Finally converted to tubeless

Being one of those lucky assholes who almost never punctures no matter the surface, I’ve never felt the need to convert to tubeless. It seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Thousands of miles, chunky gravel, single track, surprise broken glass on tarmac, potholes, and I’ve encountered maybe 8 punctures over the last decade. In those rare moments of a flat, I can tap into my 25 years of changing butyl tubes and get back on the bike in about 10 minutes (if the tire isn’t being a bastard to get over the rim).

Anyways, I started riding with a new group last year that gets really speedy on local gravel trails. I noticed my cornering to be much slower than everyone else. My pressure felt too high to corner confidently without slipping out. I also hated it when we’d ride through off-season CX areas (just grass essentially), rattling my 40-year old bones as we traversed the drought-riddled hardened earth.

I decided that I wanted the benefit of lower pressure. My wheels and tires are already setup for tubeless and I had the valves, so all I needed to do was buy sealant and use our wood shop compressor to seat the tires. However, full-time work and toddler parenting mean I’m lucky to sneak in 5 hours of dedicated bike time a week (outdoor riding, indoor training, and maintenance). Obviously I’d rather devote that time to riding, so I kept on putting off the tubeless conversion. Finally, I swallowed my DIY pride and paid my LBS to do it for me.

WOW. I love how much more comfortable lower pressures feel. I’ve also noticed I’m riding about 2mph faster on one of my regular routes, another added benefit.

So I guess the moral of this story that almost all of you already knew: even if you don’t get many punctures, there are many more benefits to running tubeless. Now I’ll just need to keep up on topping off the sealant and learn how to use the DynaPlugs I stowed in my saddlebag (and hope I don’t encounter one of those messy trailside tubeless horror stories of being stranded in the middle of nowhere when all else fails, but I think that’s very unlikely haha).