this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!

"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.

micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"

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Tubeless tire valves are getting weird. Here are the pros and cons to each design. (www.singletracks.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works to c/micromobility@lemmy.world
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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I know I'm on the wrong side of the tracks here because ever since I was a kid I always drilled out my rims to accept normal tubes with Schrader valves.

The notion that there are not just two but now multiple competing so-called standards for a problem that's been solved for literally over a century is baffling. There are no "pros," only cons; all of this is just a blatant attempt at vendor lock in. The main con is the obvious one, in that having to carry an adapter around to fill your tires is stupid, and you can find a Schrader compatible air pump anywhere. There's one strapped to the downtube on my bicycle right now.

Any of these alleged trivial differences in performance are irrelevant because no one is putting air in or taking air out of their tires often enough for it to matter, and even if you are, is the minute difference in advertised flow rate worth spending ~$50 for a valve stem? No one in history has ever had trouble squeezing sealant through a Schrader valve. No one who doesn't have a dozen sponsor logos on their back will care about or even notice the weight difference between any of these stems out to any number of decimal places.

This is all deeply silly. The latest shiny valve stems won't make you a better cyclist; just ride your damn bike.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

From your username, I can see that you're a person of taste. :)

Have never been a fan of tubeless - dealing with flats is way less of a field-servicable thing. Sure, if one has a flat on a big ADV bike, dealing with a flat is going to suck either way, but, tube-type tires give a chance of restoring nearly full functionality with minimal and/or improvised tools. Something like a 250cc or smaller bike generally won't be a problem.

(Yes, I know this is more about bicycles than motorcycles but, I know the later much better.)

And yeah. Unless one is racing (either type of bike) valve stems are going to make absolutely no difference.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Running some manner of sealant is way easier if you have tubes. This is true for motorcycles and bicycles. On a roadgoing only bike there's something to be said for just being able to stab a plug into your tire if you pick up a nail in your travels, but for anything going off road I'd much rather just use a tube. You can run lower pressures if that's appropriate and you actually don't have to worry about your tire bead at all if you have a wheel with rim locks.

And you're correct, sticking a self-vulcanizing patch on a tube is a permanent repair. You can keep running that tube afterwards right up to the end of its normal service life, i.e. when you would have replaced the tire itself anyway, and this is also true for bicycles. You could run a tube completely made out of patches if you wanted to, no problem. Conversely, people will insist at you that a plug isn't permanent. I don't know of anyone trying to plug a bicycle tire, but considering I can usually just bust a mountain bike tire both off the bead and off of its rim with my bare hands I don't consider having to patch a tube on the side of an MTB trail a particularly onerous proposition. I have no idea why anybody would go out of their way to run tubeless tires on a bicycle but apparently they do... for some reason.

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Just have to be careful because drilling the rim out can weaken it. From what I understand the presta valves are used on stuff like MTB because it's smaller and they can make the rim stronger because the hole is smaller.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Had to google tubeless tires to even understand the headline. Tubeless tire whats? I thought a tubless tire was some kind of solid or foam rubber that needed no inflation, but apparentlly it still does, it just doesn't have a separate innertube. Interesting.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What you're describing is a bib mousse, which does also exist.

Everyone is familiar with tubeless tires even if they don't know it, because modern car tires are all tubeless. We stopped using inner tubes in car tires in the 1950s. Tubes hung on in bikes, motorcycles, and some truck tires (and wagons and lawn mowers and tractors and lots of other nonroadworthy things) for various reasons.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

D'oh of course, I've never had car tires with tubes, but of course they need air. Should have thought of that.

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Tubeless tires are popular because you can run them at lower pressures without issues like pinch flats, so they're grippier. They also have lower rolling resistance so they ride faster.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Tubeless are nice. Tubeless tire fluid is basically just like blood. When the tire is punctured (assuming it's not a catastrophic puncture) it will automatically reseal and coagulate around the hole. It's typically used more for off-road/downhill mountain biking. Some city bikes also use it, but dealing with a flat is much easier in the city.

[–] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Do these all need different adapters for air? Or are the differences somewhere else?

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

A lot of pumps have a schrader and presta valve built into the nozzle, but some only have one. These all look like presta style valves.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 2 points 3 weeks ago

At these prices, I need to get into the tire valve business.

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Isn't tubeless out again?

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

Who knows anymore?