Putting lives at risk for the sake of saving on tooling cost. Hookless needs to be completely banned by a safety body. WELCOME TO THE BIKE INDUSTRY 🎉

Great video, I have done countless videos on this subject, I think that there is just too much to go wrong for little to no benefit for the consumer. And only benefit the manufacturers by making it cheaper to make. I will always prefer a hooked rim if I’m buying something.

I took the video offline because things got a bit crazy and people were freaking out and making personal attacks, which really isn't worth it for the coffee money that YT pays. Back online now, hopefully people can react more calmly and intelligently. The tyre and wheel have gone off to Continental who are taking it seriously and at this point we still don't know exactly what caused this, but what is clear is that it SHOULD NOT have happened as the wheel / tyre combo is fine / approved, and the pressure was within the max recommended. My personal view is that hookless removes an important safety element for very little tangible gain and I will not be using them in the future, regardless of brand. I have no idea why YT has removed most of the old comments, (including Peak Torque railing against hookless), and kept some others.

That is insane! So dangerous that! Thank you for sharing this.

i will stick with my clinchers and tubes. thanks for posting this. i have heard about this before but always assumed that people were pumping up with too much pressure.

I’ve been riding for well over a year with a hookless zipp 404 with the str with the recommended width of 28mm. No problems. Sorry to see the complications you’re going through, and glad that didn’t happen in the middle of a ride.

This is widely spoke about in the group, what’s to stop this happening… hooked all the way😊👍

Are 25mm tires suggested for those rims. The zipp 303s smallest sized tire is a 28

What a nightmare. Thank you for exposing this. There are lawsuits on the horizon.

Hookless is the biggest gimmick in cycling

I'd wager the problem lies with your wheels and their sloppy tolerances. There's also a common sense red flag that too many people ignore for the sake of convenience: if it's (too) easy for your tire to mount, it will just as easily dismount your rim.

Thanks for the demonstration. Will stick to clincher, even if I ever go disk! Love that campy set in the background, 2 way fit, no spoke holes, hidden nipples, very nice...

Use the SRAM tyre pressure calculator. You will see that with hookless and 25mm you get a warning regarding tire pressure exceeding rim pressure rating. Either go with hooks or swap to 28mm if you are going to use hookless.

If you put your stats into axs sram tyre pressure calculator you will see on that rim 'Warning - Suggested tire pressure exceeds rim pressure rating. Please select a large tire size'. You were inflated to the maximum pressure the pressure above which the tyre manufacturer has found the tyre blows of the rim. If you had 28mm versions of the same tyre it would still have been at the 73 psi max but would likely have been fine because is a higher volume tyre. People think the maximum tyre pressure is a target to aim at, it is not the optimum tyre pressure. I would inflate using psi not bar and a 28mm tyre on a 21mm rim bed would be a much better match and could be run at optimum pressures below the 73psi hookless limit.

Product recall needed!!! This is crazy, thank you for posting

Oh man. Ive been hookless for a few years and hooked also. Something to watch and fix by makers. This is our worst fear while descending the climbs. I'm always checking tires after each ride anyway ( was taught by old coach) . This should not happen......thanks for posting

Scary. I've been running hookless for three years. Followed manufacturers advise on compatible tyres and pressures, and have ridden 34K km with no issues at all. But ... the whole rim /tubeless tyre compatibility issue is a minefield and nobody in the industry seems to want to cooperate. That leaves us having to make judgements we shouldn't need to, and carrying unnecessary risk.

Thanks for sharing, I’m an early adopter consumer, I like trying new tech and went with tubeless on my road bike since the GP 5000 TL where lunched, but this is scary, I would never go hookless after watching this.

