Kimmo 

Back in the early 90s, I wanted to upgrade my daily ride from 27x1.25 to 700c, and bought a set of tubulars without knowing what they were beforehand (the seller filled me in, and I thought what the hell).

The performance improvement from those bad boys was EPIC. Biggest single improvement I've ever felt from a component upgrade by far. But yeah, the hassle was certainly too much for a daily; switching back to clinchers was a necessary bummer.

Not long ago I got me a modern set, with 50mm rims weighing little more than ye olde box sections, and that smile is back on my dial. Bike's gone under 6.5kg and feels like an absolute weapon.

woodcraft

I bought these last year for $200. Put road tires on, but they seem a bit stodgy. I think they would be best for a clyde- very stout. Put some 30mm tires on & would be a great rig for +250lbs.

Location dependent, I'm sure- more options where racing happens.

Psimet2001 

*sigh*

Tubulars are amazing. Like tubeless though - they have their place and aren't great for all types of riding.

If you're riding them as a daily rider then be sure to do quick mounts with glues that don't set up hard like Conti. If you do that and carry a preglued spare then you can actually change your flat faster than someone with a tubed bike. Mount it when you get back home.

Tubulars still excel in some areas. Almost all of those areas are racing oriented IMHO. Specifically cyclocross. This will remain true until the idiot sanctioning bodies turn cross into 90's mtb racing and open up the tire widths. In cross - it can make a major difference in your traction and control and that difference can be felt even at a very low level of ability in the discipline. In that application tubeless at it's best will only be close to what tubulars are all the time.

Tubulars on road racing - riding a tire flat. Having spent every weekend for years at every race known to man I have watched as almost all road racers have left tubulars. Those that are still on them quite honestly are some of the best racers out there.

Tubulars for track racing is a no-brainer. They aren't that hard to glue on, the last for seasons and usually have to be reglued before the tire actually wears out. The wheel system is lighter at the rim and has sublime control at the high pressures run on the smooth track.

Daily riding for road - clinchers. I won't say, "it's not worth the hassle", but I get OEM pricing on tires, have piles of deep carbon tubular rims sitting around and glue hundreds of tires every year.....and I ride clinchers on the road. I guess I have made my decision as to how valuable they are in that application for daily riding.

FWIW - my video on gluing that is on YouTube has been growing quickly in views. Starting to get feedback from shops that they are having the guys that have never glued sit down and watch it. So if you're interested - it may be worth your time.

VegasTriker

Thank God for high pressure clincher tires. I got my first quality road bike in the early 1970s when most clincher tires were limited to about 70 psi. I set it up with sew-up tires and took a week long camping tour carrying two spares. By the time I got back home all four tires had flatted and I had already patched and reinstalled two of the four. That's right around the time 100 psi 27" tires showed up in our shop. It wasn't long before I changed rims and installed the new clincher tires. Never looked back and in all the years since never again used a sew-up tire. It's so much easier to carry spare tubes and to patch them on the go if necessary.

woodcraft

I think that your video should clarify that it's for gluing 'cross tires that will be run at low pressures. For road tires it's way overkill IMO-

leading to epic struggle getting the tire off if there is a flat on the road. The equivalent of auto lug nuts that have been over-torqued with an air wrench and are near impossible to remove by hand.

Psimet2001 

For gluing road. I can't afford to have a tire roll. Ever. The ones that come off easily when changing a tire have a much higher tendency to roll when being raced. Mastik one sets hard and almost all of my mounts are permanent. Like I said if someone is riding it out on the road daily then they should use a glue like conti and do a quick or race mount without full curing.

woodcraft

From what I can tell, pro team mechanics glue tires rather sparingly (a 'race mount' ?), and presumably the riders don't insist on otherwise.

I certainly understand your wanting to have no one come back & say the tire wasn't put on well enough, but still find it odd that there is such a split in approaches.

And again, advising someone interested in trying out tubulars to use an approach where the goal is to leave the basetape behind when you pull off the tire is questionable.

MoAlpha

Do they still use that black 3M product intended for attaching weatherstripping on car doors or something? It was quite the thing, back in my sew-up days. Boy, that stuff was tenacious as hell and made quite a mess on a rim..

Psimet2001 

No. 3M Fast Tack - was re-formulated a ton of years ago and no longer suitable.

Psimet2001 

Having glued for pro teams I can assure you that the road ones typically don't have time for them to cure. They also have some roll. Most that are only gluing one or two at a time will take the evening to do it.

If you watch the video you'll see that I take a lot of shots at anyone who says there's only one way to glue a tubular or that one way is necessarily better than any other. If it sticks then it works.

Professionally - no rolls. After literally thousands I've glued I'm not playing the "well I think" game anymore.

JohnDThompson 

Same here. And this year, with no group rides, I've been riding tubular tires almost exclusively. Haven't flatted yet (probably jinxed myself there), but on the road tire replacement is quick and easy. The eventual puncture fix can wait until the winter hiatus.