I'll cover two subjects here.
1. wide tires: These are growing in popularity for a couple of reasons. Firstly wider tires roll with lower friction than narrow though that seems to be very counter-intuitive. Tubulars used to be 20 mm tires pumped to 200 psi and even our common 23 mm tires used to be pumped to 120 psi. And with these we would pretend to have low rolling resistance as our butts were being hammered through our skulls and the bikes were being thrown all over the place.
With wider racing tires becoming more common it rapidly became clear that they ran lower pressures and would roll over objects that would throw a bike into the air losing momentum.
Then along came Carbon Fiber. This material is so stiff that you simply cannot ride most of the modern bikes on 23 mm tires and hope to walk after the ride without holding your crotch.
But with sufficient clearances and a 28 mm tire pumped to 80 psi it was like a miracle performed. These super stiff machines could ride even better than the old steel machines that people were going back to because of the awful CF or Al rides. You did have to get a little used to the bouncy ride by finding the correct pressure for your bike and your weight. Then they transformed an unrideable, almost uncontrollable machine into a near perfect ride. What's more the cushioning started reducing CF failures which was caused by impact stresses on gradually hardening and embrittling resins.
So by all means go to wider tires if possible. A large number of older bikes can just barely accommodate 25's but that is where tubeless comes in:
2. Most modern high quality tires can be run tubeless. But you need rims that are tubeless capable. That means you can't use older wheelsets for the most part. Then, having a compatible wheelset you have to have a tubeless rim liner and tubeless filler valves. These are readily available in most shops or off of Amazon.
The first problem: rims and tires should be matched. But as far as I know the only ones to do that is Mavic who make the tires fit the rims tight enough without them fitting so tightly that it is very difficult to get them on or so loosely that they can blow off.
This means that when you're buying a new wheelset you ask the manufacturer what tires they recommend for tubeless use. Then like we all do - ignore their advice. My Michelins fit my Campy and Fulcrum wheels really tight because I'd rather fight them on than have them blow off from hitting a bump.
There are a couple of ways to getting the slime inside of the tire but the easiest and most effective way is to buy a 4 ounce road bike tire bottle. After mounting the tire you remove the filler valve end using the $5 Park valve tool. Then you connect the plastic tube that comes with the bottle over the filler and connected to the sealer bottle. With the filler at the bottom you inject half of the bottle into the tire (2 ounces) and then you roll the tire a little so that the filler is now about a third of the way up. You do this so that there is no sealant in the tube when you release your hand pressure which would draw the sealant back into the bottle. Remove the tube, reinsert the valve body and tighten. Now many of these tire/rim combinations cannot be filled with a pump because the sides haven't snapped over the ridges. I use a CO2 filler which SNAPS!!! the tire on. Then make sure that the bead is straight all the way around. There is a little ridge that you can use as a reference comparing it to the rim. Then roll the tire around sideways and turn it to the other side and do the same. This is because the most common place for a leak isn't the tire but the rim/tire interface.
If you have used a CO2 cartridge your pressure will be high. But after the tires are in place a pump works the same as always.
Do the same with the other wheel.
With the wheels mounted on the bike you can now go for an easy ride. The bouncing distributes the sealant about inside the wheels and they will then hold air as well as a rubber innertube. As the pressure reduces over time you can then run tire pressure at about 3/4ths of what the recommended tire pressure for your weight is.
My Pinarello Stelvio steel bike will only fit a 25 mm tire but recommended tire pressure for my weight is 109 psi and I run it around 85 and often don't even bother looking at it for several days so that it goes as low as 60 psi without feeling low.
Now there is a range at which the rolling resistance remains relatively constant so that I really can't tell the difference between 90 psi and 70.
The improvement in the ride is good and with Orange Sealant you simply cannot get a flat without destroying the tire almost completely. This would strand you if you were using an innertube just as certainly.
The problem with Orange Sealant is that they recommend it be replaced every couple of months. I don't know about the others since Orange tested so much better than most of the others that I simply didn't bother looking them up. Punching a 6 mm hole in a tire (1/8h inch) the tire would still hold 30 psi. That would be a pretty scary ride and you'd have to ride pretty slowly but it would get you home. I broke a chain on Father's Day and couldn't find anyone to give me a ride until my wife got out of church. So I'm a little sensitive about failures that could leave you walking home from Bumfuck, Egypt.
