Sadly, other than that, I can offer no insight :-(

Though I’d like to hear more about your comments on not running sealant increasing your chances of burping the tire. From my experience, and conversation with the guys at NoTubes, sealant has nothing to do with the seating of the bead and how prone a tire is to burping under pressure or torque. Stan’s suggests running their rim strip even if using a UST rim to imrpove the seal / contact point with the bead of the tire, making it less prone to burping / peeling off the rim.

I’ve found this out from experience after having my rear tire blow off the rim on a 5+ foot drop. Granted, I was not expecting such a big drop, and was running ‘trail riding’ pressure vs downhill pressure, but it prompted me to research further – thus the call to Stan’s.

Anyone else have any experience or knowledge on this topic?

Good luck regardless what tires you’re runnin’ hopefully we’ll see you out at the cross races this weekend!

It’s interesting to hear your perspective, as I’ve found in my experience (and those around me) to be quite the opposite – Though with that said, I’ve experienced both ends of the spectrum as well.

In the past I’ve run tubed wheels that had gone so long without a puncture that I decided to replace the tube out of fear of the rubber in the tube becoming fatigued… But earlier this year I literally could not go through a ride or two without flatting… I’m sure some of it comes down to the right combination of rim/tube/tire as well.

Personally though I find running a lower pressure handy in loose conditions, or when I’m doing lots of sincere climbing (which seems to be often)… Ultimately I guess running a tubeless system gives me confidence, and even if it’s only a mental benefit, it still helps ;-)

I ride (and race) my bike purely for fun, and I am willing to sacrifice some performance due to the fact that my primary concern, by far, is reliability. I want a bike that (a) gives me the fewest problems, that (b) any problems I do encounter will have minimal or no impact on my ride, and (c) requires the least amount of maintenance (and by that I mean, _none_).

Frankly, I’m not convinced the size of my tires contact patch with the ground would really account for much overall, at least compared to reliability and, mainly, bike handling skills.

I have seen several people with tubeless flats they claim were from hard side hits on roots knocking the tire/bead off, no thanks. My tubeless setup needed air every few days – what a PITA. That sealant hardened into rubber globs, what a mess that was to clean! If I’m out in the middle of nowhere, I can MacGyver a big puncture hole in a tubed tire with a gel-pack and ride out on a spare tube.

And as far as weight goes, if there is anything on my setup that needs to lose a few hundred (read thousand) grams – it’s my gut.