Originally Posted by
DiabloScott
...the reason the OP needed help to not hate tubulars, is because there is a contingent of people who spread the hate stories - all the ones in here and more that we've all heard. (+1, boss. Ace bike)
I like "bonding" with other tubular fans. If that doesn't help reduce the OP's hate... well, that's all I've got. (that was good.)
The tubular "experience" ('dude' seems appropriate here
) varies widely, and the tubular "inexperience" seems more prevalent.
I was a fan of the look, the ride, but not Tubasti on my khaki. Still, it wasn't like I'd glued up 476 sets to get beyond that issue.
Then I tried the tape. But I messed up. I taped a set of tubular clinchers (Tufo) to a tubular rim, with the tape. A recipe for disaster. Rode a century on them. They did not roll off. They should have. Score one for the tape.
So I taped a real tubular tire to a real tubular rim, in about 3 minutes. Then I did the other. Then I rode. Oooh. Not orgasmic, but pretty nice.
So I like them. I don't hate them. I don't actively seek them out, to the exclusion of others, but used, the wheelsets are priced well, (like a set of Zipp 50cm tubulars, one season, $600 with tires). Others, I clean, I tape, I mount. I negotiated a 2-season set of Reynolds CV Stratus down to $400 from $1000 because the tire mounting job was so horrid, I was sure I'd be ripping part of the rim off with the tire. 12 hours of work saved both the rims and tires. 12 hours of therapy at $200/hour saved. Civilization is safer.
I also like clinchers. I don't actively seek them out, to the exclusion of others, but used, the wheelsets can be priced well. (like a set of Zipp 60's, one season, $750 with tires) The demand side is much larger, so there's that extra $150 right there. A bit quicker to insert into the lineup, more workmanlike than therapy.
The older the bike, the more I like tubulars, because the petite shiny rims with a nice skinwall tubular makes me less of the actual poseur I am. A newly built set of hubs laced to nice shiny tubular rims just feels really good in your hands, and once that tire is mounted, it sort of becomes "one with the wheel." (insert 'dude' again
). As my Velocity Aeroheads continue their inevitable, well-documented decline into landfill material, I will seek tubular rims for the rebuild. I do more climbing now, and tiny little tubular rims with light, agile tubular tires just seem to make climbing easier in my head, where it all happens, anyway.
That's all. Just cool stuff. Nothing to hate. I reserve my hate for evil. Real evil, not a perceived threat to my happiness.