Try it, you'll like it.
1. wide tires: These are growing in popularity for a couple of reasons. Firstly wider tires roll with lower friction than narrow though that seems to be very counter-intuitive. Tubulars used to be 20 mm tires pumped to 200 psi and even our common 23 mm tires used to be pumped to 120 psi. And with these we would pretend to have low rolling resistance as our butts were being hammered through our skulls and the bikes were being thrown all over the place.
With wider racing tires becoming more common it rapidly became clear that they ran lower pressures and would roll over objects that would throw a bike into the air losing momentum.
Then along came Carbon Fiber. This material is so stiff that you simply cannot ride most of the modern bikes on 23 mm tires and hope to walk after the ride without holding your crotch.
But with sufficient clearances and a 28 mm tire pumped to 80 psi it was like a miracle performed. These super stiff machines could ride even better than the old steel machines that people were going back to because of the awful CF or Al rides. You did have to get a little used to the bouncy ride by finding the correct pressure for your bike and your weight. Then they transformed an unrideable, almost uncontrollable machine into a near perfect ride. What's more the cushioning started reducing CF failures which was caused by impact stresses on gradually hardening and embrittling resins.
So by all means go to wider tires if possible. A large number of older bikes can just barely accommodate 25's but that is where tubeless comes in:
2. Most modern high quality tires can be run tubeless. But you need rims that are tubeless capable. That means you can't use older wheelsets for the most part. Then, having a compatible wheelset you have to have a tubeless rim liner and tubeless filler valves. These are readily available in most shops or off of Amazon.
The first problem: rims and tires should be matched. But as far as I know the only ones to do that is Mavic who make the tires fit the rims tight enough without them fitting so tightly that it is very difficult to get them on or so loosely that they can blow off.
This means that when you're buying a new wheelset you ask the manufacturer what tires they recommend for tubeless use. Then like we all do - ignore their advice. My Michelins fit my Campy and Fulcrum wheels really tight because I'd rather fight them on than have them blow off from hitting a bump.
There are a couple of ways to getting the slime inside of the tire but the easiest and most effective way is to buy a 4 ounce road bike tire bottle. After mounting the tire you remove the filler valve end using the $5 Park valve tool. Then you connect the plastic tube that comes with the bottle over the filler and connected to the sealer bottle. With the filler at the bottom you inject half of the bottle into the tire (2 ounces) and then you roll the tire a little so that the filler is now about a third of the way up. You do this so that there is no sealant in the tube when you release your hand pressure which would draw the sealant back into the bottle. Remove the tube, reinsert the valve body and tighten. Now many of these tire/rim combinations cannot be filled with a pump because the sides haven't snapped over the ridges. I use a CO2 filler which SNAPS!!! the tire on. Then make sure that the bead is straight all the way around. There is a little ridge that you can use as a reference comparing it to the rim. Then roll the tire around sideways and turn it to the other side and do the same. This is because the most common place for a leak isn't the tire but the rim/tire interface.
If you have used a CO2 cartridge your pressure will be high. But after the tires are in place a pump works the same as always.
Do the same with the other wheel.
With the wheels mounted on the bike you can now go for an easy ride. The bouncing distributes the sealant about inside the wheels and they will then hold air as well as a rubber innertube. As the pressure reduces over time you can then run tire pressure at about 3/4ths of what the recommended tire pressure for your weight is.
My Pinarello Stelvio steel bike will only fit a 25 mm tire but recommended tire pressure for my weight is 109 psi and I run it around 85 and often don't even bother looking at it for several days so that it goes as low as 60 psi without feeling low.
Now there is a range at which the rolling resistance remains relatively constant so that I really can't tell the difference between 90 psi and 70.
The improvement in the ride is good and with Orange Sealant you simply cannot get a flat without destroying the tire almost completely. This would strand you if you were using an innertube just as certainly.
The problem with Orange Sealant is that they recommend it be replaced every couple of months. I don't know about the others since Orange tested so much better than most of the others that I simply didn't bother looking them up. Punching a 6 mm hole in a tire (1/8h inch) the tire would still hold 30 psi. That would be a pretty scary ride and you'd have to ride pretty slowly but it would get you home. I broke a chain on Father's Day and couldn't find anyone to give me a ride until my wife got out of church. So I'm a little sensitive about failures that could leave you walking home from Bumfuck, Egypt.
Try it, you'll like it.
