Road Tubeless on Non-Tubeless Specific Rims?

[Monsieur Gila]

I have been running road tubeless for several years, and I doubt I'll ever go back to using tubes. However, running road tubeless on non-tubeless specific rims doesn't seem prudent to me. Due to the high pressure/low volume nature of road tires, the price of failure would seem to outweigh the potential benefits. For that reason, this article seems somewhat ill-advised to me. What are your thoughts?

"How-to-Set-Up-Tubeless-Road-Tyres-on-Non-Tubeless-Ready-Rims"

 

[King Boonen]

I don't see how it's any more dangerous than a tyre blowout that can happen when running tubes and I don't think it's any more likely. "Ghetto-tubeless" has been common for a long time in mountain biking and works really well.

Personally I wouldn't do it, the hassle is too much for me to be convinced it's worth the effort (and I do run tubeless on my tubeless-ready wheelset) but I'm not seeing why it's ill-advised?

 

[Monsieur Gila]

I don't see how it's any more dangerous than a tyre blowout that can happen when running tubes and I don't think it's any more likely. "Ghetto-tubeless" has been common for a long time in mountain biking and works really well.

Personally I wouldn't do it, the hassle is too much for me to be convinced it's worth the effort (and I do run tubeless on my tubeless-ready wheelset) but I'm not seeing why it's ill-advised?

Because of the much higher pressure (more likely to blow than an MTB tire), much lower volume (if it blows it will deflate faster than an MTB tire), landing on the road instead of the dirt, possibly all of this happening around traffic, etc. My point is that I can see this advice being given on a forum, but to make it a published article on Cyclingnews seems a little irresponsible. Opinions on that will vary, I'm sure.

 

[JayKosta]

Why do you think a tubeless road tire is more likely to come off the rim than a tubed road tire? Both have similar internal pressure, and both grip the rim in the same manner. Do you think the tubed tire has a better connection to the rim, and makes it more secure - how?

Jay

 

[jmdirt]

I've been using tubeless on the dirt for ~20 years. First I only used UST tires and rims because IMO it was safer. Then TR tires on UST rims and now TR tires on TR rims. I have done exactly zero scientific research, but I've seen a lot of home made tubeless failures (mostly tire/bead issues). Well designed/made tubeless rims will hold the tire better than a standard rim, well designed tubeless tires/beads will stay on the rime better...I didn't have to do the science because a lot of people have done that for us. I agree with the OP that higher pressure/lower volume may lead more failures, but disagree that the surface makes the crash any better.

Jay, does the tube apply enough pressure to help keep the tire bead on?

 

[JayKosta]

...
Jay, does the tube apply enough pressure to help keep the tire bead on?

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I doubt that the tube material itself applies any additional pressure or support to the bead/rim connection above the internal air pressure.

If the rim/bead design/manufacturing is deficient then pressure loss with tubeless might be more prevalent, and in worse case tire blow-off.

It's a reasonable idea the rims (and tires) specifically designed for tubeless have more concern about pressure loss, and that could increase the security of their overall retention.

Jay

 

[King Boonen]

Because of the much higher pressure (more likely to blow than an MTB tire), much lower volume (if it blows it will deflate faster than an MTB tire), landing on the road instead of the dirt, possibly all of this happening around traffic, etc. My point is that I can see this advice being given on a forum, but to make it a published article on Cyclingnews seems a little irresponsible. Opinions on that will vary, I'm sure.

Yes, and this all happens with any tyre blow-out, tubeless or not. Do you think that running home-brew tubeless is more likely to fail in this way? I've personally not seen any evidence of that?

 

[Yohan]

I don't see how it's any more dangerous than a tyre blowout that can happen when running tubes and I don't think it's any more likely. "Ghetto-tubeless" has been common for a long time in mountain biking and works really well.