Ok just a real quick Q out there to you guys and gals to see what you think. Im working on getting my wheels set up for my two A races (WDW tri, IMFL) and I was getting ready to pull the trigger on getting a disc cover for my wheel from wheel builder as we all know thats the cheapest and fastest for the money disc you can get. Well that covers the rear wheel and I have been thinking about what to do for the front. Well I know have the opportunity to buy a nice front wheel that is actually in my very limited price range. However its a tubie. That means my front would be a tubie and my rear would be a clincher. This just seems like asking for trouble to me but I just dont know if anyone else is running a combo and what they think. Im just trying to think of all the crap im going to have on my bike for FL and I guess a spare tube and a spare tubie might not be that bad. SO what would you guys do?
if the price is right, go for it and live with it. Carry a tube, use liquid latex in the tubie and carry a cell phone. I would worry about it even less if you only plan on using the tubie for racing.
err… I mean, if your bike doesn’t explode as soon as you put the wheel on, the faster tubie will make the front end go so much faster that it will rip the fork right off.
I’m doing IMFL as well. I have tubular zipp 808’s, but just bought a clincher HED disc, for a very good price, just for IMFL. I was very concerned about having to change a tubular out during the race, so as I see it, now I only have a 50% chance of having to do that since I’ll have only one tubular and not two. I am thinking about putting a tufo clincher/tubular tire on the disc or at least a very fast clincher tire on to try to equal the reduced rolling resistance of the tubbie up front. I don’t think it is bad to mix and match necessarily.
I would say go for it (not that what I says matters). As for all the crap, thats another thread all to it’s own! How much space would a set of irons and tube really take?
You may want to switch out your front brake pads. (I am assuming that the front wheel has a carbon braking surface)
The only issue is carrying both a spare tube and tire. I like my wheel cover but prefer to leave it on full time. For just a little more money you can get a basic spoked tubular rear wheel and put the cover on it.
Its actually not a carbon breaking surface to im good pads wise. Another thing that makes this wheel so enticing. SO what are you guys going to do who are running both. Carry a spare tubie and a tube and tire levers? Or just a can of that pitstop stuff and maybe another can in the special needs bag?
tubular clinchers are slow. Get a lower RR tire like a Pro2Race for the clincher.