Tubular or clincher for long distance triathlons

[davem]

JB, you have the wisdom of Yoda. Your input is always valued.

[Underachiever]

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In some cases I know triathletes who have simply removed the old tubbie and put the replacement straight on without even using the tape just relying on residual stickness on the rim from the old tubbie and pressure.

 

 

Have done this in road races in the 80's with no problem at all.

[Dinamic]

There is no room for tubbies in contemporary cycling, no matter what the discipline.

 

Tubulars were borne out of necessity - technology for clinchers weren't available 100 years ago and the tubular was designed. Today's users base their decision entirely on myth, lore, sentiment and nostalgia. Clinchers are cheaper, easier to maintain and match tubulars on all the important factors including puncture resistance, pressure and rolling resistance.

 

Althoug a tubby can sustain higher pressures, the rule of diminishing returns kicks in at about 6 bar. Thereafter tubbies and clinchers have equal rolling resistance. The only condition under which a tubbie has lower rolling resistance is when it is glued with shellac (hard glue) not today's contact glues. Contact glues cause hysteris between the tyre and rim that robs power (adds resistance). I don't know of anyone who even knows what shellac is, nevermind use the stuff.

 

Tubbies supposedly have higher resistance to pressure punctures. Well, at today's pressures you have to hit a clincher extremely hard to snakebite. Most tubbies at the high-end are carbon and those rims cannot sustain a snake-bite type impact in anyway. The tubby may survive, but the rim not.

 

Tubbies that are not glued on properly, are a risk and are outright dangerous. They can bunch up under braking (they even bunch up under hard braking in alpine conditions due to the glue melting.

 

Someone mentioned a R450-00 tubbie. That is almost certainly an inferior product compared to a R450-00 clincher. It costs a lot to manufacture a good tubbie. Lots of manual work involved.

 

That said, not all clinchers are the same. Gatorskins and their ilk are sluggish tyres designed for robust riding in adverse conditions. The're not the best in terms of rolling resistance, no matter what the brochure says.

 

The optimal tyre in terms of performance, cost, convenience and safety on a long competitive ride would be a lightweight clincher with a 120TPI carcass and silica (as opposed to carbon) rubber.

 

Vittoria Corsa evo KS tubular R450 ( give or take a few rand for drift in xchange rate) Schawlbe Ultremo TT evo around R700 and no I am not in the business of selling tyres. May not be the top end but not exactly poor quality.

 

Re comming undone, I stated that I would not advocate tubbie tape as a solution in a technical course, I even gave the example of Ironman france as a course which would be a risk.

 

My experience of working with triathletes ( especially LD ) in many different countries is that many of them if buying aero wheels still would buy and ride tubbies that being course dependant. Interestingly I was chatting on Sunday with a visiting rider who currently races for a UCI lisenced team in Europe and there personal choice for a aero wheel for time trialling would still be a tubbie.

 

Horses for courses I suppose.

[shawnvan]

Hi guys thanks for the input..

 

The reason for my question was that I currently have clincher aero wheels, so one day when I get a rear disc as well I was thinking of poosibly chaning to tubbies (interestingly there don't seem to be too many clincher disc models around).

 

From what I have read it seems better to just get a clincher disc and keep my current wheels...

[shawnvan]

The optimal tyre in terms of performance, cost, convenience and safety on a long competitive ride would be a lightweight clincher with a 120TPI carcass and silica (as opposed to carbon) rubber.

 

Thanks for your insight JB - any suggested models that meet this criteria?

[Eldron]

My feeling has always been:

 

If you can put your hand up and a team car/mechanic changes your wheel - use tubbies. If not - use clinchers.