MTB: Yes

Tubeless tires are great for mountain bikes. They address the 2 biggest limitations of the tube+tire technology that had been used for more than 50 years: traction and puncture resistance. On MTB trails with tubed tires, you must run high enough pressures to avoid pinch flats. And those pressures are high enough to greatly reduce traction. For example, on typical 26″ x 2.3″ tires you would typically need 50 PSI to avoid flats, which makes the tire almost as hard as the rocks you’re riding over. And that only avoids pinch flats. You would still get flats from thorns or sharp rocks.

With tubeless tires you can run about half the pressures, 25-30 PSI, on those same size tires. This is a vast improvement in traction. And despite these lower pressures, the tires are even more flat resistant than before. It really is the best of both worlds.

Tubeless has its drawbacks. It makes tire mounting messy, more labor intensive, and requires a compressor. It also requires more maintenance, as the fluid must be replaced every few months. And once or twice a year you also need to completely remove the tire from the rim to clean out all the old dried up sealant.

But when mountain biking, the benefits are are well worth these hassles.

Road: No

None of these benefits apply with road bikes. With their skinnier tires, the ideal pressures for rolling resistance, traction and comfort are already high enough that you would run the same pressures whether tubeless or not. On road bikes, pinch flats with tubes are not an issue and flats are much less common.

Yes, tubeless is more puncture resistant. But road riders don’t get punctures nearly as often as MTB riders used to. And when those punctures happen on the road, the tubeless sealant doesn’t handle them as effectively as it does with MTB tires. Several times over the years I’ve stopped to help road riders with tubeless tires fix flats when their sealant just sprayed everywhere making a mess instead of sealing the leak. They didn’t have a spare tube because they thought tubeless tires were “flat-proof”.

On my road bike I use latex inner tubes and Conti GP5000 tires. I ride it at least 5,000 miles per year, usually more. If I switched to tubeless:

• My wheels would not be any lighter.
• My wheels would not be any faster.
• My tire pressures would not change.
• I would still have to carry a spare inner tube with me.
• If I did get a flat on a ride, it would be more of a hassle than just swapping an inner tube.
• I would spend more time (not less) maintaining my tires because I would have to clean out & replace the sealant more often than I get flats today.
• That maintenance would also take longer and be messier, due to dealing with sealant and a compressor.

In short, road bikes don’t need either of the 2 key benefits that tubeless tires provide, so all it does is create hassle and mess.