Are they foldable? How do you handle spares for a race?
My spare is folded up in my seat pack. It isn’t real pliable but it does fit. I carry the spare in case of a massive problem. For a simple puncture I will go with the tube of sealant that I have. They are a real #$%@ to get on the first time, so make sure to stretch them.
“They are a real #$%@ to get on the first time, so make sure to stretch them.”
I bought 5 tufo clinchers. Put 4 of them on 4 rims in about 45 minutes (includes taking of old tires and tubes).
I suggest watching the video from Tufo w/ instructions. Make sure you put in a little air (~10 psi) after you get one side on.
As you start from the top, you have to really pull, then I hold w/ my knees, regrip a little higher, and pull down again. It is harder than it look on the video.
Not sure if I could do a change in a tri w/ my HR at 170 bpm, but like you I carry the tube sealant. Did you put the sealant in first or are you waiting for a puncture (like me) and then you will put in the sealant and fill w/ CO2?
Tim
Now, I’ll take a fair bit of heat for this, including from SuperDave who sells these, but I think the TUFO clincher tubular is the worst of all worlds. I don’t see the benefit. They are quite difficult to mount and remove, making flat repair strenuous and time consuming. To repair a flat, you must replace the entire tire, necessitating the need to carry an entire tire as a spare. They are much, much heavier than either clinchers OR tubulars. Think about it: Compare the wieght. With a full complement of clinchers you have your tires, lrim strips, tubes and one spare inner tube. With tubulars you have two relaively light (compared to TUFO clincher/tubulars) tires and a thirde (spare) tubular. With the TUFO tubular/clincher you have the weight of THREE COMPLETE TIRES- the two on your wheels and the entire spare! I wager that is 40% heavier than either of the previous two combinations if you buy intelligently. My opinion is that the ride quality is very poor. It is heavy, dead and stiff. You simply don;t feel the road. Traction is poor in my opinion too. Wet weather performance is, in my opinion, downright dangerous. They are expensive compared to clinchers in terms of fixing a flat (you replace the tire).
Tubular TUFOs are my favorite brand. I’ve done three Ironmans on them. And all ST’ers who read my posts on tires know I will never race on clinchers. but eh gad, these things are a real abomination in my opinion.
For tubulars (racing) i’ll take some nice TUFO tubulars with the flat goo in them and not even bothr with a spare. For clinchers give me an awesome new Vittoria Rubino or Continental TPS Attack/Force combination (I have Rubinos on my tri bike and Conti’s on my R2.5 right now). If you must race on clinchers- try the “K” belted special kevlar reinforced version of the Vittoria Rubino or TT, or the nylon aramide casing, silicon tread Continental Attack/Force combination.
But stay off those TUFO clincher/tubular genetic defects!
Hi Tom,
Thats a pretty fair explanation from your point of view, all I can say is that I did a search and found info on tufo tubular clinchers to be quite the opposite and now im pissed because I just ordered a set of HED 3 clinchers based on all the info that I found on the search post, and thinking I can apply the tufo brand and go with the higher psi and have the best of both worlds but based on your point of view Im SOL.
How can a brand be better in one aspect, IE tubulars, and totally suck in another category of the same brand, IE tubular clinchers???
Maybe its preference speaking??? Help me to understand your point of view???
Dan
Hmmm, Fair question.
Well, the thesis of my opinion rests in several areas: The perceived “difficulty” of using tubular tires is just that: Perception. Or, more correctly, MISperception. Ridiculous and absurdly complex diatribes are written on “5 steps to gluing a tubular in 48 hours”. That is silly. Visit my store. I will demonstrate the gluing of a tubular tire from start to finish in two steps in less than three minutes total- maybe less than two. There is absolutely zero rocket science, zero finesse. Can you lick a postage stamp? OR, more accurately, apply a self-adhesive postage stamp? Then you already know how to mount a tubular tire. People, it really is JUST THAT SIMPLE. But we all know this is retail, and I am a salesmen. I have bills to pay. And, the customer is always right. So, in my store, in addition to tubular tires, we have a wide range of clincher tires for your use. But you won’t see them on my race wheels, and that speaks volumes. Look at a photo of the bike I rode in the Nice Triathlon, a difficult 73 mile bike course. There is no spare tire. No spare tube. Why? Because when you use tubulars you don’t need a spare nearly as urgently as you do with clinchers. I used TUFO tubulars with the flat resistant goo and no spare, reducing the weight of my gear by a significant amount. In 23 years of racing on tubulars the number of times I have flatted on a tubular is exactly 0, zip, nada, zilch. Afraid you can’t change a tubular tire if you flat in a race? Well my friend, that is a reasonable concern on your part. Fact is, you will probably never even have to worry about doing it. But if you race on clinchers, you better know how to get a new inner tube in there REAL FAST. Because you will flat. Eventually. Sales rhetoric aside, I think the thing (now admittedly, an educated guess on my part) that kills the ride quality of the clincher/tubular concept is the big “slug” or strip of rubber that fixes the tire portion to the rim. This part MUST be stiff, otherwise it would not stay on under the rather narrow bead of the alloy rim. If they made this part soft to improve the ride quality (i.e. “cushiness”) of the tire, then it would not be stiff enough to hold the tire assembly on the rim during cornering. It is my educated guess that this is what makes the tires feel like you are riding on solid rubber tires. I shudder to think of what you would do if you flatted one of those clincher tubulars during a race. Have you ever tried to mount one? Now, in fairness, they are very flat resistant- perhaps nearly as flat resistant as a real tubular, but certainly more flat resistant than a traditional clincher. However, the protocol for changing a tubular tire in a race environment is much easier and faster. Given- the replaced (spare) tubular is NOT securely glued on, and that is a risk. A substantial risk on a descent or in high speed cornering. But the remaining adhesive residue on the rim does a credible job of holding the tubular on. Heck, there is a poster on this forum of some prominence who has held several top level USAT offices and who’s wife is a multi-time world chamipon- this man has forgotten more about triathlons than I know and has coached two Olympic triathletes. He doesn’t even glue his tubular tires to the rims! I counseled him on this practice and for my peace of mind (and his safety) he now uses a SMALL amount of tubular cement on his rims. Don’t do this though- I only mention it for illustrative purposes. Do you know anyone who has used tubulars and THEN started using the tubular/clinchers? Neither do I. I like the guy who is the US distributor for TUFO. In fact, his own ambulation is dependant on tires since he uses a wheelchair in his day to day life. I love TUFO brand tubular tires, and th band is proudly and skillfully represneted to me by none other SuperDave on this forum. but the tubular/clincher tires are definately not a product I recommend. If you must race on clinchers, I recommend Vittoria, Continental brands.
