79pmooney

I just realized I was thinking of a completely different tire when I answered Diablo Scott's post. Clement's synthetic casing Paris-Roubaix in what I believe was a 27c width. No, I never rode the Paves, just a lot of the Open Pave clinchers. (So that's why no comments on my post. What the hay is Ben talking about?)

smontanaro 

Most of the storms which have pummeled the eastern half of the country have either just missed us in the Chicago area, or only brushed us lightly. We have no snow on the ground, and I think I've shoveled the walks once so far. Unfortunately, after the front passes we still get the dangerous dip in temps.

I have those Schwalbe tubulars on my Schwinn Super Sport (complete with fenders) waiting for a smidgen of warm enough weather. I'm getting tired of only walking (or a little bit of running).

OldsCOOL

The Trek 760 wears Tufo S33 Pro’s and the Colnago has Panaracer Practice Dual 270’s. I like ‘em.

CV-6 

FMB Paris Roubaix, 25mm and 27mm. Best of the bunch
Veloflex Roubaix. Excellent
Veloflex Vlanderen. Excellent
Specialized Turbo Hell of the North, No chance yet to ride
Vittoria something or other. I find these disappointing but maybe I have not found the right pressure.

Wildwood 

What does the OP want as the primary consideration in a tubular?
Durability? Plush ride? Cost?

Lots of excellent choices. The only tubulars I hear criticized are the cheap ones.

My primary requirement is removable valve cores. For a bit of liquid latex sealant.

smontanaro 

This is the downer for me for the Vittoria Rally. (I actually find them reasonable to mount, and find that they seem to roll pretty true, at least with recent production.) That's one reason I went with the Schwalbe Lugano T on the Super Sport. I have no tailoring ability, and can't convince my lovely wife to do the sewing... That means I rely on sealant.

Given the widespread use of sealant these days, I don't understand why any tubulars don't have removable cores. I understand that the Rally is the bottom of Vittoria's lineup, but what's the bump in cost going to be, a couple cents? They might even save money, as they must already be producing (or contracting for) removable valve cores for their higher priced tires.

Wildwood 

I have a lot of experience with Vitorria's Rally tire.
Yes - when you bought 3, 2 would be for riding, the third might sometimes have a lump issue - but it was the spare. Mounting without glue for the purposes of stretching, inspecting, etc = usually sorted out a lumpy one. And at 100+psi on typical roads most lumps were minimal, often got better with time, often not. But for a damped, cotton casing, training tire for cheap - Rally wasn't a bad choice. But I've moved on.

i probably have a Rally on a spare front wheel.
Otherwise I'm currently running:
VeloFlex in 25/28mm = Roubaix, Arenburg, Vlaanderen (2)
Specialized Turbo 24mm - 3-4 years old, but a great tire for fast
Conti Sprinters (not Gators) 22mm = 2 bikes liking that firm/fast feel
Conti Giros 23mm - came on a wheelset and OK for that firm/fast feel
Schwalbe 30mm - semi-off road with tough pebbled rubber
Schwalbe Racing Ralph CX 32mm knobbies - moderate gravel bike duties

let me check for others........
A Conti Combo Sprinter rear, Competition front.
But the spares are all old crap.

With as many bikes as I ride (all in the sig line) and only about 3K miles per year total, the only durability comment is that the Spesh tires seem to have more tiny cuts in the tread than others, but no flats.


aha.... good thread.... just found a new in-th-box Rally, for a spare.

re-edit: I wanna buy the Vitorria Corsa G+ - $50 at MerlinCycles.

dddd

Coincidentally, I picked up this pair last night, for a song, only had to drive 20 miles to get them. Money really talks with holidays approaching and with wet weather.
Tires were the vaunted Competitions, but I still have to sew the rear tire back up as the tube suffered a tiny snake-bite pair of holes just an eighth of an inch apart.
The weight of these wheels/tires seems quite low, the tires themselves are about 250g each, and the wheelset is probably 1100g or so.

Bigbus

My bad. I'm old school here and to me there are only tube-type tires and tubeless tires. I did mention that this is all new to me, didn't I?

ThermionicScott 

No worries!

smontanaro 

Though, putting on my pedantic hat, tubular tires are pretty old school too.

squirtdad

what is this snow thing? Oh the stuff you drive to to ski

6Speed

what happens if you flat a tubular at speed?

Is it at risk of rolling off the wheel if it happens in a curve?