But GCN say hookless rims are great, and they’re always so honest and forthright with their opinions aren’t they - right ?? 😉

Thank you so much for sharing this! Thank you! I'm so sorry this happened to you, but you're extremely fortunate to experience it off of the bike. Like you said - if that happened on a descent the consequence would be dire. I've been really concerned about hookless wheels for a long time. That being said, the pair of Hunt wheels I've been considering for my Ostro VAM are hookless, but I just can't shake the idea that not having hooks seems dangerous.

In my opinion (and I could be wrong) it is your tyre. The ETRTO recommends 28mm and their new recommendations is actually 29mm on a hookless wheel. I have 2 set of hookless both are fine, never a problem. Both wheel sets have 28mm tyres. Your tyre pressure is good at 4-5 bar. Hope you get it sorted. Wishing you safe cycling.

I'm merely making a comment not trying to say it is the cases of what happened but it does happen and it has happened to me with an IRC mountainbike tire once a long time ago. I installed the tire on a hooked rim and I used a tire lever because I couldn't get the tire mounted by hand. I wasn't aware of it but the bead had broken. I inflated the tire to if I remember 45 PSI because that is how I ride it. After a few hours of sitting in the next room watching TV I heard a big bang in the kitchen. It scared me so much that I felt heat throughout my body. Here it was the tire had blown off the rim. I still didn't find the broken bead and I tried to mount the tire and inflate it again but that's when I saw the bead had broken. Maybe your bead was broken. It happens to the best mechanics because it's a poorly made tire or defective bead. I believe Conti should warranty the tire. Schwalbe would.

This was like watching one of those suspenseful submarine movies where they dive down to the depth limit to escape enemy destroyers and the boat is creaking, crew is sweating, bolts start popping out and pipes burst and hiss. Then a loud depth charge explosion rattles the crew more but they get away. You found the limit but fortunately not at 80 kmh down a descent. Yeah, what a fustercluck the industry has created.

I've been riding tubeless both road and MTB for a few years now. And since a few months I have a giant TCR with SLR 1 hookles rims with GP5000str. Install went flawlessly as usual and always run 64 psi front 65 rear. Great tires nothing wrong with it. And yes, things can go wrong! Not everything is flawless once.

Are you sure this isn’t a wheel issue?

Hookless is the wildest fad the cycling industry tries to shove down our throat every opportunity they get.

I've been riding hookless carbon wheels for at least 3 to 4 years with Schwalbe Pro One's and 5000's no issues. Of note the profile on my wheels shows an inward taper where the hooks would be. Also, mounting any tire is a bitch. I suspect this is part of the secret to keeping them on. If I mount a tire that seems way too easy it will probably blow off. In my early days of learning tubeless I had your exact scenario with 'hooked' tubeless wheels. The tire fit was too loose. Once I found the right tire combination it has been awesome. So it can happen with either wheel type. The key is the tire and wheel match. Hopefully you got things sorted out and the support from your wheel supplier. Don't give up on tubeless. I personally love it.

Thanks for this video. Couldn't be more of a convincing demonstration. Clinchers forever.

As a veteran rider of 45 years on the road, and seeing all the developments some good, some bad within the Industry, this one is by far the worst and most dangerous.

This is very valuable information. Thx for sharing!!

Hi, Thanks so much for posting this, confirms my own beleif in the failings of hookless rims. Thank your Biking Guardian Angel for not allowing this to happen on the road. Be well.

The issue might not be with hookless rims in general. The issue might be with the Extralite hookless rims you have. I went ahead and read the user manual for the Extralite CyberDisk 339 clinchers and there are just too many warnings and confusing information for me to ever consider buying them.

You can’t say ”don’t buy hookless” when you have only tested one set of wheels with one set of tires. But I guess it attracts more views

'Blowout' and 'hookless' are synonymous - the only shocking thing about it is that THAT design got to mass production.

