Kelly I have a newish (two years old ) bike designed for off seal touring. It’s beautiful. Titanium, 29er, super wide drop bars, numerous braze-ons for attaching cages/ racks etc and it handles superbly on rough, steep  trails with its fat tyres, low gearing, dynamo hub and hydraulic disc brakes. 

I’ve ridden it enough (several thousand kms) to wear out one chain but I’m yet to tour on it. 

My only concern about the bike is that it’s fitted with tubeless tyres which have yet to experience a flat. I’ve never had to repair them. Zero punctures.. I just keep them inflated and top up the sealant every few months.

 But will I be able get the tyres on/off if I ever do have a flat? Time will tell. There won’t be an Uber where I cycle tour. 

I was wondering if someone was going to mention tubeless. Seems like the entire mountain bike world has gone tubeless, and I was wondering what if any experiences tourers had with using tubeless tires.  Do you still carry a spare tube, or just rely on tire plugs and the sealant to do the job.

Not an idle question, since I'm thinking about replacing the tires on one of my bikes that has tubeless capable rims, and trying to decide if I want to make the switch. 

Bob I’m also interested to hear what other’s experiences are. On the day rides I’ve been doing, I do carry a tube as well as a plug kit. But as I mentioned, so far I’ve not had to use them.

My nephew has a similar bike to mine and he did an off road tour in arid, thorny central Australia with a group. He was the only rider with tubeless tyres, and the only one who didn’t suffer from multiple flats. 

Graham and Bob

One of our Sunday riding group walked into our meeting place with a tubeless tyre that had encountered a broken bottle. No chance of the  sealant fixing that one but what caused me to loose interest in tubeless was the sticky mess when the tyre was removed. A  tube was installed  and the tyre booted and I decided that for the riding I do, mostly on made roads I could do without tubeless tyres.

I have  tubeless on my mountain bike but always have a tube and pump handy with me.If you lose all the air ( hitting a rock wrong) it is next to impossible to get enough pressure to make the seal around the bead then you are stuck. 

An acquaintance of mine did a tour with tubeless. I can’t remember all the details but the bottom line was he lost the goop out of his tire and had no tube. There were no shops in the area that had tubes or tubeless goop. They were delayed 4-5 days and out the cost of bus fare to get to a bigger town where they could find some tube goop. He was lamenting that if he had a tube he would have not had to cut the trip short. 

I have been thinking about tubeless too, in certain situations.  I just bought a new bike (YEAH :-), a Surly Bridge Club that is set up for a mix of on road/off road touring.  I'm not sure I want to go tubeless all the time but have wondered about in some locations where there is a lot of thorny stuff like goat heads and cactus.  There are a lot of places in this area like that.

For general touring someone suggested tubeless and bring  tubes just in case.  But from the comments here it sounds like dealing with the goo in a flat tire/tyre situation would be unpleasant.

My neighbors are avid cyclists and swear by tubeless for off road. But they also are just "day riders" and don't tour.  Maybe if a tire/tyre fails on a day ride it's not as much of a hassle?

 Maybe if a tire/tyre fails on a day ride it's not as much of a hassle?

No, just call for a four wheel drive Uber!

Hi Scott,

You broke tyre plastics, these are tyre irons!

Narrow profile for easier insertion under the bead whereupon you anchor the hook around a spoke then you have two hands to insert the second lever under the bead.

Maybe you get a tiny scratch on your rim but imho that adds a bit of character to your bike!

Hi Karen my learning from Mike’s (and other posts), and from the experience of rels & friends, I’d only go touring with tubeless tyre if I was to tour off-seal in prickle country. Central Australia for example is notorious for its thorns.

Otherwise I’ll continue to tour on what I’ve always done; reasonably good tyres (but not leaden Marathon Plus) with tubes. 

Something I need to need to do is practice getting tubeless-ready tyres on and off. Even used with tubes, I’ve seen the tubeless ready can be very difficult to dislodge from the rim.