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Tubulars for safety?
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Today for the second time in my cycling career I experienced a front wheel blowout during a high speed descent. Both times I hit something in the road, rock or a chunk of metal, cut the sidewall and had it blow out a few seconds (<30) later. Clearly operator error but shit happens and will continue to happen on the road.

The first time was on a straight descent so no real problem coming to a stop (still not fun at 40+ mph). Today's was extremely lucky as the actual blowout happened on a straight with just enough room to stop between two long, arcing 40+ curves with a guardrail and drop off to the right (southbound Hwy 67 just before it gets flat'ish going into Santee for any San Diego folks) . If it had happened a few hundred meters before or after I'm not sure I'd be here writing this. I'm in that category many of us belong to of "previously crashed and taken a year to recover and mostly don't limp now but didn't die or hit my head so I'm happy".

My question- I've always been a clincher guy, racing, training, doesn't matter, run clinchers. Today's experience has me contemplating switching to tubulars. Legit or irrational?

Similar issue to Fleck's post here but with more emphasis on safety and confidence rather than race results.

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Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding it hurts.
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Re: Tubulars for safety? [Recall] [ In reply to ]
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Recall wrote:
Today's experience has me contemplating switching to tubulars. Legit or irrational?
Yes, tubulars handle better when flat, but if you're talking about training/fun riding, I suggest heavier clinchers than whatever you're using now. And getting better at avoiding road debris.


http://www.jt10000.com/
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Re: Tubulars for safety? [Recall] [ In reply to ]
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It might be safer. But then you have the risk of tubies coming unglued, which happens to people sometimes too, and hitting a rock and destroying your tubie might still get ya killed.

Either way, if you do fast descents a lot in training you might consider using bigger, more durable tires, and keeping them fresh and new to reduce risk. Maybe sealant too?



Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
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Re: Tubulars for safety? [Recall] [ In reply to ]
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I use and highly recommend Conti Gatorskins or Gator Hardshells w/ Mr Tuffy's tire liners. Haven't flatted in over 3 yrs and I ride through EVERYTHING.

Be careful out there! I have a Navy buddy doing Kona w/ me who had a blowout type crash on 94 near Jamul, broke his collarbone, found unconscious, and will be on a crash course for Kona prep (no pun intended).

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Re: Tubulars for safety? [irontri] [ In reply to ]
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irontri wrote:
I use and highly recommend Conti Gatorskins or Gator Hardshells w/ Mr Tuffy's tire liners. Haven't flatted in over 3 yrs and I ride through EVERYTHING.
Mr. Tuffies are great.


http://www.jt10000.com/
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Re: Tubulars for safety? [Recall] [ In reply to ]
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Before jumping to solution, I think you and some if the replies are right re why it happened and how to avoid...
Thinking the routes you ride, the position on the road, observation and line, lighting if relevant etc....
With all that taken care of you get to the shit happens.... Ie how to accommodate the issue; this is scalable as depending on what you hit and how hard etc will determine how bomb proof your solution would have to be.... This is where you need to judge what will work for the routes you ride... Select the appropriate level.... Otherwise we'd all be riding around in solid rubber tyres aka Tufo ;)
Re tubs, trust me they still blow out if you slam a pothole... They just stay on the rim... Re melting glue... Very rare if you glue them properly.... 20yrs and it's never happens to me and that includes alpine descents and super steep shirt technical descents 25% + etc...
In short I'd look at riding better and use standard well proven tyres eg gp 4000s....
If you insist on having some armour, perhaps the gator skin and latex... Gator skin for armour, latex for increased pinch flat resistance etc...
Beyond that your looking at city tyres which whilst may resist a side wall cut, the ridig experience in every other second may not make you want to ride.....
Good luck with your selection....
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Re: Tubulars for safety? [shadwell] [ In reply to ]
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If you really don't want flats, you could always do what Robert Millar did back in the 80s when he was a pro on the Panasonic and Z teams.

He would get very heavy clincher tires and would use tubulars as inner tubes. He said they rode like absolute garbage but he'd never had a puncture in a good six years of training through Scottish winters and Belgian springs.
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