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Comment by turdprincess | Hacker News Reader

I have two bikes - one tubleess, one tubed.

On my tubed bike, other than 1 or 2 flats in the last 5 years, these tires have required 0 maintenance. Even after dusting the bike off from the winter, they pump right up and are ready to go.

My tubeless tires are a constant source of headache. They are constantly going flat, sometimes weekly, requiring more sealant, stuck valve cores, etc.

Overall, I'd say my tubeless tires require monthly maintenance, while my tubed tires have basically never required any thought at all. What am I missing here?

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I have a similar experience with tubeless, maybe half the time I setup a tubeless tire it works for weeks without refills, the other half i have to reinflate one a week. However it’s worth it because the reason I go tubeless is to have very low PSI for comfort, like around 30 PSI, can’t get that with tubes.

I would suggest looking at different tyre brands or models. I have been running tubeless (on road) for about the past 3 years...varying between 30mm and 42mm (gravel bike, but running basically slick tyres).

Different tyres have different wall constructions, and so some can leak a lot of air. I find that after I put on a new tyre, they leak air for the first couple days, but it's greatly benefited by going for a few rides (the extra pressure gets the sealant into all the nooks and crannies of the tyre casing, filling the gaps), and then maybe lose a PSI or two per week (when I run at 50psi).

I change sealant about every 6 months, just because it dries up. Not particularly due to fluid leakage.

For sure part of it has to do with my fancy ultralight Rene Herse tires.

That’s interesting. On my mountain bike that (used to) get a lot of constant use, tubeless was much better than my old MTV with tubes. When the tubes get a flat it is a whole process to get it patched, but tubeless both seem to get less flats and seal better with whatever I put in them.

That being said, tubeless tires do require being used fairly regularly, which includes pumping them up (just topping them off) almost every time you go out. Right now I haven’t gone mountain biking in quite a while so I guarantee that my tires are flat

idk there's some finesse I had to learn when switching to tubeless. They do need a little maintenance and it took a while to get a feel for it and not cause more problems.

If you're only getting 2 flats in five years though yeah stick with tubes. I get 3-4 a year and they're much less of an event with tubeless, so the extra routine work pays off.

Sometime I would go a year without flats and sometimes I would get like (this was worst ever) 5 in a month.

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