What does Keith Bontrager think? Check http://www.ridesmarter.com/latest/latest_main.htm<FONT
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Cars use them, high performance road motorbikes use them. So mountainbikes should?

We’ve seen it coming for a couple of years now, but it looks like the latest incarnation
of tubeless tyres will be making their way kicking and screaming onto production
bikes later in the year. Mavic do it. Bontrager does it. Specialized have announced
they’re going to start. Continental have been doing it for ages.

Some systems rely on a sealing-rim-strip that allows the use of standard rims. Others
need a hooked rim and other clever stuff. It depends. The system that’s adopted will
be the one with the most money behind it – not what works best on the trail – that’s
what happens.

Why all the effort? Pinch flats are practically eliminated when you’ve no tube to
pinch. The only possible way to impact-flat a tubeless tyre is to rip the tyre off
the rim or ding the rim so badly that the air doesn’t seal. Dinged rims? Well – it’s
a possibility I guess. Depending on where you ride, coupled with the fact that tubeless
tyres almost encourage you to run them soft. Time will tell.

There’s certainly a lot to look forward to with the new tubeless systems – very little
info is out there in the real world and little feedback comes by way of the Mavic/Michelin
system. It doesn’t mean the inner tube is redundant as any savvy rider is still going
to want to carry an inner tube and pump around with them to “get them home”
if the worst happens. And -if you think for a moment, you could be looking at actually
having to carry MORE kit with you, if you run tubeless tyres. A double pinch flat
on the trail with a conventional tube can be fixed with patches. With tubeless tyres
and rim damage you’re going to have to carry TWO spare tubes to be sure.

Pessimist – I’ve been called it before. No – I think it’s a good system. Anything
that allows riders to run lower pressure and big tyres with less weight (I’m currently
running a 2.3 Tioga DH tyre with a DH tube in my back wheel) has to be a good idea.

Better get on the phone and blag some then…