I hope that does shed a little more light on my viewpoint. Thanks for asking. I am here for a while longer to entertain any other questions you may have.
Have you mounted a pre-stretched tubular clincher?
Okay Tom,
Put yourself in my shoes (Sidi T1’s btw). You buy a used bike. It is perfect in all respects. Except the Zipp 404’s are clinchers. Short of getting 404 tubulars, what do you do? Go with Clinchers or do as I did, get the Tubular clinchers as a stop gap until you get new rims?
No Sir, I have never mounted the tubular clincher when it ws rpe stretched on another rim. I only have experience mounting them without stretching.
I’m a little fuzzy on this though- don’t they somehow have to get mounted first on a rim in order to stretch?
i.e., How would one effectively stretch one without mounting it unstretched at least once to begin with? Maybe there is a technique for stretching these I haven’t been shown.
Hmmm. Good one.
Well, here is honestly how I would address this circumstance on my own for my own use: List the clincher Zipps on E-bay and use the funds to finance the purchase of tubular race wheels.
-OR- If the use of tubulars and/or the sale of the clinchers on E-Bay was not feasible, then I would use a high qulaity clincher tire (Continental, Vittoria) and be meticulous about the installation of my inner tubes using talc and maybe even ultra-lightweight Kevlar flat resistant strips available aftermarket that do work well as a countermeasure against punctures (but not pinch flats) and have only a minimally negative effect on ride quality/tire suppleness.
Those would be my solutions to the dilemma. Good question.
I stretch them by hand, then mount them up. The first ones I tried to mount were a royal pain, but I eventually learned not to baby them when I was pre-stretching them.
If you take an old one off, and use it as a spare, changing them is very easy. You peel the flat tire off, roll the well stretched spare on, and inflate. You are good to go in less than a minute.
That being said, my next race wheels will be tubulars - I will still run Tufo.
Hmmm. I should have known that :0
Thanks!
how long do they last tom, I am changing to tubulars tufo next season and just wondered how many miles you can safely ride. One pair each season ??
Hmm. I embarrassed to admit this, but I actually can’t give you an informed answer. I have never worn out a pair of tubulars. I generally only race on them and replace them for the bigger races like Ironman or an important 1/2 Ironman. Since I do one of those (either/or) about every 8-10 months then I tend to be on newer tires.
Sorry… 
Maybe Superdave has some insight. He is the TUFO rep.
Hello,
It partially depends on the particular model. I have raced on the s3 lite 165. These are exceedingly lightweight. You can fold them up into a size only slightly larger than a tube. Visually their is not much tread thickness even when knew. I didn’t track miles religously, but the rear lasted at least 250 miles of racing on mid western roads. At that point it was worn enough to see the fabric underneath the tread. Most of the heavier Tufos are heavier because they have more tread. I’m willing to bet you could get 500 -1000 miles out of most of them.
Styrrell
I’ve got about 400 miles on a Jet 26 special with hardly any noticeable wear. That tire was on the rear of the bike. The front has about 700 miles on it showing a little wear.
These were ridden on mostly smooth roads and wern’t abused. Most of the time I had about 140psig in them.
jaretj
Now, I’ll take a fair bit of heat for this, including from SuperDave who sells these, but I think the TUFO clincher tubular is the worst of all worlds. I don’t see the benefit.
They are better than clinchers but not as good as tubulars.
The only difference is the extra weight of the strip used to attach to the rim. Also the tubular rim won’t have the extra weight of the lip to hold on the tire.
They are lighter than a clincher tire, tube and rim tape - do the math. But obviously not as light as a tubular.
If you don’t carry a spare tubular, you wouldn’t carry a spare TUFO clincher - it’s the same tire except for the strip.
Have a pre-ridden spare if you’re going to carry one.
They last forever and “never” flat. I use the s-33’s to train on and get thousands of miles, even on the CT. Race on the lites. Haven’t flatted in over 2 years, 2 IM’s and several halfs.
They are cheaper than clinchers after you add up all of the replacement tubes and the fact that they last forever.
This beloings in the “Top 100” best/informative posts… Nice work Tom.
The only thing Tubular Clinchers are good for is CX racing, providing they made a 34 model. I imagine that a 34 would yield too high of side load at 45psi. oh well. That’s what cheap tubular wheelsets are made for!
Part of the problem was having never done it - finally I gave up (because I was racing on them the next day) and went to a bike shop who showed me; I’m a visual kinda guy. Once they have been on the rim they are pretty easy.
No flat (yet) and with it being winter in MI shouldn’t have a problem for a while. ; 0 However, I have not pre-sealed them because of the additional weight (not that it really matters at my level) and I didn’t want to mess with the possible clogging of valves.
Tom, great reply, thanks for making it crystal clear for me, Im gonna jump on the tufo tubular bandwagon. I only hope that I can install or change them as fast as you can. Thanks