Befitter

Hello Bike Forum Friends,

Have any of you ever heard of someone turning clincher rims into tubular rims???
I would imagine that you would have to have great frame building welding skills.
I wonder if you had an aluminum rim, could you weld a steel plate to it or vice versa.
Titanium???

datlas 

No

dedhed

Because people run tubular rims/tires because they want to add weight to their wheels...

tcs

Mount some Tufo tubular-clinchers. Bob's your uncle.

https://www.tufo.com/en/tubular-clincher/

Schweinhund

I've known 100+ welders, none had the skill of welding aluminum to steel.

nomadmax 

Hook, line, sinker AND the bobber.

Moe Zhoost

I imagine that some clever metal smith could do a reasonably nice job of it, but at a cost of labor and materials about 20 times more than the cost of a new set of tubular rims. If you put the concept on Kickstarter you may get a few investors; some people back any inane idea.

seypat

I have heard of places. You take your rims there and give them some magical green stuff that looks like lettuce. They then take your rims to another room and the transformation happens. They come back out and the rims are tubular. Amazing!

base2 

As nonsense as this is, I can see how someone could get the idea that if a rim had a nice curvature forming the well area between the brake tracks they might think they could remove the offending bead/track material & simply glue a tubular to what remains.

It couldn't be a rim brake wheel anymore & it's probably guaranteed the circumference would be wrong to glue a tubular to.

Would make a nice wreath with some tinsel, a bit of ribbon, maybe a pine cone or two, though.

Iride01 

If you have to tinker, then go ahead and try.

However you can buy them already made for about the same as clincher wheelsets.

What kind of apocalypse are you imagining that we'll be stuck with clincher rims and only tubular tires?

cxwrench

OP...come one, you can't really think...I mean this is about the...nevermind. No. Not possible the way you have imagined it.

big john

Most bizarre BF question ever?

KerryIrons

Definitely in the Big Leagues, but I constantly wonder at the kinds of things some people think up. Add this one to the list.

trailangel

I just so simple. Glue the tubulars right on to the clincher rims, and you are done.

veganbikes

"If you will it, dude, it is no dream" - Walter Sobchak (quoting Theodore Hertzl)

To everyone else in the real world, no you cannot nor would you want to convert any rim that is a standard clincher rim to a tubular rim or vice verse. You can find plenty of tubular rims or you can find plenty of open tubular tires from Vittoria, Challenge, Tufo, René Herse, Specialized and others that mount to standard clincher rims and you can use a latex innertube to cut out weight or give an even more tubular like ride. Or you can just use standard butyl innertubes and no issues. The only reason I would personally want to run tubular tires is if I happened to be racing and had a team behind me or maybe track racing or was really riding some nice roads on a very special bike. Really though with my Vittoria Corsa G2.0s or my various Challenge tires I haven't really had a need to get any more supple. I would rather just have wider and wider tires and frames to fit them.

msu2001la

I can 100% guarantee that someone out there has tried this.

79pmooney

Fact - you can run tubulars on clincher rims. I haven't done it but I gave my spare to a friend and he rode it on his clincher rim. (Dry so he took corners carefully but aside from that it worked fine.) That this was possible was the word BITD. All of us tubular users knew we could help others but we had to be self-sufficient.

_ForceD_

Why stop with tires/wheels? You could add jet engines and wings to make the bike a fighter jet.

Dan

Fahrenheit531 

I came for the clincher tires sewn or glued shut for use with a tubular rim. Imagine my disappointment when the thread was actually about something ridiculous.

rsbob 

No stranger than asking about taking Midol for leg cramps.

Eric F 

Every time I think "no one can be THAT dumb", someone comes along and proves me wrong. I'm not saying it applies to the OP. I'm not saying it doesn't, either.

Schweinhund

I have found the solution to your problem, in a manner that only Amazon can deliver in.
https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Airle.../dp/B09HCK9Q5P
Not as good as either, and better than both. (at making your bike weigh juuuust a couple of pounds more)

veganbikes

Airless tires are as old as the hills. The solid rubber tire was a great option compared to iron tires but thankfully John Dunlop came along and gave us the pneumatic tire and all rejoiced. Every few years some company comes out with the newest latest innovation of the solid rubber tire claiming it is the best thing since sliced bread though sliced bread came into existence well after the pneumatic tire

RCMoeur 

I seem to distinctly recall about 40 years ago (early 1980s) a rim company selling a rim designed to mount either tubular tires or clinchers. As I recall, it used a unique cross section that would allow for glue adhesion or bead mounting.

But given the rim weight was heavier than even a standard clincher, it didn't really catch on.

(apologies for the earlier gibberish- tow truck showed up)

tFUnK

Same; had wondered whether this would be a discussion on putting TPU tubes inside DIY tubular tires.

But the first thought upon entering the thread was "just throw a tubular tire onto a clincher rim I'll bet it'll hold ok" and I'm glad someone has tried that before already.