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TECH NEWS
Vittoria Air Liner Road 5Vittoria launches run-flat Air-Liner inserts for road bikes
Vittoria has expanded its Air-Liner MTB and Gravel range of tubeless inserts to include an option for tubeless road tyres of any brand. If you suffer a puncture that your tubeless system fails to seal, the Vittoria Air-Liner Road system is designed to allow you to roll on punctured tyres, so you can get back home.
The Air-Liner Road system sets out to provide peace of mind and protection for the ride ahead, whether you are training, touring or even racing.
> 2021 Tech Trends: Tubeless inserts - the next big advance in road tubeless tech? Here are your options
According to Vittoria, the Air-Liner system provides “unmatched bump compliance and impact protection, while ensuring bead lock at lower pressures”.
“The lightweight material absorbs no sealant, ensuring that punctures are sealed as normal, and extending the useful life of the insert,” says Vittoria.
The brand’s proprietary tubeless Multiway Valve uses multiple large holes within the tyre chamber that are designed to eliminate valve clogging as well as providing ease of use while adjusting air-pressure.
The system has already been used as a “secret weapon” within the pro peloton, by the likes of Alexander Kristoff as he won Gent-Wevelgem in 2019.
The Air-Liner Road is available in three sizes, 25mm, 28mm and 30mm, weighing 24g, 31g and 39g respectively.
Vittoria’s Road Tubeless Tool-kit, consisting of a pair of pliers and six clips, is said to make installing the Air-Liner Road inserts quick and easy. Vittoria says the patented pliers provide a gentle yet secure grip on the tyre, which is needed when removing the tyre bead from the rim. This is said to create space for the included clips to be inserted between the tyre and rim. The handles of the pliers are also designed to be used as tyre levers during mounting and dismounting to prevent damage to the rim and tyre.
This tool kit is sold separately.
Vittoria’s Air-Liner Tubeless Insert costs £64.99.
Anna has been hooked on bikes ever since her youthful beginnings at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit. As an avid road and track racer, she reached the heady heights of a ProCyclingStats profile before leaving for university. Having now completed an MA in Multimedia Journalism, she’s hoping to add some (more successful) results. Although her greatest wish is for the broader acceptance of wearing funky cycling socks over the top of leg warmers.
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34 comments
Oh dear lord, now cyclists have become so lazy and so non-mechanical they can't fix a flat on the side of the road anymore so they can now use this run-flat liner and ride to a bicycle shop and have them fix the flat for them. What is this world coming to?
I'm a 'veteran' cyclist with arthritic thumbs, removing a tyre is a painful and prolonged process for me.
I've recently changed to tubeless, too early to say how effective this will be, but a run flat system is something that interests me.
However £65 buys me a lot of taxi rides home.
Good luck getting a tubeless tyre on a rim - or off. Tight as a preverbial, they are.
My first impression was that tubeless inserts seemed like a lot of hassle and a waste of money. However, I'm now starting to get curious about them which means that I'll probably have to try them out just to see what they're like.
These look good.
It's not very often I'm more than 50km from base.
Would allow me to ditch the spare tube and tyre levers from my seat pack too.
Tempted.
I've noticed mixed reviews of them for MTB but can see the appeal. Still £140 for a pair plus the specialised tools they indicate are needed....
Edit, actually just seen that supposedly the box with the tools, two inserts and the plastic retainers is £73 (although only one place seems to have it). So not sure where the £65 linked in the article is from or what it is actually for. (1-2 inserts?)
Maybe a bit of lazy googling on the part of road.cc? The first result I get is this - one MTB insert for £65:
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-air-liner-tubeless-insert
Althought could also have been from Vittoria as well as they don't have a good track record for keeping their website upto date being as my closest Vittoria aproved stockist is a Cycle Republic which has been closed for over a year now (and that is literally all they list in the UK).
PMSL, you may as well use an inner-tube, what a waste of time.
Reminds me of disc brakes on road bike, another thing no one needs - there's one born every minute, or every second when it comes to bikes and cycling enthusiasts spaffing their money on fashions.
Anyone remember L shaped cranks, they were the next big thing as well and.......
I could go one for ever
I'm a slow adopter of new technology, and have splinters in my backside from sitting on the fence for so long over tubeless. This product could likley be the final piece of the puzzle that converts me, as it solves my biggest concern, having to install a tube roadside and risk ruining kit with sealant.
Tour of Flanders was won using a radical technology called inner tubes....
