Tubulars slightly larger than clinchers?
12-05-20, 03:10 PM
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Tubulars slightly larger than clinchers?
I just put 650x28c tires on my son’s bike. Just for sheets and giggles I put his front wheel onto my Battaglin to test for fit.
this was the original 26”x22mm tubular which came on the Battaglin:
There was just about a 5mm Allen wrench clearance under the front brake calipers.
Now I put the 650x28c wheel on there:
It still had roughly the same amount of clearance as before. It clears a 5mm Allen wrench but won’t clear 6.
So it seems like tubulars have a slightly larger rolling diameter than the equivalent clinchers.
this was the original 26”x22mm tubular which came on the Battaglin:
There was just about a 5mm Allen wrench clearance under the front brake calipers.
Now I put the 650x28c wheel on there:
It still had roughly the same amount of clearance as before. It clears a 5mm Allen wrench but won’t clear 6.
So it seems like tubulars have a slightly larger rolling diameter than the equivalent clinchers.
12-05-20, 04:24 PM
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I don't think you can generalize like that. Lots of factors come into play, not just clinchers v tubulars. Most important will probably be the specific manufacturer's processes, but wheel width, casing materials and such also have an effect.
12-06-20, 06:02 AM
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One of the key differences between tubulars and clinchers is that rim width can affect clincher tire width and aspect ratio. A tubular tire width and aspect ratio is more consistent because it doesn't use rim beads to attach to the rim.
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12-06-20, 11:48 AM
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Clincher tire actual widths is one of my favorite rants, but I'm feeling jolly right now so I'll spare y'all the ranty part. The basic story is that there is no real manufacturing/industry standard for labeling tire widths, which is compounded by the fact that, as I understand it, there's also some width variability from one tire mold to another, for the same tire. Tire pressure and rim width directly affect actual widths for clincher tires, so without a standard there's no way to tell at what pressure/rim-width a mfr specifies width. There's also a history of marketing considerations impacting labeled widths, re: back in the day many/most mfrs grossly overstated width dimensions so that their 28mm-labeled tire, which was actually 25mm, had an impressively low weight---because it wasn't actually 28mm wide...
nomadmax is entirely correct that tubular tire width is not dependent on rim width, though tire pressure does matter.
I don't understand the physics well enough to guess whether tubular tires, not having rim width as a variable, with their widthe seemingly baked in, change less in width with tire pressure than clinchers.
nomadmax is entirely correct that tubular tire width is not dependent on rim width, though tire pressure does matter.
I don't understand the physics well enough to guess whether tubular tires, not having rim width as a variable, with their widthe seemingly baked in, change less in width with tire pressure than clinchers.
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12-06-20, 12:49 PM
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The thing is, you have to give yourself a little margin of error whenever you're cutting it close on clearance.
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12-06-20, 05:54 PM
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True! But also, it's just a bad assumption that a 650wheel with tire wll always be smaller than a 700c wheel with tire. 700c tubular tire widths can be as low as 20 mm, which makes for a pretty darn small wheel. A frame special built for the 20 mm tubular can easily be too small for many 650b wheels.
