Tubeless 29er tires

[NH Moto Expo]

My most excellent wife was able to score me a great deal on a new Santa Cruz Superlight 29er. It came with tubed Maxxis Crossmark tires. The rims are WTB i19 Tubeless compatible. I live in New Hampshire and mostly ride local trails which have a little bit of everything. Typical east coast mud, rock, roots and wet terrain. I'm riding my first XC 100KM race this year (NH100) and was wondering if I should be looking at riding tubeless?

What are the advantages? Can I just put in stans and stems and ride my Crossmark tire? Or do I need new tires as well? I've heard great things about the Geax Saguoro and the Schwalbe Racing Ralph.

Any opinions would be gratefully accepted.

btw I'm 6'1", 195lbs and 51 years old. I rode this race last year and had to abandon due to time after 46 miles on my 2000 Gary Fischer rigid 29er. It was so heavy and awkward that climbing with that beast was too slow for me. I ended up walking too many of the uphills and on the one downhill it puked the fork oil all over the front wheel.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Tubeless gives you the advantage of running lower PSI with a reduced risk of pinch flats. If you're not tempted to run lower PSI, or don't feel the need, there won't be any great advantage to tubeless. They can also be a significant pain in the butt. You can simply run some Stans in your tires with the appropriate tubeless kit to prep your wheels for tubeless. There are also some "Ghetto Tubeless" set ups out there on the interwebs.

 

[pugslyyy]

I've been very happy with the Hutchinson tubeless tires, not so much the Specialized.

You'll find that some non-tubeless tires are porous (i.e. do not hold air). They are designed to have tubes in them to hold the air, all they have to do is protect the tube.

True tubeless tires have a slightly different sidewall that does a better job of locking in to tubeless rims, also.

So while you don't 100% have to put tubeless tires on to run a tubeless rig, it can make your life a lot simpler if you do.

 

[NH Moto Expo]

Thanks for all the help. I think I'll just ride it with tubes this year then next year get new tires and try it tubeless. I'm loving the Santa Cruz, I can climb things I never could on the rigid bike and it's lighter too! I'm kind of an old school sit and pedal kind of guy so the full suspension just keeps me fresher after a long ride.

 

[DaveInDenver]

As mentioned, the advantage is really lower pressure and no pinch flats. There is nothing magic about them, no hand's down weight reduction or anything. I have sometimes run tubeless, sometimes tubes. Tires designed to run tubeless are generally heavier so they hold air and you don't get a free win-win. When you find a tube tire that holds air you tend to stick with it and even then running a sealant is mandatory. One thing I don't do is go without a spare tube, if you pop a bead or get a sizable cut in the tire you usually have no choice but to put in a tube. If you are careful with component selection you'll find that it's easier to make a lighter wheelset that runs tubes, rims can be a bit less stout, the tire and tube a touch lighter.

 

[mtnbike28]

Also less thorn (etc) flats. I switched to tubeless years ago using Stan's kit in a Mavic rim and run regular tires (Conti and Maxxis) and have not had a flat since, I only burped a tire once, trying too low a pressure and a quick CO2 hit was all it needed. YMMV