Just another attempt at the bike industry to spend money on stuff we really don't need. How long has cycling managed on inner tube setups? Wanna go tubeless? "ah that will require a whole new wheelset, tires and a special pump" But wait my inner tube setup has worked just fine for the last forty years... "now, have a look at this picture of a penguin to distract you...."
not everything is a conspiracy, nobody is forcing you to upgrade, mountain bikers WOULD NEVER go back to tubes and with each passing year the tech is being refined for easy road use.
You don't ride a penny farthing or fixed gear with solid tyres so why get so stressed at progress? If people really don't want or like it then it won't catch on
Well I did a 50 mile MTB ride yesterday with inner tubes and no punctures. I hardly ever get punctures on a MTB so tubeless for me is no benefit.
Meanwhile my cycling buddy is endlessly faffing with his tubeless setup and it is a real hassle when swapping tyres.
I used to go mountain biking with a local club, around 10 years ago before tubeless was widespread. My recollection was that there would be at least one puncture most rides. With a group of ~15 doing ~30 miles that equates to one puncture per 450 person-miles. So it's not a suprise that you can go one 50 mile ride without a puncture, but equally I think everyone in the club would have been happier not having to stop while someone changed a tube on such a regular basis!
I appreciate that tubeless set up and changing tyres is more of a faff, but at least it's a faff that you can do at a time of your choosing and in the comfort of your home/garage/garden. Much better than in the cold/rain at the side of a road.
I have been on many group rides were someones tubeless tyre has punctured and failed to seal.
As a collarary to your N=1 example, I'll give mine. I've been running tubeless on my road bikes since 2011 and have done well over 100,000km. In that time I have had 3 punctures that would not seal either by itself or with a tyre plug. In each case, I just stuck an inner tube in. Each time it took, like, 1 minute more at most than changing a normal tube. In that 10 year period I have had far more punctures that have sealed and have not even required stopping to top up the air in the tyre.
The vast majority of punctures that happen will, if running tubeless, seal. Tubeless tyres are no more likely to puncture than tubed tyres (they are actually considerably less likely to puncture as you can't get pinch punctures). If a tubeless tyre doesn't seal, you just stick a tube in - exactly like you would have to do with a tubed tyre.
[/quote]
......The vast majority of punctures that happen will, if running tubeless, seal. ..[/quote]
That's what I believed when I went tubeless a year ago and, initially things went well. Then two flats - one large, the other tiny - disabused me of that notion. Despite winning several comparative tests Uncle Stan's gloop proved to be completely ineffective in both cases, which persuaded me to switch back to tubes.
I'm a supporter of innovation, a fan of experiment and a believer in trying things new. And I'm glad I had a go at tubeless, even if the technology isn't yet mature. If nothing else I'm preaching from a position of experience.
Sorry Red Card for this comment.
Having a solid filled tyre is going back to cyclings roots. It a modern heritage tyre if you will.
So we're now at a point where innovation is futile, are we? The key word in your argument is "managed". How long did cycling manage with riders having to stop and manually move the chain on a different cog? How long did it manage with downtube levers? How long did it manage without GPS units? The list is very long, as you know. And the beauty of innovation is that you can stop following it as soon as you feel it's becoming irrelevant for you.
Far longer than it has with them. Literally, nearly a century.
still using inner tubes in your car?
@wycombewheeler
Still squirting puncture seal into your car tyres?
I thought not. Tubeless bicycle tyres need another iteration.
Err what kind of fail is this?
Carrying a can of puncture sealant foam for a car tyre is pretty common.
And carrying an entire spare wheel is a legal requirement afaik, precisely because you cant predict when a car tyre will get a puncture.
It's not a legal requirement, I've not had carried a spare car wheel for nearly 20 years now, though I dont have much faith in the can of gunk working its magic,and run flats where a pain.
Afaicr the only legal requirement on a spare wheel was if you carried one,it had to be a legal on tread depth etc
Dirt bikers prefer inner tubes on their motorbike tyres.. something to do with being easier to fix a tube in the middle of nowhere than hope a plug will work in the tyre
Does look great for commuting and shorter rides - you can sort out any major problems at home (tyre patch for the hole - bearing in mind the hole was too big for the sealant/ tyre plug)
but apparently you can only ride for 50km/30 miles meaning you'll have to turn back on longer rides as you can't fit an inner tube with the liner in? Shame as it does limit it for amateur use
I've used the ghetto equivalent (window sealing foam) for a couple of years. If you really need to re-tube, you can just pull the foam out and wrap it over your head/shoulder like a bandolier. It may spoil your optimum aero efficiency, but it needn't be the end of a ride.
yeah maybe...but it might cover you in sealant 😉
The overwhelming majority of rides by amateurs will be under 50km. So they've probably covered99% of instances. Solid.
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