Looks like y'all got the infamous pearl necklace of the tubeless world

The problem isn't with the rim type, it's that you're pumping too much pressure. This technology is dangerous when using high pressure with narrow tire! Dot. If you want to follow the 105% rule, this technology is not for you, forget it. If you take a 25mm mtb rim and put a 2.2 inch mtb tire there, then pump 4,5-5 atmospheres, absolutely the same thing will happen (tested on my maxxis ikon tires LOL). In your case with CyberDisc 339 rims, I would use 30-32mm tires and would not risk with 28mm, and avoid 25mm!!!

That’s nuts I was wondering about the safety so much hype I think it’s just cheaper for the manufacturers to make the rims

I only use tubulars , I’ve had a couple of blowouts over the years , one was 45mph downhill, tyre stayed on as I gently came to a stop👌🏻 Why are people falling for this crap like hookless rims and tubeless tyres . Come on guys fucking wise up!!!! sometimes things were invented correctly first time, use tubular tyres and rim brakes and you won’t go far wrong.

Not an expert in Continental for this particular reason - their bead are crap and they blow out. The new S TR is apprently Hookless compatible. Did you use the latest gen?

Very useful video; thanks for posting. You seem to have concluded that the issue is with the tire rather than the hookless wheel, which is entirely possible; I have purchased GP 5000s that were defective (one I bought in 2020 was bit "lumpy" in my case; annoying but not unsafe). However, I abandoned tubeless tires in general a while ago, and I will never use hookless rims on a bicycle. Hookless rims obviously work well with cars, with pressures around 30 psi (2 bar) and massive wheels and very thick, steel-reinforced tires, but I personally like to ride road bikes on 28-32 mm tires at higher pressures, 80-90 psi (5-6 bar), and, as you've dramatically demonstrated, thinner, less substantial hookless wheels and tires, at much higher pressures, are not a very good idea. I'll stick with clinchers for now, thanks.

Please do a follow up. And include the important question, was the tire unusually easy to mount? I installed GP5000TRs on my Bontrager aluminum rims, and that combination was the hardest to mount of any tire I’ve ever experienced. Removing them was also crazy hard.

I've been running tubeless and hookless on road since 2016 and have 10s of thousands of miles with no issues, I do however think there is a issue with the conti 5000S TRs (the only hookless approved tyre conti have) with hookless rims and the bead stretching/not tight enough on certain rim combinations. Back then I only ever used schwalbe pro one as they were hookless compatible and recommended by the wheel manufacturer (Hunt), never had any issues with them and used to run them around 6 bar so above contis max hookless pressures. I've even inflated them on the bench to over 8 bar with no issues although the current tyres now also advise 5 bar max for hookless. I have inadvertently blown a conti 5000 of the same hookless rim by inflating it slightly above 5 bar so it seems in my brief experience that the safety margins are a lot smaller on the contis than some other manufacturers and the tolerances not as good (they are easier to fit than pro ones....), this combined with the 5bar max on most tyres when on hookless rims really means that 28mm I think are the smallest most riders should consider to leave some margin for inflation pressures at normal rider weight. I agree though hookless rims don't really seem fit for purpose and especially now they have appeared on a number of road bikes as standard fitment so if you take a normal leisure rider who doesn't necessary understand the issues with over inflation and maybe just inflates them to they are firm with a cheap pump with no gauge could quite easily create a dangerous situation.

I use Zipp 404 Firecrest & Cadex 65's. The Zipp's with Continental GP 5000 ASTR & Cadex with Goodyear F1 R 25mm front & 28mm rear. I've never had a problem with either set.

That is utterly crazy, and all the evidence you need to NOT run Hookless. My god.. Thanks for sharing.

you were so polite talking about the danger. I was already screaming my lungs. wow that was violent. I like speed and fast conering. Thanks for letting us know this very very dangerous idea of hookless rims. I will never buy one. My goodness. At any speed, that will certainly be extremely dangerous.

Been running hookless tubeless for 4 years. I'm 82 kg at 4 Bars, 28mm, Orange Seal sealant, Zipp 303s wheelset. No issues.

