Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
Perhaps I am slow to understand but that would not be a first for me. Pro riders are forced to ride discs even though they don't provide a competitive advantage for the rider and it's a conspiracy by Big Bike. Why are tubulars still popular and a majority on the Pro Tour? Is there some big push from Big Bike to get us to switch back to tubs once this Tubeless scam is over?
Actually, discs are a competitive disadvantage, unless you are racing in some kind of made-up event which involves filling your panniers with bricks and tearing down long descents in the rain. Check the embarrassing results in the last Olympic road race... despite what must have been intense sponsor pressure, and the number of riders not on discs being reduced to less than 10, 2 of the 3 podium spots were captured by the Luddites on rim brakes.
Tubulars? to be more precise, tubulars are not 'popular', but at the highest levels of the sport, they are exclusively used by every rider on every stage in every race. Road, track, cross and even MTB. Again, the purpose of the bike industry is to sell new expensive stuff to dentists with gold cards, and weekend warriors do not want to deal with the 'mess' of gluing tires. The industry really does not want to manufacture tubular gear for tiny group that gets their stuff for free. However, clinchers are so performance and safety disadvantaged that they will never 'catch up' to tubulars, and the bike industry reluctantly has to keep making this stuff to win races.
BTW: the insurmountable problem with clinchers is not the tires, but the inferior rim profile. Heavy, fragile, causes pinch flats, poor at distributing heat, and is susceptible to excess tire inflation pressures.