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.
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.