Post by David L. JohnsonPost by Dan GregoryPost by David L. JohnsonOf course all this begs the question of why you would bother with
tubulars this day and age, anyway. If you are near enough to the edge
of the performance curve to see an advantage, make sure your team car
carries spare wheels.
If glued on properly they won't roll off as clinchers do
:-(
The idea of tires rolling off is exclusively related to tubulars, not
clinchers. I've used both, and have rolled two tubulars, zero clinchers.
that you can ride with them flat (not high on my list of advantages --
with clinchers, you can repair the flat, instead), that they grip the road
better (how is a matter of denial of physics), that they don't pinch flat
(I donno, I've only gone 10 years riding clinchers with, let's see, zero
pinch flats).
Look at ads for tubulars. The big selling points are that they are "round
and straight" --- meaning that many tubulars are neither, and that you
should buy this brand in order to get what most people take for granted
with clinchers.
I used to ride wonderful tubular tires, Clement Campionato del Mundo
(sp?), or Criterium Setas. Clinchers, then, were just awful. Now, very
nice, light, supple clinchers are $30, and a halfway-round tubular costs
twice that.
Sorry, unless you've got that team car following you, I just don't see the
advantages.
I'll second Dave's comments. Though I've had plenty of pinch flats on
clinchers I'll also note that one of the reasons that you didn't pinch flat
on Clement tubulars was because they put a skirt over the sewing thread. I
have gotten quite a few pinch flats on Continental tubulars that are missing
that expensive detail. Continental believes that you don't get pinch flats
if you pump the pressure high enough. That's probably so but if you ride on
the street with 160+ psi the ride on the tubular is no better than with a
clincher.
As for ride - a 95 psi tubular rides very nicely indeed and feels
considerably better than a clincher at any pressure. That doesn't, however,
translate to faster times, better cornering or longer wear. In other words,
aside from the feel there are only slight advantages to tubulars and tons of
disadvantages:
1) They are really expensive and a couple of spare tubulars are heavier and
take up more room than a couple of spare innertubes.
2) Finding good tubulars is a problem though not as bad as it used to be
before the advent of the internet.
3) Unless you really know how to sew them back up after a repair, there will
be a hard spot in the tire that feels like a lump. And the tire won't corner
as well because of that.
4) Repairs of a sewup is a time consuming pain in the butt that no one in
their right mind would take on. Racing teams want the feel of tubulars
because they do ride smoother and that might translate into less fatigue in
a long race. But they also toss out tubulars that have flatted - they don't
take chances with a repair.
The fact is that you can race better on $30 Michelin tires than you can on
$100 Clements.