Originally Posted by
ninja2
I have the same questions - when I was young I used tubulars glued with special synthetic glue that was stronger than tubular glue and all was great (had time and patience to do it). did not ride for a long time and used clinchers only in the last 12 years. Now, when the tubular glue tape is proven to be reliable, i'm thinking of switching back to tubies as they have several advantages.
My LBS owner is former racer; I met a lot of people in his shop, as well on the road in the past years - they occasionally race and no one uses anything but tubies. Apart from the cost and bulky spare you have to carry, no other disadvantages.
Except for an odd case, I have not heard of anyone who races on clinchers and even serious training is done on low end tubies.
However, as I have no recent experience (presently using open tubulars with latex tubes) with tubies, I would appreciated feedback from the experienced riders before I embark on this adventure.
xnks
p.s. clincher that won't come off the rim if it blows is harder to install then tubular
I've had great luck and performance out of the Effetto Mariposa Carogna tape. Very secure on my Enve CF rims and on my HED Belgium rims. Comes off clean, holds tight and is fairly easy to change.
Originally Posted by
Doge
Just like clinchers, tubulars are also better than they were.
My kid rides tubulars on 100 mile rides with no spares. He has a cell phone and the USAC podium membership. That depends where you ride. I'd never do that around my house, but where he rides - no flats yet from road derbies in 10K miles.
Tubulars still do not seat as well. Esp the hand made ones. If you want easy - do clinchers. If you are the type to BBQ over wood instead of gas - go tubulars. They are better performing, but for simple practicality, clinchers win.
I ride in a rural area where the roads can be pretty sketchy with respect to pavement "defects." When I switched to tubulars (also tubeless tubulars from Clement or Tufo) my number of punctures dropped from 6-8 in 2500 miles to 0-1 in about 3500 miles. A big part of that was getting rid of pinch flats and the rest of it was due to the tubeless nature of the tubulars I ride where the sealant seals up smallish punctures.
I have a bike that I use to for gravel/adventure rides where I use a 30c tire. That's a tubeless clincher with sealant. That also gets less punctures than a traditional clincher but is about 200g heavier than the similar rim and tire I have in tubular (both HED Belgium rims, DT Swiss 240 hubs, Saphim bladed spokes).
Originally Posted by
garysol1
I dare say that if we were all pros and had a paid mechanic to do all of our dirty work we would all be riding tubulars and why not.
Getting a tubular off a rim is a fair bit easier than getting a tubeless clincher off and back on again as far as I'm concerned. I don't think this is a mechanic issue at all. It's simply not that difficult anymore especially when you bring road tubeless clinchers into the discussion.