Re-visiting this. I find it interesting that the new syncros Capital SL wheelset 25TSS have actually not approved GP5k S TR 28mm as well as TT TR 28mm, yet, approves Corsa Pro 28mm. My personal experience: my first 353 NSW with 28mm S TR @70PSI blew off unridden just sitting in my living room, the 2nd blow off was 28mm TT TR @70PSI riding up hill, wheel was replaced and now running Corsa Pro, zero issues so far and simply mounting the tire felt way more secure with the Corsa pro . I personally think continental hookless beads are out of spec and/or stretch. Syncros approved tire list directly correlates with my blowouts.

Great job pointing that out

Why risk your life on hookless when their is a perfectly good product people have been using for ages. These bike companies are terrible pushing this crap.

My mechanic (who is also a mechanic for our national team, so I would believe he knows this stuff) told me that Conti GP5000 are crap for hookless and told me not to bring him these tires as he will refuse to mount them. I never had any issues with my hookless setup with Giant rims and Giant tires. I switched to Schwalbe pro one TLE and had no issues with that as well, going since February this year. I'm a 100kg as well, so not a lightweight in any sense. I would say that the tires are at fault here, especially considering how it actually blew up with all the parts around.

this one did age well - I am using hookless/tubeless on gravel and MTB, but will keep my DTSwiss carbon rims with hooks for racing.... Hookless on race bikes could work if the tolerances of the tyres (and rims!) would be better controlled, but even in a "classic" setup, I often have issues with one tyre to get it on the rim, and formally same tyre slips on easy... tyre producers need to fix this prior to continuing the journey into hookless!

Brilliant insight mate. Thanks for the heads up. The argument will be a faulty tyre or wheel or even tape etc. Try the rear and let’s see.

Told ya on your last video. Hookless technology is NOT suited for 25 mm tyre. Above 35 mm is fine. Tubs are way to go for shure.

Had issues with continental tyres on my Zipps. Would be interesting to see the results with a different brand. My monies on dodgy tyre.

Very much recommend everyone uploader included read the manual extremely thoroughly. Most likely failure to follow the installation procedure has resulted in this. It requires two wraps of tape at a minimum to make up the gap between tyre and rim. Perhaps follow the instructions and you’ll see a different result

Im waiting for the comments of "gotta set it up right i rode 500000000km on tubeless no issues" or something along those lines. Jeez at least you were zooming along for that. Clinchers and tubs for racing all the way

i hope this video gets viral..

The same thing happened with my continental tubeless ready tires with my enve 4.5 AR wheel set. Twice. Once while walking my bike out of the garage for its inaugural tubeless ride and another time when I was 1 house from my home. I immediately went back to inner tubes. The bike shop hadn’t experienced this before and was quite puzzled.

I have ZIPP 303se. No problems with Pro One tyres. You’ve had a faulty batch of tyres. Hookless are perfectly safe.

WOW !! 😮 This is insane, I don’t run hookless and will NEVER run hookless. Thank you for the video and thank god this didn’t happen while you were riding.

Lesson learned kids, don't jump on Marketing PR hype for "new" stuff. You will be the beta tester for it..

Had to be honest I had never heard of the wheelmaker before ?

It’s not the tyre but the rim design.Seen this a few times now with hookless rims.My wife works in the car tyre manufacturer industry and I spoke to one of their engineers.He said in his opinion it’s a flawed design for bicycle tyres.A 28-30mm tyre would have worked a lot better on those rims.Car tyres on a hookless rim have strong sidewalls to support the tyres in the corner and bicycle tyres don’t have that.

