tube vs tubeless tires - any significant weight difference

[vdev]

I was wondering to put 38 tubeless on creo Comp E5 which has 32 tubed specialized nimbus(not sure why i put them on). I know Pathfinders are good but would I save on weight and will it be better feel of the ride? I usually ride of pavements but then bike would be ready for some off roads excursions.
Any other tire or size recommendation would be appreciated. thanks

 

[Jay12345]

basically no weight savings, like putting a few fries on your wheel after you factor in the sealant, however your rolling resistance would be lower with a tubeless setup but I’m not sure how that will translate on powerful electric bike

 

[jodi2]

Depending how wide tires/tubes are, you may save about 50g per wheel compared to tubes, but it's not "significant".
Main advantage on wider gravel or MTB tires is that you can use lower pressures (if the ground need's this, a standard gravel tour normally does not) and that you will have less punctures, especially in gravel/MTB terrain, for example from thorns. We had a big gravel ride 112km/7000hm last weekend with 85 riders (in severeal smaller groups) with I guess around 15 punctures/stops for repair. ALL were with tubes, none with tubeless wheels.
On the other hand installing tubeless for the first time is not so easy and costs extra money for the equipment and the tires will always loose air slowly, you have to pump a little bit once a week and te refill sealant every 3-6 months.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

@jodi2, I'm curious how many of the tube-tire flats last weekend had sealant in their tubes. Any idea? The use of sealant is the only thing about tubeless tires that makes sense to me in terms of tubeless tires being more invulnerable to flats than tires with tubes. The simple equalizer is to add sealant to your tubes.

I agree with most of the rest of what you say and will add that it is almost certainly not worth the expense and effort of switching to tubeless if your wheels aren't already tubeless compatible. Especially if saving weight is the goal. We're talking electric bikes here; who cares about a few ounces one way or the other, really?!

Anecdotally, I have Slime in my tubes and haven't had a flat in two+ years. One flat about 2 months into my new bike before adding Slime. I regularly air down to 8 psi and haven't had a pinch flat or otherwise. (26x4 fatties.)

One other thing I guess. The advantages of tubeless tires seems more theoretical than real to me, unless, perhaps, you're in a very competitive environment.

Well, yet one more thing: fixing a flat on the trail is certainly inconvenient, but it's not that big a deal!

TT

 

[jodi2]

I'm not sure but I guess most of our tubes with punctures had no sealant. But I heard several ones talking about if this might help faster than repairing or changing the tube. But as they all had spare tubes (and I guess not yet much experience in tubeless and sealant) the all prefered to change the tubes.
Maybe tube+sealant is as well very safe, but I don't see the need for it. Temporarily as a quick repair, ok, but always and on purpose? What's the need/the advantage of the tube then?
The safed weight ist not much, but at least at the rotating mass, and there you notice 100-200g (what you add when you ride with tube+sealant) per wheel.
And regardless of my own weight, at the bike I'm a weight weenie. Of course a few gram don't matter at an eBike but some pounds do. I tuned my Creo Comp Evo about two lbs down and this is clearly noticeable. It's not faster and also the range is almost the same I guess. But the handling of the bike is even better and nicer as with the default components, it's more fun to ride. If it's worth the money for the tuning is another point...

 

[Tars Tarkas]

I'm not sure but I guess most of our tubes with punctures had no sealant. But I heard several ones talking about if this might help faster than repairing or changing the tube. But as they all had spare tubes (and I guess not yet much experience in tubeless and sealant) the all prefered to change the tubes.
Maybe tube+sealant is as well very safe, but I don't see the need for it. Temporarily as a quick repair, ok, but always and on purpose? What's the need/the advantage of the tube then?
The safed weight ist not much, but at least at the rotating mass, and there you notice 100-200g (what you add when you ride with tube+sealant) per wheel.
And regardless of my own weight, at the bike I'm a weight weenie. Of course a few gram don't matter at an eBike but some pounds do. I tuned my Creo Comp Evo about two lbs down and this is clearly noticeable. It's not faster and also the range is almost the same I guess. But the handling of the bike is even better and nicer as with the default components, it's more fun to ride. If it's worth the money for the tuning is another point...

I wasn't suggesting sealant as a flat tire fix, but rather as a preventative. If you're going to carry it around, carry it in your tubes that way you probably won't have a flat. You use it in your tubeless tires, why not use it in tube tires? It's functionally the same either way.

I'm coming from the perspective of a $1500, 70 lb Rad Rover. I don't notice 2 grams, 2 ounces, or two pounds. Maybe 20 pounds. On your Creo Comp Evo I can imagine 2 pounds being noticeable. For some people, certainly. Probably not for me! But yeah, we're coming from two very different places about this. I see the OP has a Creo Comp too, so disregard everything I've said so far!

TT

 

[StmbtDave]

My experience with sealant in tubes is with my wife’s bike. I added sealant to her tubes to prevent or lessen the chance of her having a flat. I periodically have to pump up her tires but the last time neither the front or rear would take air. I pulled the wheels and found both presta stems were clogged with sealant. I had to carefully poke the clog back into the tube so they would take air. I have no idea why this would happen to her tubes when it has never happened to my presto tubeless.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

I've never had that problem with Schrader valves. I can imagine the valve getting clogged to some extent but I would think that just about any decent air pressure would clear it up. It may depend on the brand of sealant.

TT

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I had a bad puncture in a tubeless tyre of my e-MTB while on a ride in the wilderness. I have to admit the sealant did its work and I could continue the ride after re-inflating the wheel. Yet, I found all this tubeless staff messy, hard to install, and requiring extra tools. I keep my e-MTB tubeless because of the low pressure riding capability and because I believe it is easier to avoid puncture trouble off-road.

I keep all other e-bikes as tubed ones. Generous use of sealant inside the tube also helped me avoid a repair on a ride.