i’ve done a quick search and didn’t find much…so…who rides tubulars on the street regularly? i’m getting some rims from Dan at Shifter mad cheap (free) that he had laying around. they will be my first build project so i’ll have more questions later, but i’m curious how often i will actually get flats or any other tubular related problems. i’ve been told as long as i avoid glass and other dumb shit i should be fine.
i really want to see how much difference it makes to ride with the lightest rim i can afford. i think until i can afford really nice shit i’m gonna cut weight any way i can.
oh yeah, anyone wanna throw me some cheap hubs to build them on? i’d love some low flange DA…
I ride a tubular front sometimes. Haven’t had a problem yet, and I taped it with that Tufo extreme stuff.
Tubulars for the rear don’t make much since if you skid though. Not so much that the tire is going to roll off, but because decent tubulars are expensive, and cheap ones are horrendous and much worse than clinchers at the same price.
As far as getting/fixing flats compared to clinchers, there really not bad at all. If you have a preglued and stretched tire with you changing it is no biggie. My problem is that when you do get a flat, fixing the flatted tire involves a lot more than changing a tube, which is usually all you need with a clincher. You either open up the tire, patch, and resew, or you throw the tire out. And as andre said, worthwhile tubular tires are much more expensive.
I run tubulars on the street. Even my spare wheels are tubulars…
I use Vittoria Corsa Evo CXs with Miyata tubular tape. Never had a flat with Evo CXs but had cheap Formula Unos and Rallys get a flat out on the road. People say cheap tubulars ride like crap, but honestly I feel the cheapo Vittoria Rally rides better than a 23c Gatorskin. But cheap tubulars are less round and seem to flat easier. If you ride sensible (avoid obvious sharp materials) and use decent tubulars it is great. The ride is so smooth even with higher pressure and rough roads. Fixing a flat is easy. You ditch the tire and replace it. I carry around a spare tubular with a roll of tape enough for one rim in a plastic camera film case. Seems costly but like I mentioned above, I have not had a single flat since running decent tubulars and with my riding style (no skidding unless really necessary/ocassional skipping) Evo CXs last me around < 2000km.
Sorry for the book…
Its worth mentioning though that you’re riding on Tokyo streets… which are like a smooth track compared to the shitty, rough roads we suckers in the USA usually have to ride on.
The streets here in Atlanta are fucking horrendous in comparison. I imagine Baghdad has better surfaces.
do it for the ride not the weight. I have tubular zipps but you quickly get use to the weight favorability such that it becomes the new baseline. But the ride can always be appreciated. Often I have to look down to make sure I am not running on a flat despite my 115psi pressure. Schwalbe stelvio feels like butter. Conti Sprinter rides so-so. Clement SC is meh.
Really you can the same ride from open tubular clinchers like pro race 3. The best tire evar.
Funny cause the stelvio has a super high crr and likely and is therefore likely very unsupple.
I would love to see some blind tests with tires.
Also “open tubular” is absurd marketing gibberish and shouldn’t be treated seriously. If you must use something to describe veloflex, open corsas, et al say handmade. Oh and a pro race isn’t an open tubular michelin doesn’t make tubulars and so doesn’t try to equate their top clinchers with them. Further, I’m pretty sure they aren’t handmade.
tubs have high crr in general, relative to clinchers. but crr is a meaningless statistic. what matters is how beat up/fresh you feel after a ride, cornering confidence and other ride intangibles… Which goes back to my point about the ride. I ride 8k miles a year, perceiving nuances between tires isn’t some holy grail as dutret makes it out to be. any idiot in tune with their ride can notice the difference between a shitty tire and an excellent one, like the pro-race 3. (semantic dissection on nomenclature be damned. you knew what meant.)
Tires make one of the most apparent changes in ride characteristic for me… atleast when they’re new and not all worn out. I couldn’t tell the difference between two tires when they have barely any life in them left, but a brand new Stelvio vs. a Zaffiro, the difference is night and day…
Tubulars don’t have a high, crr rim cement does and I was comparing Stelvios to other tubulars. You’re right that crr isn’t a be all end all for tire quality but what makes a good ride is generally a supple tire and that’s the same quality that results in a low crr. The nuances between many tires are subjective and probably wouldn’t survive a blind test. Therefore looking at crr when praise for a tire generally considered to be crap is posted makes sense. Schwalbe won’t even publish the casing specs on the new ones. Is it even handmade? They’re stupid expensive.
Regarding the “open tubular” issue. I didn’t know what you were talking about, I assumed you were using the term to claim that pro races were handmade. This just proves the worthlessness of the term. Generally when people use it they are reffering to handmade clinchers where the casing is inflated then the tread glued on like a handmade tubular this is how it is most often used in marketing. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think pro races are made with by method. They really don’t look like it up close.
oh stelvios are made with the same shitty method as tufos which everyone agrees are more or less the shittiest tubulars available. It’s light but it’s unyielding that explains the crr, low weight and supports the idea of them riding like shit.
So I’m getting stuff together for CX season and I’m wondering if anyone is using the Tufo Tape. I know that there are billions of discussions about this on the other board, but I don’t really want to wade through that mess, and anyway, I trust your opinions and experiences more.
