Tubeless/TK540s/Thorn Mercury

[JerryS]

I've been happily cycling for the last 5 years on my Mercury with TK540s tubeless prepped with Stans rims strips and Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700x35 TLEs.
But is looks like Schwalbe have discontinued the Marathon Supreme TLE so I'll need to move to Schwalbe G One or similar which I expect will wear more rapidly....
Also  Stans have stopped making rim strips and  in the new Thorn guide the recommended Mercury tyre set up is now tube sealant in a lightweight latex inner tube rather than tubeless. I found this puzzling because I always thought one of the benefits of tubeless is to avoid pinch punctures.
So need to consider whether to continue tubeless with Schwalbe Ones (fortunately I have a little stockpile of stains rim strips) or revert to a tubes arrangement with standard marathon supremes....
Any comments or alternative tubeless ready tyre recommendations for medium speed touring on mainly tarmac with odd bits of gravel and forest track?

[JohnR]

There's plenty of other tubeless rim tape available if you know which width suits your rims but, unless it's damaged, why replace what you've got. My Mercury came with 650B G-One Speed tyres set up as tubeless. However, I found that getting them to seat wasn't easy despite using an air tank (but I did win!). And when I came to use some Panaracer Gravel King SK tyres I found I couldn't get them to seat with the resources at my disposal and ended using them with tubes with some sealant inside. However, I've had no difficulty in setting up Gravel King SK tyres on another bike with different rims which indicates that tyre-rim combination is a big factor. I've used them as winter road tyres to give more grip on mucky roads. The G-One Speed tyres roll nicely but don't have much tread. I note that there's now a + version of the GravelKing family with improved puncture resistance so they might be worth a look.

PS: Spa Cycles has the 700-40C size of the Marathon Supreme tubeless if they will fit your frame /forks https://spacycles.co.uk/m14b0s142p4548/SCHWALBE-Marathon-Supreme-Tubeless-HS469-folding .

[Moronic]

I'm enjoying the 50mm G-Ones that came on my Mark 3 Mercury 650b, running tubeless.

They do seem to be wearing pretty swiftly though. Okay for me so far coz I'm not doing all that many miles. They will last out the year, and maybe longer. Schwalbe says they're worn out when the belt starts to show through the tread.

I think it's only on the narrower tyres that Thorn now recommends tubes. Possibly because they're harder to plug than the big ones (less clearance to the rim bed when you're pushing the plug through a tyre that's deflated a bit). If you've enjoyed tubeless 35s for five years I can't see why you'd change. I imagine the Marathons resist punctures more effectively than G-Ones though.

The G-Ones seem to roll very nicely on tarmac, but as the speed gets up they can sound a bit noisy. Not sure whether there's a better option if you're rarely off tarmac.

[JerryS]

Thanks for the comments; I've never had issues seating my tubeless tyres and one reason I think is that once my rim strips get gunky with dried up sealant I chuck them..they are cheap compared to the tyres ; with Marathon Supreme TLEs I've been getting about 8000km out of them with usually about 3 sealant top ups so by the time they do come off they are quite messy inside.... . I changed my rear to a G one speed TLE on Sunday (having been unable to obtain a 700x35 marathon supreme TLE and while I do think the wear will be faster, it did ride well....very well.... in fact think I might be a convert.....

[Moronic]

Good to hear you have a solution that feels promising. I do like my G-One Speeds.

In case it's still helpful, I've remembered now Thorn's reasoning for recommending tubes in 35c and narrower wheels - still can't remember where I read it but perhaps in the megabrochure.

Anyway, the worry was that a tubeless tyre of this volume was more likely than a bigger volume tyre to deflate fully when punctured, before the leak could be plugged. Since a fully deflated tubeless tyre is unlikely to reseat on the road, you're left with fitting a tube amid a sea of sealant. Putting the sealant inside an inner tube saves on mess.