Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
Opinions on an affordable and reasonably “quick” tubular for time trial training?
I would prefer not train on a $130 tire but also not train on an absolute “dog” of a tire.
For a 21mm brake track (external measurement) disc wheel. Yes, train on the disc. Gotta learn to stay in the power in conditions.
Same for a front 19mm tire for a tri-spoke.
Tufo?
Gonna be a pain in the butt to keep two sets of tires around if you're gonna train and race on tubulars and want to have nicer and not nicer tires. Just being honest, but it's gonna not be a fun time. In your shoes I'd just train on alloy clinchers and switch to the nice wheels with nice tires for the couple of days before race day for shake outs and the actual race.
Key with the front will be finding a source for a narrow enough tire for racing that is still good on the rolling front. If you can find the conti gp supersonic in a narrow enough width, it'll be your best bet... good luck.. Once you get a tire wider than the rim, you're really sacrificing your gains aerodynamically. I pretty much only race my nice tires for my tt rig (supersonic on the front tri spoke, vittoria corsa speed on the disc). I'm too afraid to flat on em because they're expensive, nice and hard to find. I do take em out for a couple of dry runs before race day though to get the feel back. Other than that my tt bike just sits on the trainer.