F**K no. Tell your LBS to suck your nut sack and eat shit. This is why LBS's have the general reputation of being a waste of money. Are you in Florida by chance?

The Zipp video on youtube is a great one. Some people vary how many coats and I do not believe there is a steadfast rule. I do 3 and 1, but it's not the law. The only real difference is if you want them sewn up 'easy off' style so you can strip it on the side of the road or old school. I'm of the old school with lowest crr possible.

Aluminum acid brushes at the local hardware store, Mastik One and you are on your way.

Do me a favor, tell your LBS to eat MY ass hole while you are at it. $100?? ftw

Go to the hobby shop and get some disposable paint brushes, wide enough that you don't have to make a ton of strokes to cover the width of the rim. Get Vittoria Mastik Glue and then do it yourself. its not hard and you will be laughing and getting pissed when you see how easy it is, and that they wanted to charge you 100 for it. If it was me, that would be the last time I shopped there, for trying to rip me off...

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

They are nuts I paid 30.00 for two tires glued on. Tell them in a nice way to go pound sand. Question is though have you had a working relationship with the shop before? That is kind of like Joe Schmoo walking into mom and dads corner cafe and saying "I have two eggs and some bacon can you cook them for me?". But if you freaqent the place and buy and or use them regularly it should not be that high.

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I'm not in the shop all the time, but I've certainly bought
thousands of dollars of equipment there and many hundreds
of dollars of tune-ups, repairs, etc. They did pretty good by
me when I broke my front fork and got me a replacement
at pretty close to cost.

I'm guessing that maybe they just don't do much with tubies
and might just have one guy that knows what he is doing. Doesn't
install much faith in the job they will do if that is really the
case. I do realize that I didn't buy the wheels and tires there,
but it's not like they actually stock high end tubular wheelsets
or tubular tires.

Gotcha you have spent enough money there so they should not rape you like that, coupled also that they do not carry high end stuff . It would be different if you were Joe Schmoo showing up for the first time and they sold the stuff you asked them to install there. A lot of places will order something for you. They do not stock it because it is just to expensive for the small guy to stock.

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Thanks much for the pointers. I really appreciate the specifics as a
beginner (my follow up was going to be what glue to buy).
How much glue do I need to do both wheels? Is one tube of the vittoria
mastik glue per wheel sufficient?

I'll do it for $50.

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One other question now that I'm the do it yourself path.
Any suggestions about how to remove the old tires? I'd like
to keep them around as spares. Is there any trick to removing
them without causing any damage? Or is it pretty much
trivial?

If you make house calls, sold!

Holy Crap. That is ridiculous, especially considering the "pro" at the bike shop is likely to be a 19yr old kid who has never seen a tubular tire before.


Like the others have said go to the hardware store and buy some acid brushes (get a bunch, my local guy usually just grabs a handfull and asks me for about three bucks). Use Mastik One -get the jar, it is only a couple bucks more and I think it is easier to work with than the tubes.


On the way home form the hardware store stop and get a six pack of Belgian Beer.


I brush on a layer on the wheels and the tires, let it dry - drink a couple beers (some say over night but a good few hours is OK if it is warm and not too humid) Repeat on the wheels x2 and on the tires x1 for a really solid bond. make sure they are thin layers and they will dry faster and have a better bond. put the final layer on the wheels and let it get a little tacky and get ready to pull on the tire (make sure you have pre stretched the tire or it will be a real bugger)
Make sure you line the tire up straight and inflate the tire to riding psi to secure the bond and go riding the next day. use the money you saved to buy your wife/girlfriend flowers for allowing you to buy new wheels.

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I think maybe the LBS was going to take apart the stem, forks, cranks, repack everything and tune it up also. You know the "spring special" ;0)

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Go to Nimble .com they have a whole page that walks you through glueing, if it doesnt sink you can even call them and they will setup a teleconfrence call and walk you through it. But you say I don't have their wheels, they will still help you.



No I don't work for them or ride their wheels, great people though.

I would buy 3 tubes, its better to have to much then not enough… =]

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

One tube is enough to do both rims. look around online for various gluing methods so you can understand the important points that everyone pays attention to.

More glue is not always better.
Make sure that the lip of the rim is covered all the way around. The tires are held on by the lip, not by the center.
Removing tires it rather hit or miss depending on how strong the previous glue job. Try your hardest not to rip the cloth tape off the tire.
Goo Gone and a large supply of rags and patience can clean the glue off rims nicely.
You don't need any special paint brushes to apply the glue. I just use a ziplock sandwich bag stretched across the tip of my index finger to apply the glue. When you're waiting in between coats, screw the top on the glue then zip it up in said bag.
Apply the glue to your plasticed finger in small dots then spread on rim. I find that using my finger allows me to get glue EXACTLY where I want it and not all over my rim.

Make sure your tires are stretched enough before gluing the on.

$100 is insane, it's their way of saying they don't want to deal with it.

One note on the tubies; put them on the rims w/o glue overnight to let them pre-stretch. It will make installation easier.

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hell no. two options:
1) web tutorials
2) ask someone on craigslist if they'll trade a six pack of beer to show you how to glue tubies

if the used h3 tubies have glue residue that they will have to spend an hour peeling off it isn't that unreasonable.

you can peel it off yourself to reduce the price probably

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Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

QFT. That's easily my least favorite thing to do.

I am pretty much completely ignorant in regard to bike maintainance but I refuse to pay a bike shop to swap out a cassette or gluing tires. My lbs wanted 30 to change out a cassette and 75 for tubulars. these are two things any idiot can do....I am proof.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I don't do much wrenching myself, but I can certainly change a cassette
myself. That's like a two minute job. So if gluing tires falls in that same
bucket, I guess I ought to figure it out.

I like the plastic bag idea. The nimble.net tubular tire advice page
suggests that you usually don't need to clean the old glue off the rim
if you are replacing a tire (as I will be doing). Many of the reply posts
here (such as yours) mention the time required to clean the glue off.
What's the deal? Do most folks here always clean off the old glue?
And if you don't, do you apply more glue to the rim, or just apply glue
to the tire?

My LBS charges $8.00 per tire and does a top job. It would be cheaper for you to mail me your rims, have me bring it to them and have them glued and mail them back to you...

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Might be a bit high but not outrageous. I would make sure the guy who is doing it knows what he is doing. Gluing a tubular on is not something you want a half-assed job on - your personal safety is on the line. Seriously!

That being said I have always been DIY with this - learned how to do it long ago from a guy who really knew what he was doing.

Think about it this way - you pay $100 and you have piece of mind that something really important is done right ( again assuming a real tubular guru has done the work). Yet, I see all kinds of triathletes throwing way more money at stuff that really does not matter and is in no way making them better/faster/safer - not that there is anything wrong with that!

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