Worth noting what CADEX say HIGH PRESSURE TOLERANCE TEST: First, the tire is inflated to 72.5 psi (5 bar), an average minimum pressure for most riders on 25c tires, and must withstand this pressure for 24 hours without blowing off. Next, the tire is inflated to its recommended maximum pressure and must withstand this pressure for 24 hours without blowing off. After that, the tire is inflated to 1.2 times the recommended maximum pressure and must withstand this pressure for 24 hours without blowing off. Finally, the tire is inflated to 1.5 times the recommended maximum pressure and must withstand this pressure for 24 hours without blowing off. The final number of 1.5 times the recommended maximum pressure is intended to simulate such extreme conditions as hitting a square edge or a pothole at high speed causing the tire pressure to increase suddenly. If the tire has been able to withstand the four pressures for 24 hours respectively without blowing off, it passes the CADEX high pressure tolerance test. For your own safety, please do not inflate the tire over the recommended maximum pressure or attempt to replicate this test.

WTF! That is realy scary, but thanks for the documentation of this failure! Great to see you in one piece.. I use 36er Cadex with the Conti 5000s TR 25mm at or around 4bar without any problems. But seeing this let me thinking about...

GP5000 25mm is listed as not compatible in zipp's hookless compatibility chart. Properly with good reason 😊

I was going to comment about hookless safety in your previous video but didn’t want to appear a hater. I was actually a bit surprised that you got a hookless setup. I’m not following the industry anymore but there didn’t seem to be any technological improvements. So I attributed it to the industry kind of forgetting about the issues. Anyway, glad you’re safe at least.

Thank you: been thinking about trying tubeless, but this gives me pause.

I have hookless gravel rims because they're meant to be more impact resistance and it felt sensible with my fat ass. 40psi though; essentially what MTB has been doing for years. Wouldn't run hookless on road wheels though, it just feels like an accident waiting to happen (narrower tyres, higher pressure, high speed cornering, questionable tolerances of both tyres and rims...). In fact it's crazy brands are selling such wheels, because all my Italian friends still inflate their tyres rock hard. If they ran these they'd basically blow up.

It could be a manufacturing problem with the rim our tire,

HOLY SHIIIIT, Thank fuck you weren't out on the road, that could have put you in SERIOUS danger. That's a MAJOR safety issue.

That’s mental!!! As a heavy rider myself at 90kg I would without doubt have inflated those to the max psi. Scare to think how easy it would be to roll the tire off the rim in corners at lower pressures.

Thank you for the video I will avoid hookless.

Wrong tyre to the wrong rim...

Wow, that's frightening as hell. So grateful that it didn't happen to you out on the road.

Holy Shit! I run hooked rims on road and hookless rims on gravel. But on gravel I'm running at 2bar pressure.

A nice experiment to try on these would be to mount them with a latex or TPU tube and inflate to 120 psi and leave them for a few days to see if they will jump off the rim. If it does, suspect that the tire or rim is not properly sized.

Tubulars for the win 🥇

As a professional bike mechanic, i look at hookless rims and never would ride it....

I can feel your pain, It’s maddening when it’s not working! Hookless needs bloody tight tolerances, the tighter the better. You clearly don’t have that with this setup. The alarm bells went off for me when you said the tyres mounted up easy. I’m just glad it was sealant on the floor and not your blood!

Just get some DuraAce C50's or C35's. Great wheels and HOOKED.

Tubeless is okay. But hookless + tubeless a recipe for disaster!

Me: "Babe, hold the camera. I'm going to overfill this tire, blow it off the rim, and spray sealant all over the kitchen." My wife: "No."

The only wheel manufacturer I would 100% trust from Italy is Campagnolo. Great wheels and bulletproof! I'm done with all this weightweenie stuff. Rather have good and reliable solid components. I have found the Factor Black Inc wheels to be very good which I got with the my Factor Ostro

Is that disc brake rub I am hearing while fiddling with the valve?

WTF indeed! I'm all about new technology but I HATE hookless rims! I have heard so many horror stories but you're the first I've seen able to replicate this on camera! Even more scary that this happens at 5 bar which is not that much pressure... I regularly ride near 6 bar!

