Jeepers, You just fired up my memories of a nail like that going into my gravel tyre about 2 weeks after rolling out of the showroom. (Nail went straight through the rim base too)
No amount of sealant was going to fix that one and it was a bit tricky to try and plug the rim base.
Good to see you made it home safely and all is good in the world again.
I have tried tubeless and really liked it, until I didn’t. Got a puncture right where the sidewall met the rim so plugging it was a failure. I had to go to a tube, but I’d just added sealant, so it was a true mess getting the tire off, dumping all the sealant, then peeling sealant off the inside of the tire. To make matters worse, the Conti tube I had somehow had split (note to self to check spare tubes periodically) so it was useless. My riding companions had tubes, but none had valve stems long enough for my Zipp 404s (note to self to always carry a stem extender.) Anyway, we finally found a tube that would barely get through the rim, screwed a CO2 onto it, and went on our way. Probably 45 minutes and a huge mess for a puncture that would have taken my 10 minutes max with a tube setup.
Of course, part of this is solely on me and my lack of prep/foresight, but I kind of keep the tubeless wheels as backups and have gone back to GP 5000S and latex tubes for road. More about what I’m used to, I suppose. But I don’t often get flats, either.
One element of tubeless I found really frustrating was the valves and valve stems getting clogged. This would make topping up the air pressure (required every ride or so) a real pain and add another maintenance element to the equation. I now run Fillmore valves in all of my wheels and they are genuinely a game changer. Never had one cause a problem - highly recommended.
I did get so frustrated that I tried TPU tubes, but their fragility in installation (both at home, and by the roadside) turned me back to tubeless. Now I ride with a Dynaplug and a CO2 in my pocket, no spare tube, and accept that on the occasion that I can’t plug/seal a hole and get up and running, I’ll call for the support car. Haven’t had to do so, yet (
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I think this is fairly dependent on your riding conditions and the tyres you use. I ride a lot but very rarely get punctures on my local roads with GP5000s. So I’m happy to run TPU tubes as the necessity to fix a flat on the road side is so rare. If punctures were more common I would definitely consider switching to tubeless.
Wow thanks everyone for the numerous replies, stories and tips. Seems that this is the ultimate YMMV with some common trends, the lower the pressure the better, wider tires, etc…
Food for thought for sure.
I’ve been running it for a couple of years and am a fan. It’s more hassle to set up, but thats hassle at home. The sealant auto puncture mending works most of the time and that’s my main motivation. I carry a dynaplug thing which works fairly well. You can carry a tube for the road but many tyre / rim combos are simply too tight to dismount. You’ll need a blast pump for home. I like the reserve fillmore valves and find mounting and inflating easier with them. And stan’s race sealant works for me (but you can’t insert it via the valve).
I’ve been running tubeless on all my bikes (road, gravel, and MTB) for few years. Sometimes the advantages have been great. Sometimes it’s been a pain in the ass. I’ve stuck with it.
I haven’t had any issues on my MTB, or even any signs that I’ve had a puncture, so I can’t say if it’s an advantage or not.
On my gravel bike, in the first few miles of a race, I got punctured on both front and rear tires by goatheads. I knocked the goatheads off as I rode, the holes sealed immediately, and I never even lost my spot in the group. That was pretty cool. On the flip side, a few weeks ago, I got a slash through the tread on local ride that took 3 Dynalugs to get thing closed up enough so it would hold just enough air to limp home (mostly downhill). The fun part was that it happened just 100M downhill from where I spotted a mama bear and her two cubs.
On the road, I’ve had more flats that required a tube, a very slow roll on a flat tire, or an Uber trip home than I’ve had where sealant solved the issue.
What size tires do you run on the road?
With the right wheel + tire combination, road tubeless is unbeatable. When that combination isn’t right, the experience can suck. So…how do you find the right combination? One clue is to use tires that the wheel company offers to sell with the wheels. Even if you don’t get them from the wheel company, it’s likely that the combination will be pretty trouble-free since the wheel company would want minimum complaints.
So here’s an example of great combination - I have Vittoria N.Ext 28s on my Hunt 50s. During a ride I heard a tick, stopped and found a small nail straight into the tire but very little air escaped. Tire was still firm. I decided to leave it in. Rode another 15 miles and even stopped for a quick coffee. When I got home, tire was still firm. I pulled out the nail, a little bit of sealant came out and then it sealed and air stopped coming out. Amazing.