DiabloScott

Assuming it's glued on properly, it's at less risk of rolling off the rim than a clincher would be... which means it'll be less likely to lock up the wheel by getting wrapped around your brakes.
But if it's a front tire blowout in a curve at speed - you're still going to be in trouble.

RobbieTunes

Well, since I've encountered that on both clinchers and tubulars....I can only share.

The clinchers tend to go quicker.
With a flat clincher on the front, at speed, you try to corner, and the bike goes straight.
It only comes off the rim when/if you hit the brakes.
It will roll off at the ground contact point, and then the wheel will skid out from under the bike.
This is the point at which you go down.

With a flat tubular on the front, glued on, you try to corner, and the bike reluctantly turns.
It generally stays on the rim, and provides a very small bugger between the rim and road.
You may lose some control, but the tire generally stays on the rim, and no skidding.
You may still go down. but's less likely.

With a tubular, you can get as far back on the saddle as possible, keep weight off the front, and ride pretty much straight.
Which is what I did in Madison County, IL two weeks ago.
With a clincher, you can't. Pure and simple. Been there, and it did not work.
Which is what I've tried several times. Never worked.

Salamandrine 

Interesting comments. I am sort of shopping for new tires for my Masi, so I can get it back on the road, at least every now and again. Things have changed a lot since I last bought tubular tires. The Masi is semi retired now, and it probably won't be ridden often. Makes me reticent about using latex tubes and cotton casings. Both are vulnerable to southern California weather. Veloflex look good to me but how does that poly cotton blend casing hold up? I always liked Continentals for general use because they were so durable. I've been using them since they came out, in 1982 IIRC. It looks like the trademark rootbeer brown color has been discontinued on all tires except the gatorskin sprinters. I suppose those might be a good choice for an only occasionally ridden bike. Any other synthetic casing tires to look at?


It is safer than a clincher if that happens. Plus you can often ride home on even a totally flat tire if you're careful, though this isn't recommended.

79pmooney

I'll second DiabloScott. I've blown tubulars at 40+ mph. Yes, my HR spiked. But stopping was no big deal. You can brake gently with the flatted wheel as well as the good one. (A good glue job is assumed here.) Now trying to corner anything but gently on a flatted tire just doesn't work, I don't care what the tires are. I watched a fellow racer blow a rear tire and crash on a criterium corner from a front row seat. (I was on his wheel.)

I've seen tires roll off on curves. Don't know if they flatted before or after they rolled. If they flatted after - poor glue job or overheated rim and melted glue. If they flatted before, that rider was probably going down anyway. (Again, glued well?) Tubulars have their limits. But staying within those limits, they rarely are the cause of crashes. And one of those limits is up to the user - again, the glue.

Ben

79pmooney

In the good old days, I swapped my training tires for cyclocross tubulars. As good as you could get without studs. Drop the pressure to good and squishy. Last year's training rims (cheap 400 grammers) would be fully square by March, but well glued tubulars don't care. Mushy Mafac brakes aren't much fussier. In April and better roads, re-build with a new rim, spokes and tires. (No way were last year's nipples turning, what with all that salt.)

Ben

Classtime 

I just checked my Rallys and they have removable cores. But most of the adds say they don't**********

6Speed

I'm mainly interested in cost and durability. This will be going on a bike that I just tool around small town to grab lunch or run an errand. No long rides or racing on this one.

masi61

How widespread is the use of sealant in tubular tires? I have not tried it before. I have read here (in other tubular tire threads) that putting sealant in a tubular tire has several down sides. It might be OK if all I rode were the same set of tubular wheels all the time, it my tubular tire bikes are more of Sunday riders. I would be concerned about congealed sealant creating an imbalance. Also, as the latex tube naturally deflates, re-jflating with sticky latex sealant on the inside sounds like a recipe for prematurely ruining the tire.

Phil_gretz

Tubular tires are pretty old school. Vis...Fausto Coppi (note tubular

tire draped across shoulder).

79pmooney

Actually, they didn't drape the tires over their shoulders, They wore them almost like a bra put on backwards. (With an "X" in back. pre-dating the "Cross Your Heart" bras by a few decades.)

noglider 

Great picture. I like the whistle in the front motorcycle driver's mouth.

Chombi1 

True about clinchers usually going 100 psi to zero instantly and sometimes just losing all support and control from the wheel, instantly too, while most flats on a tub goes down more slowly.....with a "pop......hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss". As you slowly come to a more controllable stop.