Tubliss Length of Use

I haven't been running the Tubliss very long yet.  Probably a dozen rides and a few hundred miles.  Relatively few high speed asphalt miles.  I am mainly on rocky dirt roads and trails.  Most of my rides aren't lengthy.

I have not installed the Tubliss system in the front wheel yet because I want to see how the rear holds up before I decide.

One downside I read about before buying the rear system is pressure loss.  If I don't ride for five days or so, the high-pressure Tubliss inner bladder will drop from 110psi to about 80psi.  Pretty easy to remedy with a bicycle pump or small electric pump.  The main (low pressure) compartment does not seem to lose air at a noticeable rate.  Of course, at the time of installation I had only about 700 miles on the wheels and the tire was new, so I imagine they sealed pretty effectively.

If the Tubliss doesn't live up to expectations over the long run, I'll probably try some of the ultra heavy duty tubes.  

Dave

I've run tubliss for a few years now & have had no issues with it. I ride some rather extreme terrain & have had four flats total. Three were easily plugged & underway while the guys were still taking off their gear thinking they were in for a 20 minute wait like we do for their flats. One rear flat was a large finishing nail that went through the tire & dead center into the Tubliss. Since it was muddy, I just threw in a tube on the trail & repaired the Tubliss when I got home. I check the high pressure before each weekend's ride, but normally don't see much pressure drop, I typically run 8 psi in the MT43 trials rear & 11-12 in the MX71 front for general trail riding, lower in the rear for really nasty loose rocky climbs. I've run it with knobbies as well & they do really well at 4-8 psi in extreme conditions. I love the way the tire is retained & you can easily ride with a flat for quite a ways if you choose to.

Thanks for your much more substantial experience!

I understand that trials tires are a lot more flexible, so you're running a bit more pressure in them. The D606 seems to have very stiff sidewalls so they don't require much air pressure. I read that one of Dunlop's non-DOT desert knobbies has even stiffer sidewalls, such that lighter riders are running only a pound or two of air with a Tubliss setup.

Although I've ridden only a few hundred miles, so far I haven't noticed any chunks torn off the D606 knobs, nor have I seen the beginnings of excessively rapid wear.

When the stock front tire wears out, I'll likely have enough experience with the rear to decide whether a front Tubliss will go on. I'm thinking of one of the Pirelli Scorpion front tires that lots of guys seem to like.

If you run the psi super low for a long time on high speed runs you will wear the sidewall out on the tire even with a stiff tire like the 606.

All that flex causes the sidewall to chafe and will eventually cut the cords in the side wall then the tire feels flat while still holding air. Its possible to wear the sidewall out long before the tread is worn down.

I'd keep 8-10 psi in the rear to cut down on the flex except for really slow dificult riding.

Theres a bunch of info out there about this issue, the pirelli mt16 rear that I like running fails very quickly aparently but it works great with 10-12 psi and a tube in it, its nothing like the 606 tho it has a soft sidewall.

Most guys running tubliss with really low psi are running knoobies that only last 1000 miles tops so the side walls dont have to last near as long as your 606 will last.

The dunlop 908 is the front tire to run with tubliss, it has stiff sidewalls, works well and holds up great.

The pirelli front tires are not that great with tubliss, they have soft sidewalls which work great with tubes in them but wear out fast without the tube supporting them.

Excellent advice. I'm not running 4 psi on pavement or high-speed, hard-packed dirt. I've been pumping the D606 up to around 12-15 psi for my less frequent pavement runs (I carry a small mountain bike pump). From my house I can get onto dirt roads that lead into the Pine Nut Mtns with only about 300 yards of pavement.

Thanks for your experience!

Dave