Mike.the.Spike said:
Since going tubeless, my experience has been truly magnificent. I shake the crap out of the Stan's bottle to make sure I get a good mix of the fluid and the granules that settle at the bottom of the bottle. I pulled out FIVE thorns at Chino Hills State Park, Stan's sealed all holes and I finished my 25 mile solo ride without skipping a beat. This type of instant sealing has been my only experience. I don't know what else to say but tubeless technology seems flawless with the exception of getting a deep nasty sidewall gash.
That has mostly been my experience with tubeless as well, but not without exceptionssss. Since going tubeless almost 6 years ago, I have had a couple of instances where my tires have suffered fatal blows to the tread, and a couple of fatal sidewall cuts. The two sidewall cuts were with Specialized S-Works tires that have VERY thin sidewalls. I don't ride those anymore, and would only recommend those as race day tires, and probably not at all as a rear tire.
The fatal tread incidents are very rare with semi-robust tires, but they still happened. The first was early on in my tubeless experience, and I ran over something that put BIG holes in both the front and rear tires at the same spot at the same time. Still could not figure out what I ran over, but it got both tires and they would not seal up, so I had to use tubes which I was given by buddies that happened to ride by as I was contemplating my situation. Got out just before total darkness set in.
For the next few years I usually rode without tire supplies when riding locally, but always prepared for bear on ride that were not in my local area. or longer in duration/distance. Earlier this year, I started thinking that I should probably see if I could put together kit for local riding so as to avoid a walk of shame. I first got a Topeak Wedge Pack II Micro which was a great size, and attached to a removable mount on my saddle rails and had no strap to go around the dropper seatpost.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.topeak.com/products/bags/wedgepack2_micro" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.topeak.com/products/bags/wedgepack2_micro</a>
It had room for a 29er tube, C02 cartridge and tiny inflator tool, glue-on patch kit, a small mini-tool, a Park tire boot, and a lever or two, and is a pretty good solution . . . . . except. . . . . it would only attach to the horizontal section of the saddle rails. This is a problem for me because I like my saddle mounted to the seatpost as far back on the rails as possible, and this mount forced me to move the saddle forward a good half inch which bugged me. YMMV.
Sure enough, within a week of putting this kit on my bike, my rear tire suffered a puncture from a stick that put a 1/4" hole in the middle of the tread. Surprisingly, after spewing a fair amount of my homebrew sealant, the hole sealed up. However, after less than half a mile, the hole opened again, and after reinflating, would not stop leaking after another 1/4 mile. I happened to have two C02 cartridges, so I used up one to try to limp out tubeless/ Then I decided to put a tube in, and used the other to pump that up. However, the tire did not end up with enough pressure and was super squirmy. It was now dark, and I thought it was going to roll off the rim, but soon ran into a buddy that was riding up (and had lights and a pump), so he inflated my tire enough to get me out as I rode basically in total darkness.
I decided that I should get a pump, and ended up with a Specialized pump that also had an internally mounted C02.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/pumps/portable-mountain-pumps/air-tool-combo2-pump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/pu ... ombo2-pump</a>
Not a bad solution, except that it is the only mini-pump they sell that did not come with a mounting bracket. I found a strap with a small piece of padding made for mounting mini-pumps to frames, but the pump still ended up banging against the frame and I didn't want to have my frame get scratched up so I abandoned that pump in favor of a more traditional mini-pump that came with a bracket to mount if under the water bottle cage. A little heavier than I would have preferred, but it is a good enough pump that I won't be quite tempted to throw it over a cliff after pumping up a tire with it.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/pumps/portable-mountain-pumps/air-tool-switch-frame-pump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftb/pu ... frame-pump</a>
As for a seat bag that would peacefully co-exist with a dropper post, and would not require me to keep my saddle pushed back further than I like, I ended up with a Cannondale Speedster saddle bag:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/gear/bag/speedster-small-saddle-bag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.cannondale.com/nam_en/gear/b ... saddle-bag</a>
This is a pretty compact bag that has just enough room in the main compartment for a 29er tube, a glueless patch kit, and a tire lever. I have to fold the tube into a wedge shape to get it to conform to the shape of the bag so it will go all the way in. I also added the Park tire boot along the roof of the bag which made it slippery enough to get the tube all the way in, and now has a tiny bit of additional room for something else if I need it. It has a strap that would normally go around the seatpost, but this bag is so small that it doesn't actually hit against the post with the strap closed on only itself enough to interfere with the action of the dropper post (or it hasn't yet). This bag also has a small pouch on the underside (with a velcro flap) that will hold a very small mini-tool. I chose this one:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftr/bagstools/tools/emt-micro" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.specialized.com/us/en/ftr/ba ... /emt-micro</a>
So, I think I have my solution worked out for not having to wear a pack on most of my local rides, but still having the provisions to deal with most trailside flat tire situations, as well as having a mini-tool.
