Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest

I agree with this. I had a set of too-light-for-me carbon tubulars years ago. Wanted to see what all the fuss was about, what the ride quality was like on tubulars. I got a flat on the approach to Mount Rainier. I used a can of sealant but it wouldn’t hold. The good news is you can ride on a flat tubbie, very slowly, the tire is glued on and protects your rim. The bad news is there goes $100 for the tire, and 2 hours drive each way to/from the mountain.

Risk management is tough. We all get mechanical problems now and then, they’re usually pretty rare. The more stuff you’re prepared to deal with, the heavier and more encumbered you are on all the rides that don’t have problems. Where that line is, depends how well you tolerate risk, or maybe how good you are at pretending it isn’t there. With my mech skills, a tubular flat is a ride ending ordeal, on clinchers, it’s just a quick pain in the ass, then it’s over.

Carbon, I’ll take that risk. I had a Cervelo that developed a crack, it appeared in the seat tube, and grew slowly. I saw it, rode gingerly home and it got me there, and they replaced it with a new frameset. We have a lot of threads in here about people on carbon bikes and carbon wheels, we don’t have hundreds of threads every week about them failing and people busting their teeth. If we start to see that, I’ll give the matter another thought.

Weather, I guess it depends on the patterns where you live, but I don’t mind rolling the dice when the odds are in my favor, and planning important trips around good weather. I mean, I live in the PNW and I backpack with a down quilt; if it’s gonna rain, I really don’t want to sleep in a meadow anyway. Just like I’m not gonna drive 100 miles to ride my bike in the rain.