In all the tire comparisons, it appears that the clinchers with tubes always have the regular tubes that are 110 grams or more. I've started using the 49-gram LunarLight tubes from Performance- not so much for cutting the two ounces off each wheel, but to reduce rolling resistance. They feel nicer too. I still get a flat about every 2,000 miles with the Conti GP4000 tires just as I did with regular tubes, and these 49-gram tubes are just as easy to patch. I have never pinched one when mounting it either. I see virtually no reason they couldn't be made even thinner, maybe 25 or 30 grams.

RBA has really been pushing the tubeless tires. One benefit, they say, is no pinch flats. So what?! I find less than one in 20 flats is a pinch flat anyway, making their argument invalid. Their other two arguments are improved feel and decreased rolling resistance, which you can also get with regular tires if you use the thinner tubes- something they ignore. When the question was raised as to how you fix a flat on the road and re-establish the seal with a tubeless tire, the answer was that you just put a tube in it. I thought, "Oh terrific! You mean now I get to fix it twice-once on the road, and then again when I get home if I really want it to be tubeless again. No thanks!" And how are we supposed to boot a tubeless tire? I suppose if we get a cut in it, we're supposed to carry an extra tire with us too? Again, no thanks. I don't mind if someone wants to go tubeless, but I don't want the industry to force all of us to go that direction.

Garth

Whittier, CA

You’ll need to carry a tube to fix a puncture for standard or Road Tubeless tires—unless you use a Latex sealant in the tubeless tire. If you choose to patch it, the same methods for patching a tube will work for a tubeless tire, but the patch goes on the inside of the tire, instead of the outside of the tube. Your reasoning for using a thinner tube is right on the money—and might add up to half of the reason that tubular (sew-up) racing tires, with their latex inner-tubes, roll so smoothly. Without the tube, the tire absorbs road vibration better and rolls faster over pavement. Don’t fret about bike brands forcing Road Tubeless upon the hapless masses-even if every wheel maker converts to tubeless, you will still be able to install conventional tubes and tires on them and have it your way.

—Richard