Listen, nobody has ever gotten home from a ride and said the best part was the twenty minutes they spent on the shoulder with a tire lever between their teeth. Yet, flats being the literal worst, is the one thing that unites all cyclists. Roadies and downhillers will argue about everything else

Here at Tannus, we make three products that keep flats from happening. We got Tannus Armour for those riding inner tubes in their tires. We got Tubeless tire Inserts, which is self explanatory as products for your tubeless setups. And last, but not least, we got Airless tires, which are solid and thus can never get a flat. 

People mix them up constantly, and honestly that is on us for giving all three a name that starts with the word Tannus. 

So we wanted to break it all down for you, so you know exactly what product will solve your flat woes. Should take you a couple minutes, and by the end you will know exactly which one goes in your wheels.

The short answer

You do not pick based on what kind of rider you are. You pick based on what is inside your tire right now.

  • You run inner tubes: You want Tannus Armour.
  • You run tubeless tires: You want Tannus Tubeless Inserts.
  • You commute on pavement and you are finished with air entirely: You want Tannus Airless.

One more thing worth saying up front, because it saves a lot of confusion: these three do not stack. They are three different answers to three different setups. You are not building a lasagna in your tire. Pick the one that matches your wheels and ride on with your flat free life.

Quick comparison


Tannus Armour: the one for people running tubes

Most bikes on the road today still have tubes in them. Tubes are great, they are cheap, they are easy, and every shop on earth stocks them. They also go flat when you roll over a goathead thorn at mile four.

Tannus Armour is a 15mm foam shield that lines the inside of your tire, sitting between the tire and your tube. Thorns, glass, staples, and even those goathead thorns have to get through a solid wall of foam before they ever reach the tube, and spoiler alert…most of them do not.

The part riders bring up most: if something does get through, Armour has enough structure that you can keep riding to somewhere with a roof and a chair. It’s an emergency get home back-up, that is worth a lot on a dark road at 9pm. [One important caveat is the ride-flat rule DOES NOT apply to Fat Tire sizes including the following sizes: 20x3.0-4.0, 20x4.1-4.8, and 26x4.0-4.8.]

Why e-bike riders love this one. E-bikes are heavy, they carry cargo, they get ridden every single day, and a flat on one is a genuinely annoying afternoon. Armour fits onto the setup an e-bike already has, so there is nothing to convert and nothing new to learn.

Best fit: e-bike riders, commuters, bikepackers, mountain bikers on tubes, anyone whose local trail is 40% thorns. 

Learn how Armour works

Tannus Tubeless Inserts: the one for people already running tubeless

If you already run tubeless, you have solved the small puncture problem. Sealant handles thorns and glass well.

Sealant does nothing for the other problem which is centered around your rims. 

You hit a rock at speed, the tire compresses all the way down, and your rim and that rock meet with nothing in between. Now you have a dent, or a crack, or a burp that dumps all your pressure at once. Sealant is not impact protection…it never was.

Tannus Tubeless tire Inserts sit between the tire and the rim and take that hit for you. They also add sidewall support so you can run lower pressure without the tire folding over in corners, and if you do lose air, there is enough insert in there to get you rolling to the trailhead.

Four options, because a gravel racer and a downhiller want different things:

  • Lite for riders who want rim protection with the smallest weight penalty.
  • Gravel for drop bar riders on rough surfaces.
  • Pro for aggressive trail and enduro riding where rim strikes are routine.
  • Fusion which combines Lite and Pro into one system for the most rim protection and sidewall support we make.

Best fit: mountain bikers, gravel riders, racers, anyone who has ever paid to replace a rim and would rather not do it again.

Tannus Airless: the one where flats don’t exist

The other two protect a tire full of air. Airless removes the air all together.

An Airless tire is solid all the way through, made from a patented foam polymer called Aither. So no inner tubes that need protection and no air pressure to lose, which means a puncture has nothing to puncture. You can drive a nail through one and keep pedaling.

Tannus Airless mounts to the rims you already own using a locking pin system that holds the tire in place, and it lasts over 3,000 miles

Two honest notes, because we would rather you hear them from us:

  1. Installation takes some work. You can do it yourself, and we have plenty of resources to help make the process easier for you. If you would rather have someone else do it, we have a Tannus dealer locator so you can find a dealer to do it for you (keep in mind, dealers have their own labor fees associated with this). The good news, once it is on, you never have to worry about a flat again! 
  2. This is a pavement product. Airless is built for urban and commuter riding. It is not a mountain bike tire and there is no wide gravel sizing. If your ride involves roots, do not scroll down. Scroll back up to Armour and Tubeless Inserts! 

Spotlight: the Airless Urban 27.5x1.90

If you ride a hybrid, a city bike, or a commuter with 27.5 wheels, this is the one to look at.

The Urban is 27.5x1.90, which is a real-world commuter width. Wide enough to soak up a curb cut and a bad stretch of sidewalk, narrow enough that you are not fighting the bike on your way to work. It comes in Regular 80psi stiffness, which is the ride feel you would expect from a well inflated city tire, except there is no psi to maintain because there is nothing in there to inflate.

Think about what disappears from your week. No Sunday night PSI checks on your commuter bike. No spare tube in the saddle bag. No standing in an alley in work clothes trying to remember which way the lever goes. You put air out of your mind for 3,000 miles. 

If your commute is the same six miles of city pavement every day, and that pavement is decorated with glass, staples, and whatever fell off a truck last night, the Urban was built for exactly that ride.

 

Questions we get every week

Can I run Armour and Tubeless Inserts at the same time? No. Armour is for tube setups, Tubeless Inserts are for tubeless setups. Your wheels are one or the other, so you only need one of the two.

Do Tubeless Inserts replace my sealant? No, they work alongside it. Sealant seals small punctures. The insert protects your rim from impacts and supports the sidewall. Two different jobs, same wheel.

Does Tannus Airless work on a mountain bike? No. Airless is a commuter and urban product. There is no MTB sizing and no wide gravel sizing. For a mountain bike, use Armour if you run tubes or Tubeless Inserts if you run tubeless.

Do I need special rims for Airless? No. Airless mounts on the rims you already have, using the locking pin sized to your rim width. Check the sizing tool before you order so you get the right pins. Airless Sizing Calculator

How long do Airless tires last? There is a 3,000 mile guarantee. Plenty of riders get more than that. E-Bike’s do wear down the tires faster, so the guarantee is adjusted for E-Bikes. 

Will Armour slow me down? There is added weight, same as with any insert. Riders tell us they notice it for about a week and then they stop thinking about it, mostly because they also stop fixing flats.

Which one is best for an e-bike? Armour, in most cases. E-bikes are heavy, they get ridden constantly, and Armour works with the tube setup already on the bike.

Still not sure? That is fine.

The whole decision comes down to one question: what is inside your tire right now.

Tubes, go Armour. Tubeless, go Inserts. Riding city pavement and ready to be done with air, go Airless and take a hard look at the Urban.

Take a look at all three and pick your lane:

More help, free of charge

Over a million riders are out there running Tannus right now. Not one of them is patching a tube on the side of the road today.

Go ride.

 

Additional Posts...

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