I explicitely bought these very expensive tyres for my gravel/CX bike because I found out about hookless rims Continental said these were ok for hookless rims. Running them at 4bar, but with tubes, does that make any difference? I noticed the tyres seem to have stretched a lot after a couple of months: I had been worried I might not be able to change an inner tube when having a flat on a ride, because they were really hard to install. But when I had my first puncture, I could install the tyre without even having to use a tyre lever. I guess, I'll look for new wheels asap. With hooked rims.

Thanks for the video! I hope you get enough views, so you can buy some new wheels and tires! When I worked as a bike mechanic in my teens, I was installing a new tire and tube on an old Schwinn from the 70s. I blew up two tubes in my face before my manager raced over and explained the issue to me. The wheels and tires were both hookless. The PSI rating was 100 psi, but in reality it was only 35 psi. I couldn't believe it when I found out that high-end wheel manufacturers were going down this route again. It just doesn't make sense from a consumer standpoint.

scary to see this but i have a zipp 404 firecrest and my pressure is 65 psi in front and 70(5 bar) at the back. been using it for a year already and this has never happened to me. my tires are pirelli pzero tlr sl 28c.

I’ve told this story many times on various forums. I was parked up at a food stop about 2 years ago. There were various bikes lined up against a wall while people were getting their food and drinks . I heard a very loud bang, looked round and a rear tyre had spontaneously blown clean off the rim on one of the bikes and there was sealant everywhere. We all gasped in disbelief at what had happened. I asked the bike owner and they told me they were running hookless rims. If that had happened on the road at any speed it would have caused the rider to loose control and crash almost certainly resulting in injury. From that day on I swore I would never run hookless rims and would recommend my mates not to.

I really don’t think Hookless is a problem as a technology. I think it’s the standardization. Pretty likely that your tire or rim here are defective.

This happened to me as well. Zipp 353 nsw with the same tire. We were parked at a restaurant, and it blew off the rim just sitting there.

The problem with hookless rims is that it relies way too heavily on the tire bead having zero stretch. If you get a defective tire, or the tire gets compromised over time, this is how it will fail. I'd bet that the front tire had a manufacturing defect, and the rear tire wouldn't do the same, but it's a matter of chance, and there is no way to tell by inspecting it. The setup I've been able use with confidence is gp5000 s tr 28mm tires on 24mm ID hooked rims, with inserts, at ~60psi/4bar. This is after I had a front blowout last year on the same rims and Vittoria Corsas, no inserts, that landed me in the hospital with some broken bones. The safest solution, and probably the lightest, too would be a tubeless tubular construction. Challange actually makes one, but it's for CX.

I’m always one who loves new tech, but I have zero inclination to go hookless on road bikes!

Dude. The conti's are the worst tires out there. They don't fit any wheel.

I have three years and around 10k km on tubeless tires and zero issues. Enve SES AR 4.5 with Schwalbe One 28mm, Vittoria Rubino Pro 30mm (28mm out of stock), and now Conti 5000 TR in 28mm. All three were a bitch to install. This is one (scary) data point, but only one. I look forward to seeing more now that I commented on this video for the algorithm.

First off why 25mm, not 28mm? Second 73psi or 5bar is not the "recommended" running pressure, it is the absolute max that you should consider using. I have never run any tyre/wheel combo at the absolute max...what would be the point?

What can I say - buyer beware. The cycling community knew hookless rims are dangerous for years. Just watch the pros race. van Vleuten blew her tire out in the world championship last year just by hitting a curb at 5 kph and broke her elbow. Most wheel manufacturers have a money back guarantee, so you should exercise this and get Winspace or Elite wheelset (both hooked rims). I use latex inner tubes because I don't want the hassle of sealant and i like riding at 80 psi. But you can set these up as tubeless if you want. And both have a money back guarantee so there are no risks.

Lots of comments here will tell you they have no issue running hookless. But why take the risks when there's almost no disadvantage for running hooked rims except for slightly higher cost.

The original 'hookless' was, is, and will always be . . . TUBULAR tyres.