant can form a stanimal globbed to to the insert.
This is an understatement. I had a local mobile bike mechanic come by to help me remove a set of Air Liners from my Hunt wheels due to the stems constantly getting clogged with sealant making tire inflation very difficult. As I was watching him it looked like he was wrestling a bear. Took him about 15 minutes to do both tires (Schwalbe Pro One) but he was certainly sweating afterwards.
I’ve gone back to regular tubeless and carry two Tubolito tubes as my backups. The liners might make sense for people who have a mechanic regularly working on the bike (like the competitive racer types), but for home use it was overkill for me.
Did he use the Vittoria pliers and clips? Not that hard to remove road tires, with the right technique.
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I attempted to use the Vittoria pliers and clips with no success. I provided them to the mechanic but I don’t think he used them. It looked like he just used brute force to “roll” the tire bead out.
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I’ve been using airliner mtb and gravel, and while it may add a couple minutes to the installation, the fact that it makes seating the tire so much easier makes it a wash. The tire takes a little longer to come off, but not that much worse, and it only ever takes one tire lever. I have pinched though/around them, but it takes some serious effort
I like challenges so looking forward to trying to get these puppies off… I might be back on this thread cussing 
I’ve got a pair of Air Liners in my Cadex wheelset. I did not face much difficulty installing therefore keen to understand the issues around removing them… (to be prepared when the time comes!)
- is it because the sealant makes it difficult to get a proper grip on the liner?
- or, tyre + liner = tight space with no room for leverage to remove said liner?