Having not owned a set of tubulars since the mid 90’s I wanted to see if there have been any great strides in rubber composition since then. I have to say that for the amount of mileage I did on my race wheels I had more ‘punctures per mile’ with tubulars. Perhaps just bad luck, but I want to hear others experiences.
Had a flat yesterday on my clinchers and it just got me thinking.
Does anyone ride on tubulars all the time? I think I just had really bad luck b/c one of my pals rides his race wheels a ton and never flats.
Thanks
Well for me personally - I’ve never had a flat in clinchers, a couple of pinches after putting new tires on. I still have the original tube in the front tire - probabaly 30k miles.
Tubular’s - I’ve had 2 flats in races, and a third that I changed proactively because of a slow leak.
Actually I did have one clincher flat - it happened during a race and I didn’t notice it until ~45 minutes after I finished.
Well for me personally - I’ve never had a flat in clinchers, a couple of pinches after putting new tires on. I still have the original tube in the front tire - probabaly 30k miles.
Tubular’s - I’ve had 2 flats in races, and a third that I changed proactively because of a slow leak.
Actually I did have one clincher flat - it happened during a race and I didn’t notice it until ~45 minutes after I finished.
That is sooo darng(my own new word) weird. Do you think overall weight has anything to do with it? I’m 185ish…but come to think of it back in my competitive days I was 150 soaking wet so dunno how much sense that makes.
One of my tubular flats was a blowout, explosive POP. I wonder if perhaps I had it over inflated? This flat I just had was on a bike I just bought so perhaps I’m too harsh on clinchers…have no idea how old the tube is or how much care was taken when putting it in.
I don’t think weight has much to do with it - maybe.
I tend to high 180’s during winter and spring and a touch under 180 at fighting weight.
What do you inflate to?
I use ~120
Same thing ~120…I think my old tubulars were maybe 180ish?
I had just ‘heard’ from some pals that tubulars are the way to go…he rides one set of wheels…old school early 90’s Zipp 440’s with tubulars and has maybe 50K miles on the current set of tubu’s…he is a good billboard ad for Panaracer!
Puncture resistance in a tire has more to do with the casing material, tread thickness, any puncture belts built in, and how proficient you are at “obstacle avoidance” ;-), than it does with how the tire is attached to the rim.
Since similar constructions are available in both tubular and clincher I don’t think switching one way or the other is going to make much difference in puncture performance for you…
edit: This article, and the one’s linked at the end, might help a little bit, http://www.slowtwitch.com/…_in_a_tire__955.html