My views, FWIW. MTB (2.25” width) all tubeless, no hassles. Gravel bike 40 mm tyres, Curve 25mm internal width rims rum at 30 psi tubeless, no hassles. On both of those carry cylinder of Vittoria sealant & Dynaplugs on all rides with spare tubeless valves & “emergency” TPU tubes none of which I have needed to use. Road bikes (x4 across various builds) all tubed, minimal hassles. Latest road bike I use for tarmac only is 2025 Cervelo Soloist with reserve TA 64/57 and separate set 37/34 wheels, set with Vittoria 30 mm Pro tubed tyres (measure at 32 mm fitted), TPU tubes run at 55 - 60 psi (I am 70 kg). My general threshold for being willing to fit tubeless is tyre pressure below 50 psi. With my current road bike set-ups (others may run wider tyre width +/- lower body weight +/- mixed terrain usage) I don’t see enough “up-side” to switch to tubeless.
Small tip i found for brand new tyres is to lay them totally flat on their side after setting up for an hour or two per side. This helps coat the tyre side walls with sealant and get sealant into the join of tyre against rim. Otherwise they can start to deflate a little quicker than expected. I only tend to do this once when mounting a brand new tyre and i find it helps keep them firm.
Simon
Pfft! I see your small nail and raise you. 
I did post this on discord at the time.The stick was so long i was worried it had pierced the rim tape.
Admittedly this took two plugs to seal, but I still made it ~15kms home after this, including stopping for lunch.
We run tubeless on all our bikes except a couple of older / basic ones.
I like tubeless but I would never tell anyone else they should use it.
We run tubeless in our van too. I got to use our tyre plugger today out on a remote road near the Flinders Rangers. For a while I was kicking myself for not having followed the rule of familiarising oneself with repair tools before one needs them, as has been discussed recently here or in Discord. I bought a much better tyre plugger in 2021 but haven’t looked at it since then - it’s not just a basic bacon strip skewer. So it took about as long to read the instructions and work out how to use this plugger as it took to use it - imagine my delight when it worked and the tyre is still up now after ~200kms of very rough roads. 
I’d echo the suggestion of some of the earlier posters - try putting some sealant in your tubes. You don’t need as much as for a full tubeless setup because it’s only there to deal with small punctures, not seal an entire bead. I just started putting sealant in my road tubes recently and I don’t know why I didn’t do it years ago. I guess because other people weren’t doing it? I ride a lot in the city and it’s great for dealing with tiny bits of glass and wire etc.
One thing I think is worth pointing out: the sealant and your tubeless plug aren’t guaranteed to defeat all flats. If both should fail, you will then have sealant all over your frame, your hands, your bibs and jersey, your pump, and, to add insult to injury, your spare tube. And your buddies behind you may have been splashed with sealant. And you’re also down $3 in Dynaplugs.
So far this has happened to me twice on Vittoria Corsa Pros, but those were sidewall cuts.
But so far, I have not got a single flat on a mix of Conti GP 5k S TRs and AS TRs. So I am sort of making it sound worse than it usually is.
I’m going to test out some TPU specific sealant on my #2 bike and see how it goes
I haven’t actually had a flat since I switched to TPU from latex though
Any chance you’d be able to share which sealant you’ll be using? I’ve only ever seen the one or two purported ones so far…
That is the rub for me; it doesn’t guarantee defeat of all flats. I set up our two road bikes and one TT bike as tubeless and for the most part it works. Have all the great stories such as pulling a large nail out, spinning the wheel, a quick top up of pressure and no further issues. But occasionally we get a hole that won’t seal and if that is when I am not in the mood to deal with sealant, it stays with a tube for a few weeks/months.
Then I start again.
I’ve been running some form of tubeless on the road since early 2000s. Now on 30mm Conti TR on 23mm internal at approximately 55psi. Same when on Pirelli Race RS
My newest road bike has been tubeless from the start (2022). I’m using 28mm GP5K STR (30mm on wheel) at 68psi. It wasn’t until this year that I experienced any punctures that I actually noticed. Slight bit of sealant from a rear puncture that must have been tiny. Then a couple of weekends ago I had two punctures in the front. First required two Dynaplugs to seal it, but that was still easier than changing a tube, though a bit messier with the sealant. Second puncture sealed without plugging, but did require me to stop to get the hole to seal.
