Okay, so I have a 404 on the front, which has a short valve extender on the tubular. If a person was to get a disc, you cannot use a valve extender because it is too long. My question is what do you guys do for a spare tubular during a race. Do you put an extender on the spare in the event you get a flat on the front, and if you flat on the back do you just rip off the valve extender, or do you carry two extra tubulars (something I am not crazy about). Just wondering what the consensus is on this.
I see no good reason to get Zipp valve extender greater than hand tight (if I try to do so with an Allen wrench, I can still untighten by hand). Therefore if I flat, I plan to remove the extender from the flat and put on the tire or tube which is already prepped with teflon tape.
I have a 404 clincher up front and a disc clincher in the back. I carry one short stem and one long stem inner tube. In your case with tubulars, I think you should carry one of each and eat the weight (sorry). Tim
One tubular plus spare extender with extra valve pre-installed plus a small piece of Aluminum slotted to let me swap in the extender if I need to. I just tape the bits to the spare tubular along with my CO2, etc.
I’d get one tubular, wrap it up and tape an extender to my seatpost, just in case it wes the 404 that flatted. Hand tight should get you through the rest of the race.
I would put the extender on b/c it’s easier to take it off if you have a rear flat during the race than to put it on if needed.
I’ve got the same set up, I do as others have mentioned and do 1 spare tubular with a hollow core extender hand tight with teflon tape. If I need to use it, I’ll give it an extra twist before installing.
Luckily, I haven’t had to use it thus far!
Extender on with generous amounts of teflon tape. It’s easy to take off if you need to put it on the rear.
1 tubular with valve extender hand tight with teflon tape… However, I put an allen key in the extender and wrap that up under the saddle…
I put the allen key in the extender because even hand tight, those extenders are smooth and I could see sweaty hands being an issue even on hand tightend one…
Fortunately after 504 race miles (5 Halfs & 2IM) with my race wheels I’ve yet to try it out.
Perhaps I’m missing something here (which I’m used to). Is having a “pre-loaded” extender on the tire/tube to save time, or to ensure no air leakage when inflating. I use a 404 clincher as my everyday training and racing wheel and have never had any inflation leakage despite it only being barely hand tight.
I just take the extender off the flat and screw it on the spare, no time at all…
Terraman, My thoughts are I generally leave the little plastic cap on spare tubies to protect the valve stem and the tire casing while stored on the bike… I also tighten the valve stem adapter a tad tighter than hand tight on my front wheel because it gets inflated many times per glue job and I don’t want it to leak and/or need more teflon tape once it is in there where I can’t get it… That way I never need to change the teflon tape on that rascal.
I preload an extender to replace the plastic cap on my spare so I can use it front of back in an instant. The extender weighs almost nothing and then if there are problems along the way I have two. I also wrap a bit of teflon tape around the extender for good luck. That is the best explaination I can come up with.
Thank you everyone for the information. I was always under the impression that the valve extender had to be placed on wrench tight. Using an allen key and teflon tape is a no brainer (although I never thought of it…). Thanks again everyone. Barry
one of the reasons i went with 808s. everything is the same…nice