Originally Posted by
79pmooney
Fascinating. And, though he never mentions it, a really elegant argument for tubulars. Go to 18:00 on the video and look at his advantages for each, hooked and hookless. Tubulars have all of them. Any pressure that tire can handle. Rim simply isn't a factor. Road damage - as long as the rim is still a hoop, tire stays on. Yes, it does require a good glue or tape job, but we are talking a technology worked out completely 125 years ago. There is no flange that needs to stay more or less intact. No flange - easier and cheaper to make. Lighter. Much simpler from the molding, layup and QC angle. Virtually any tire can be run on any rim.
And yes, I know, such an observation is completely unacceptable here.
The tubular advantage: yes, it is obvious from the perspective of weight, impact and pinch flat resistance, manufacturing ease and cost, blowout safety etc., tubulars are superior in every respect. The advantage is in the rims, not the tires. You eliminate the hooks that are the cause of most of the problems with clinchers.
Yes, there are rolling resistance tests that show that some tubeless tires and clinchers (with latex tubes) roll a trivial amount of watts faster than tubular tires with butyl tubes (an unfair comparison), but there are tubeless tubulars that should bring both tire technologies in line. But again, rolling resistance is tiny in the grand scheme of things, unless we're comparing slow farm tractor tires (32mm pumped to 60psi) vs. much faster narrow tires pumped to an appropriate 110 psi.
Nevertheless, I can accept that tubulars are an almost non-existent market for the following reasons:
- One: your weekend warrior does not need the performance and safety advantages offered by tubulars, and should opt for the lower fuss of clinchers.
- Two: the pros (in every discipline) absolutely should be riding tubulars in every race on every stage, but the pro circuit exists to sell stuff, whether lotteries, jeans or bike stuff. Since you cannot sell tubulars to weekend warriors, the pros are forced to ride on an inferior tech (hookless) for marketing purposes. And when their tire blows off, personally accept all blame for the resulting carnage.