Thanks for sharing another epic ride report and sharing those routes.
I am so thankful my bike is Tubeless, dont you have an option of fitting tubeless rims?
I know they are pricey but considering the headaches you went through I would think it justifies getting a set
My gf has an AT now, I dread going on trips with her and having to sort out punctures all the way along.
I am seriously looking at how I can sort that out, Tubliss conversion is currently on my radar but from your experience it seems it isnt full proof
Tubes are for bicycles IMHO
I'm sure there are some Sickaflex solutions for tubeless, Tubeliss is superior for my riding to Tubeless. I can ride extremely low pressures - even flat with Tubeliss as the inner (if working) keeps the tyre on the rim. With tubeless, the tyre would lose bead. Also there are basically no proper offroad tubeless tyres availalbe (TKC80 is mostly tar/dirt road tyre IMO).
While this was a bit of bitch, if I would have been carrying spare TUbeliss inner, I would have been fine. And this kind of experiences fundamentally belong to adv riding IMO - it may sound perverse but I often even enjoy them as I don't work manually normally and this is a nice reality check that also keeps the brain exercised, as just getting tyre on/off without pinching tube is quite an interesting puzzle and enjoy findingi tricks to get it right.
Spare tubes are absolutely indispensable on trips like this - as they are the only solution that works when everything else fails (includingi tubeless - I have ridden many km on my 1150 GSA with tube in) and also can be repaired. So I will always carry them.
This whole raging debate about tubeliss vs tubes to me is clear symptom of how undifferentiated this whole adventure riding thingy became where on one extreme end it is basically people who just want to ride supersports with upright riding position and on other the traditional dual sporting, which is basically plated enduro riding off the beaten track along the lines of this trip.
If you ask anybody who has done this kind of DS trip rather than long distance touring, I think they would all agree that spare tube as a back-up is a must, regardless whether they use primarily tubes, mousses or some kind of tubeless solution. On these trips losing an hour chaning the tube is not such a big deal as these trips are open ended (I don't have to make the destination every night) and measured in hours and not in km (I spent 2 weeks riding 3000 km, which is what some people on those big tourers do in 2 days).
And vice versa, when your trips are well planned with bookings and stuff and involving eating lots of kms on relatively easy tar/dirt, then a puncture or two can throw your whole plan in the air. So I can understand the hate of tubes.
It is about specific application.