Can you say ADVERTORIAL?

 Is this the definition of ADVERTORIAL? 

THIS we mean. Zio hates to even link to this "content" I guess you'd call it? Back when he knew print magazine folks the joke was the articles they wrote were just stuff to fill up the space between the ads, but these days the articles and ads are pretty tough to tell apart!

The guy doesn't mention a specific brand of tubeless road tire so one can't claim some tire maker paid for it, but it's certainly an unpaid promotion for road tubeless. Perhaps the adoption of this technological innovation isn't coming as fast as some would like?

Zio will admit to never bothering with these. He looked into them and was turned off by the idea the sealant required dries-out over time. He's got quite a few bicycles and didn't really want to have to remove tires, clean out dried-up sealant and refill with goop and air just to ride the bike that had been parked for a few months. Air-up the tires, put a little lube on the chain and he's ready to ride! Who wants to mess around with sealant or charge-up electronic shifting systems? Zio just wants to ride!

The author claims that with tubed tires he couldn't "make it through a week in LA without at least 5-6 flats." Zio used to live in LA and wonders if the roads there are now paved with nails or the guy is a bit over-the-top...or just doesn't know how to avoid junk in the road? He claims road tubeless has resulted in just 5 flats in 4 years of riding. Excuse me for calling BS on this!

He also goes on to sing the praises of lower tire pressures...as if you can't let some air out of your tubed clinchers? WTF not? He admits to being a bit of a proselytizer, for Zio a sure sign he's joined the tubeless cult.

Being able to change out a $5 tube by hand on the road (though I'll admit to more than 5 flats in 4 years, but not a lot more) without being sprayed by sealant or having to wrestle a tubeless tire off its special rim (I know this because Heather has bikes with annoying "tubeless ready" wheels) to remove and replace dried-up sealant is worth far more to me than any perceived "performance advantage" over using a reasonably sized tire (25 mm) inflated to a reasonable pressure. 

That's BEFORE considering the cost of the special wheels, tires, sealant and repair kits needed for road tubeless. It might be great for fat-tired MTB'S but for Zio's money it's just another "make whatever you have now obsolete" marketing-maven driven scheme. 

And VELO wants you to pay to read stuff like this? Do they know if you type .com onto the end of their name you end up on a nicotine site? They canned long-time technical editor Lennard Zinn...now they run "technical" stuff that could probably be produced by a chat-bot!

Update: Now that LeTour has begun Zio's reading about teams racing on....tubular tires or clinchers...with tubes in them! Seems sometimes the marketing-mavens and their sponsorship loot can't overcome what the teams think works best?