Questions for you tubular guys??

[allanw]

I'm sick of carrying a tube and/or patch kit with me when I ride, I think clinchers are inherently inferior to tubular tires and I would love to ride @ 200 psi vs. 110.

But how practical are they?

What do you do when you're out riding tubulars and you get a flat, is it more or less rare than clinchers? Do you carry a spare tire? A patch kit?

Have you ever entertained the idea of tubless = http://www.tubelesskit.com ; I have yet to hear from someone using this...


Thanks!

 

[6fhscjess]

I'm sick of carrying a tube and/or patch kit with me when I ride, I think clinchers are inherently inferior to tubular tires and I would love to ride @ 200 psi vs. 110.

But how practical are they?

What do you do when you're out riding tubulars and you get a flat, is it more or less rare than clinchers? Do you carry a spare tire? A patch kit?

Have you ever entertained the idea of tubless = http://www.tubelesskit.com ; I have yet to hear from someone using this...


Thanks!

My experience was less flats than clinchers but you have to carry spare tubulars or a sew up kit to fix them. Overall they are more work than clinchers. Also at 200 psi you would get a pretty harsh ride. I ride clinchers now.

 

[vascdoc]

I'm sick of carrying a tube and/or patch kit with me when I ride, I think clinchers are inherently inferior to tubular tires and I would love to ride @ 200 psi vs. 110.

But how practical are they?

What do you do when you're out riding tubulars and you get a flat, is it more or less rare than clinchers? Do you carry a spare tire? A patch kit?

Have you ever entertained the idea of tubless = http://www.tubelesskit.com ; I have yet to hear from someone using this...


Thanks!

I rode with tubulars from 1970 until 1997. I now ride clinchers. They have improved a lot. In practice you will never fix a tubular. It is too much trouble to fix. You ride with an extra tubular which has some dried glue on its strip. It helps adhere to the rim for the short trip home.

You do not ride faster in any significant fashion with a psi of 200.

Overall I do not miss my tubulars. Except perhaps for the Critrium Seta 220 gram tires I use to ride with in my teens. They were only fifteen dollars each and we thought one could dodge atoms while riding with them.

 

[John M]

I'm sick of carrying a tube and/or patch kit with me when I ride, I think clinchers are inherently inferior to tubular tires and I would love to ride @ 200 psi vs. 110.

But how practical are they?

What do you do when you're out riding tubulars and you get a flat, is it more or less rare than clinchers? Do you carry a spare tire? A patch kit?

Have you ever entertained the idea of tubless = http://www.tubelesskit.com ; I have yet to hear from someone using this...


Thanks!

No question that performance of the best tubulars exceeds that of the best clinchers, but good clinchers/tubes are better than cheap tubulars.

Are tubulars practical? For general riding/training, most would say no. Even the top pro teams train on clinchers.

To address your other questions. Flats are probably a bit less common with tubulars compared to equivalent quality clinchers becuase you don't ever get pinch flats. You do need to to carry a preglued spare, which weighs another 250-300g. Doing a roadside repair is impractical, and realistically, most people (myself included), don't actually get around to repairing flatted tubulars. Consequently, flats are costly. The time required to change a tubular on the road is actually quicker than clincher.

You could look at Tufo brand and their sealant approach to flat management. The also have a tubular clincher that mounts on a clincher rim, but is basically a tubular glued to a plastic mounting strip. Some people consider Tufos to feel stiff and slow, though, so if that is your perception as well, that negates the main advantage of tubulars in the first place, which is the feeling of suppleness and speed. I have used Tufo tubulars and my opinion is that they are OK--not as supple as vittoria or conti, but better than many clinchers.

I don't race anymore, so I use clinchers. That being said, I still haven't gotten rid of my tubular wheels, as I hold out hope that maybe I will race again, and ifI do, I would probably do so on tubulars.

 

[msummers]

I'm sick of carrying a tube and/or patch kit with me when I ride, I think clinchers are inherently inferior to tubular tires and I would love to ride @ 200 psi vs. 110.

But how practical are they?

What do you do when you're out riding tubulars and you get a flat, is it more or less rare than clinchers? Do you carry a spare tire? A patch kit?

Have you ever entertained the idea of tubless = http://www.tubelesskit.com ; I have yet to hear from someone using this...


Thanks!

I use the equivalent of a car's "spare saver" idea. I use a 700 tubular from a racing wheel chair. Panaracer makes them. They are extremely light and fold up well in your jersey pocket in a zip to close plastic bag (pre glued). They go on pretty easy and take less air to inflate because they are a thinner tire. I rode one home (at a good pace) for 30 miles once with absolutley no problem. For getting you back in one piece they do the trick. Just remember they're only a temporary replacement.
On a century ride, I'd probably go with a real spare. But I bet the spare saver would get you back as well. Jannd company makes a tire bag that you can mount on your bike, or you can buy some velcro straps from a craft store and hook it up to your seat rails.

mikey

 

[DiabloScott]

I've always gotten a lot more flats with my sew ups. It just seems little things that I can brush off of my clinchers wind up eating through the sew up carcass. Still, I like to ride them, but I only buy the cheap ones now - no more than $20 each because the $60 Sprinters are just too damned expensive. So once a year, I put on my tubies and ride till I get a flat (usually less than two months) and then I put my clinchers back on. Sometimes I try to patch and re-sew but I don't really get good results and I figure $20 a year (plus glue) is just the cost of doing business. What I really like is just having the spare wadded up under my saddle for that retro look.

 

[JohnO]

I've had good fortune riding tubies, only had one flat last year, and I could have avoided that if I hadn't taken a shortcut down a city street with all sorts of minute rubbish on the shoulder.

However... if you do have a flat, patching a tubie the following evening is not a simple affair, and you aren't always successful. IMHO, peeling off a well glued tubular isn't that much easier than levering off a clincher.

I was riding tubies most of last summer only because I picked up a set of used Zipp 404's in tubie for a relative bargain, and just have a hard time taking that wheelset off of the bike. Otherwise, decent clinchers are so close to tubies in performance that it probably isn't worth the extra expense and patching effort.

One idea... Tufo makes a tubie for clincher rims. You might think about carrying one of those for a spare.

 

[domaindomain]

How about Tufo tyres / tubulars. They do the clincher range which claims to ride like a tubular - I use the C Elite Jet <160 and they are mint!

 

[carpediemracing]

I used to train on tubulars a lot. I punctured perhaps once every two years. I never really carried an extra tire and simply rode the flat home. I think the longest I rode was about 15 or 20 miles. Usually it's more like 5 or 10 miles. Although there might have been cosmetic scuff marks, I never damaged a wheel doing it. Virtually all the punctures were caused by sharp objects - rocks, glass, nail, etc.

I wouldn't trust a tubular tire that wasn't glued properly - a tire mounted by a sweaty rider on the side of the road with only old glue on it - well, that's not my idea of a secure tire.

If I train on tubulars now, it's really to shake down my race wheels and do some really fast sprints. Since I won't be more than 10 miles away, I don't carry a spare.

When I train with clinchers, I carry a tube, levers, etc. I don't often flat on those either. Again, most of my punctures are caused by sharp objects as I'm pretty careful with tire pressure and tire condition.

cdr