Luckily my mags are tubeless compatible that if I wish to run tubeless i can. In fact, I am tubeless in my rear tire, but have a tube up front. Reason being is that with the front, the tire would not seat on the bead, no matter what I did. I looked at the rim and it appears straight with no flaws I can see that would prevent it from seating. The PO actually had this set up as well, (tubeless rear tube front) maybe they had the same issue. I've always had tubes in all of my other bikes except one, and I have yet to get a flat on any of them. Knock on wood ha-ha I can't say it matters to me one way or the other, but changing a tube on the side of the road would be terrible. Whenever the front tire wears out I'll have the wheel checked by a shop and see if it was just the tire or if there's something wrong with the wheel. FWIW I ran these wheels for about a month before swapping them to this bike and they were fine