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Opinions on tubs for racing

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Opinions on tubs for racing

Old 05-09-20, 08:19 AM
  #1  
burnthesheep
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Opinions on tubs for racing

My TT bike race wheels are tubulars. The disc and trispoke. My HED Jet 6+ from my road bike is a clincher and goes on if more windy or slower conditions.

I'm thinking of getting out of the tubulars for the sake of the ones I run on it are smaller sizes. I can probably only ever run the trispoke on baby smooth pavement on a really fast day. The disc, doesn't bother me being tubular as it has a 23mm on it that is plenty aero and plenty CRR fast. Just it would be nice to get out of gluing and into modern size stuff.

Triathletes in "long course" are all about either being tubeless to seal punctures OR clincher so they can spend 5min repair and be up and riding. For TT, your day is kind of done if you totally flat. I'm not really into road tubeless yet as I feel it's a bit fussy for the benefit.

I'm thinking of dumping the Renn disc and old HED trispoke tubulars and going with an HED plus disc and probably either a HED 9+ front or a Flo 90 front in clincher. I'd prefer the HED, but they seem to be a lot more expensive used than the Flo 90 front.

I get tired of swapping brake pads and setup to run those wheels. Training wheels are Flo 60/90 setup clincher. I'd like a modern width also to keep brake setup constant. I'd also like to be able to train more on the exact race wheels. The tubular finicky stuff means the disc only really comes out for race day.

The question: what's your opinion on being able to ride out a flat OR flat protection of a tubular over a clincher for TT racing? Is there a benefit to it possibly "saving your day" over riding a clincher?

Birthday is coming up, so I could probably sell stuff and have some boxes show up to the house without too much attention drawn.
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Old 05-09-20, 10:02 PM
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Ttoc6
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Tubeless is fastest CRR wise and the newest tires are all coming out in tubeless models. In general newer = faster from a CRR and aero standpoint (provided you're still running a narrow front tire). IDK if you've ever ridden a flat tubular before, but it's not a comfortable experience.
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Old 05-09-20, 10:40 PM
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Clinchers, Tubeless and Tubulars (there are others...). It depends on what kind of race. I can see a steady velocity case for tubeless. They seat very well, have low rolling resistance.
The tubular setup is going to be lighter for same tire, turn better and be less puncture prone. They may have slightly higher CRR, but a lot of that is how well they are glued. And, you have to know how to glue them.

There is stuff made in tubular that is just not available, or tested in clincher. I have not test data (see last sentence) but I'd be very surprised to see anything beat a nice silk tubular in any category but price and water.
I am not a racer and use tubulars when high durability is important - tandem. I have always fit the kid with them on his racing bikes. There are a few cases I think the tubeless might have been better, but very few.
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Old 05-10-20, 08:24 AM
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I raced tubular for a long time, and they roll well and feel great in turns, but IMHO they're too much of a pain for the benefit. New race bike has tubeless ready wheels which I'm still running as clinchers. I'd sell the tubs and get some tubeless ready wheels.
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Old 05-10-20, 02:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Ttoc6
IDK if you've ever ridden a flat tubular before, but it's not a comfortable experience.
Not comfortable is putting it nicely.
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Old 05-10-20, 02:57 PM
  #6  
gsteinb
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Still, once I hung on to my lead in a field sprint for the win on a front flat tubular. Wouldn't want to hit turn 1, but try that on a clincher!
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Old 05-10-20, 03:36 PM
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I race road and crits on tubulars. I've raced (just a couple) of time trials on clinchers. If I had to buy time trial equipment, I'd buy clinchers. I only race tubulars in road races and crits (now, though I've raced many seasons on clinchers) because the rear hub is substantially better than my quickly aging comparable clincher, they're 150-200 grams lighter than my similar clinchers, and the CRR is just a smidgeon better (reportedly).
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Old 05-18-20, 11:41 AM
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I went away from tubulars for anything other than track racing. Tubeless is as fast or faster. Much less hassle once you get the drill down vs. gluing, removing glue, checking to make sure the glue is still good, Etc. You can put sealant in both tubular and tubeless, both tend to go flat slowly (vs. the bang flat of a tube) so there's a safety factor there (ask me about a 50 MPH descent with a slow leak vs. the aforementioned bang flat).

And you can ride tubeless flat, I did several KM back to the pit in a circuit race.

When they do flat you can repair either, one gets sent to Tire Alert, the other either is fixed with sealant or a small internal patch.
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