Tubular or Clincher?
- Thread starter rtmonahan
- Start date
If you are a casual to semi serious rider I would say clinchers since they are generally cheaper and easier to repair on the road. The tubular has lower rolling resistance and better performanc in theory but is glued on rather than having the clincher bead that holds the tire to the rim. The glue takes some time to dry.
If you are a serious racer and have a team car with extra pre-mounted tires I would say go with the tubulars.
Of course opinions may vary and this is just mine.
If you are a serious racer and have a team car with extra pre-mounted tires I would say go with the tubulars.
Of course opinions may vary and this is just mine.
Clinchers are much easier to use in training. Flats are easy to fix. (I used to ride with guys who trained on tubulars. I don't recall them being held up much by flats. So maybe it is not a big deal.)
If you train on clinchers, riding tubulars means investing in a second pair of wheels. There might be better things to spend money on.
If you train on clinchers, riding tubulars means investing in a second pair of wheels. There might be better things to spend money on.
Most bicycle rims are "clincher" rims for use with clincher tires. These tires have a wire or aramid (Kevlar) fiber bead that interlocks with flanges in the rim. A separate airtight inner tube enclosed by the rim supports the tire carcass and maintains the bead lock. If the inner part of the rim where the inner tube fits has spoke holes, they must be covered by a rim tape or strip, usually rubber, cloth, or tough plastic, to protect the inner tube.
An advantage of this system is that the inner tube can be easily accessed in the case of a leak to be patched or replaced.
Some rims are designed for tubular tires which are attached to the rim with adhesive. The rim provides a shallow circular outer cross section in which the tire lies instead of flanges on which tire beads seat.
An advantage of this system is that the inner tube can be easily accessed in the case of a leak to be patched or replaced.
Some rims are designed for tubular tires which are attached to the rim with adhesive. The rim provides a shallow circular outer cross section in which the tire lies instead of flanges on which tire beads seat.
No, not exactly.
As you know, the tubeless tires used on cars or motorcycles have a bead which forms an airtight seal against edge of the rim and the rims themselves are airtight, so no tube is needed.
Tubular bicycle tires do use an inner tube, however the edges of the tire are sewn together to completely enclose the inner tube. Then they are glued onto the rim.
Here's a Sheldon Brown link that will explain it better than I can if you're interested:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html
No, tubular is not tubeless like a car or motocycle. They have a latex tube sewn into the tire, on the back of the tire, the part of the tire that goes against the rim, the tire is sewn together, and in order to fix a flat one must unstitch the section where the leak is at, pull a portion of the tube out, repair the leak, stuff the tube back in and restitch the tire. This process makes it almost impossible to repair a tubular on the road, so you need to carry a spare tubular, I use to carry two spares. Once I went through both spares and had to spend about 45 minutes on the side of the road patching a tubular tube...not fun, but fortunately I knew how and carried a repair kit. When clinchers came out I gladly embraced them!! Here is pics of what you'll be doing: http://www.yellowjersey.org/tubfix.html
But that part is not all that there is about tubulars, you have to mount them so instead of detailing of that read this: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/mounting-tubulars.html
With clinchers the whole process is far simpler. You flat, you have a choice, fix the tube on the spot which will take about 15 minutes for the average person, it involves removing one side of the tire (most of the time I just remove half of one side), pull the tube out paying attention where the hole was, feeling the inside of the tire where the entry point was to make sure nothing is sticking
out of it that can ***** the tube again, patching the tube, reinstalling and go. OR you can just replace the tube with a spare tube and fix the leaker at home, but you still have to check the tire for dangling chads that may poke that new tube.
The post above have explained the differences, now to try and answer your question.
Clinchers are cheaper, easier to repair and mount and with current technology they have almost the same performance.
Tubulars cost much more, flats are much harder to repair or you can just get a new $100 tire and they take more time to mount.
As far as flats on the side of the road I can change a tubular much faster than changing a clincher due to the fact that with clinchers you should find the hole in the tube and then inspect the tire for debris.
Only you can answer which one is better for you. It will depend on your financial situation, mechanical skills, time and ability to work on your bike/mount tires and how and where you ride.
I personally think tubulars are better, I don't race but I do like to go fast and ride with fast groups. I like to work on my bike and can afford to just buy a new tire when I get a flat. although the performance gain is very minimal it is a performance gain.
Clinchers are cheaper, easier to repair and mount and with current technology they have almost the same performance.
Tubulars cost much more, flats are much harder to repair or you can just get a new $100 tire and they take more time to mount.
As far as flats on the side of the road I can change a tubular much faster than changing a clincher due to the fact that with clinchers you should find the hole in the tube and then inspect the tire for debris.
Only you can answer which one is better for you. It will depend on your financial situation, mechanical skills, time and ability to work on your bike/mount tires and how and where you ride.
I personally think tubulars are better, I don't race but I do like to go fast and ride with fast groups. I like to work on my bike and can afford to just buy a new tire when I get a flat. although the performance gain is very minimal it is a performance gain.
racing:tubular
training:clincher
this is the common setup, if you cant afford to have 2-3 pairs of wheels then just use clinchers all the time, as tubulars when fixed at the side of the road cant be glued in time so you have to take it easy to avoid rolling the tire, where clinchers just have a small bump where the patch is
training:clincher
this is the common setup, if you cant afford to have 2-3 pairs of wheels then just use clinchers all the time, as tubulars when fixed at the side of the road cant be glued in time so you have to take it easy to avoid rolling the tire, where clinchers just have a small bump where the patch is
You can't feel the patch in a clincher, at least not with the patches I use, I use glueless patches and their as thin as 2 sheets of paper, your never going to feel that. There are cheap thick patches that you could probably feel but the most common glue on patch by Rema your never going to feel either. But I can feel a tire boot if I have to use one, that's a patch that goes onto the inside of the tire in case a cut goes completely through to protect the tube from additional flats from debris enter that cut. A tire boot is about as thick as 6 sheets of paper.
There is another patch you can make your self. You clean a used latex tube and cut a bunch of the tube into circles the size of a Rema patch or a dime (you can vary the size but it has to be a circle) and then just glue those on to a tube when needed, their ultra thin and work very well.
thanks for the tip, I've been using cheap filzer patches for a while and they're not good at all, never noticed the park tool tire boots i use though (probably because you're more concerned about that slash) I just use a 5 dollar bill for a boot because i dont get tires slashed that often.
Next time you slash a tire, put that $5 dollar bill in there and send it to me!! I ride on streets and highways a lot and thus run into stuff that can slash a tire. Although with the Kenda Konstrictors my slashes have been way less then with the Conti GP4000's, but I use a tire boot even if the slash didn't penetrate the cords...why? because I feel if the tire is cut it makes the tire in that area a tad weaker and it could allow something to hit that same spot and penetrate it. So I take a Park Boot Patch, cut it just a bit bigger then slash and put it on for reinforcement. Some tire cuts barely nick the surface of the tire I don't bother with those, but if I fold the tire to open the cut and can see to the cord I boot it. On top of that I fill the cut from the outside with SuperGlue on the road and Shoe Goo at home because it takes longer for Shoe Goo to dry but it seems to work better. I do that again to prevent something from going into the cut.
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