I've negativity about tubeless. Tubes are maybe way to go. What's your thoughts?

[Flowrider]

About 3 months ago, I got two thorns that punctured my tubeless tyre. Ever since then, I've had ongoing problems with the tyre staying inflated for a week or 2, and then, for some weird reason, it goes flat.

3 times it's done this after I've run sealant in it

Very frustrating.

If I had a tube, I'd have either repaired the tube or replaced it and moved on.

I'm wondering if this situation is unique to me and therefore should just change the tyre, or if others have had similar issues with tubeless

[Charles Thomas]

(04-13-2026, 12:18 AM)Flowrider Wrote:  About 3 months ago, I got two thorns that punctured my tubeless tyre. Ever since then, I've had ongoing problems with the tyre staying inflated for a week or 2, and then, for some weird reason, it goes flat.

3 times it's done this after I've run sealant in it

Very frustrating.

If I had a tube, I'd have either repaired the tube or replaced it and moved on.

I'm wondering if this situation is unique to me and therefore should just change the tyre, or if others have had similar issues with tubeless

Nah, pretty common tbh
Sealant sometimes won’t fully seal thorn holes long-term. If it keeps going flat, either plug it properly or just swap the tyre, way less hassle

[Flowrider]

Yea, what I did was put a tube in that tyre. Ended that issue. It seems it's the size of the hole and whether the sealant can stay in

[rydabent]

I have posted before, that with tube tires, if a side wall of the tire gets torn, with a tube tire, cover it with a boot or even a dollar bill, put in a new tube, and ride home.

[meamoantonio]

What brand of tire are you using and what sealant are you using?
Did you get brand new tires before setting it up tubeless?
Tubeless should make any punctures go away and make the tire "good as new"

if problems persists it usually is a problem with the sealant or the tire itself or the combination of the two if the sealant was added to a tire that wasn't brand new

I have actual real world data, believe it or not, a tubeless setup can completely fail if you are using used tires, and the chance of it happening is 7/43 times, might seem moot to some but to me anything above 5% chance of happening is a pretty high occurrence.

I can't explain how the science works on this but it really just happens in our shop so we usually ask people to purchase a new set of tires before going tubeless or else they run a risk of the system completely failing, since we've had 7 complainers a bout the setup failing, we ask customers to sign a waiver before going tubeless and not purchasing new tires

[GirishH]

@Flowrider, personally I’m a tube guy myself, but I know this frustration well.

I actually have a thread on the Bikeride forum about tiny wires from my foldable tire puncturing my tubes. It was a nightmare to find the 'culprit' until I realized the tire structure itself was failing.
   

Your anger is valid, but you chose tubeless for the specific advantages it has over tubes!

(04-13-2026, 12:18 AM)Flowrider Wrote:  About 3 months ago, I got two thorns that punctured my tubeless tyre. Ever since then, I've had ongoing problems with the tyre staying inflated for a week or 2, and then, for some weird reason, it goes flat.

3 times it's done this after I've run sealant in it

Very frustrating.

If I had a tube, I'd have either repaired the tube or replaced it and moved on.

I'm wondering if this situation is unique to me and therefore should just change the tyre, or if others have had similar issues with tubeless

[Flowrider]

There are definitely mixed feelings about tube and tubeless. It seems that tubeless is fine, but it depends on the size of the hole if the sealant can seal it, and also the specific type of gink you use in your tyre.