Why tubular tyres are better than clinchers

Mr Puzzled from Waresley, Beds asks why there is such a demand for full carbon clinchers when, in his opinion, tubulars are so much faster. The ‘full-on’ triathlete’s response would be that clinchers are so much quicker to change in the event of a puncture.

(words: Silver Fox)

You don't have to use glue

Not necessarily the case you know! Things have moved on since the days of Dunlop rim cement (which used to get everywhere … on your hands … in the sink … on your towels … in fact everywhere but where you wanted it!). These days, since the clever men from Tufo and Jantex came up with double sided tape, you can do the job in half the time without having to take out shares in Ajax or Brillo to keep things clean.

Easy to change

In the event of a puncture, all you’ve got to do is peal the tub off the rim, leaving the tape insitu (ie on the rim) and plonk another tub in its place. Pump it up … and you’re away. No frigging around with tyre levers. No broken fingernails. No second puncture as a result of forgetting to pull the glass / flint etc from the tyre. No more time lost than is absolutely necessary.

Mr Puzzled’s spare tub is an old racing one which has been taken off his racing wheel leaving the sticky tape attached to it (rather than the rim) – he believes he can change a punctured tub quicker than anyone can change a punctured clincher. We’re inclined to agree with him.

Watch the video below to see how easy it is to change a tubular.

A real race advantage

As mentioned earlier, he’s also got his own views on the old clincher v tubular ‘which is faster’ debate. “In my day, we used to do at least 500 miles a week training. We used to sleep through the winter without a blanket to harden ourselves up. If you think that Bob Randle is ‘ard you should have been around in my day lad! After one particularly hard winter of thousands upon thousands of miles training, I remember riding top-boro for the first time and seeing that Ivan McCamish fella using silk No 1s. I was on Clement Crits. He whooped me! He was no better than me. How could he be when I’d trained as hard as I had? It was all down to his choice of tubs I tell you. Since then, I’ve always used the same kit as all the top guys …

Don’t waste all that training

I mean, after all those month’s of battering myself in training, I wasn’t going to instantly throw away time to the opposition by using something that wasn’t as fast, was I? I can’t believe people still do that. And as for clinchers … well they’ve got their place for training but that’s as far as it goes.”

Bit outspoken is Mr Puzzled from Waresley … don’t you think? But in some ways he talks a lot of sense.

I trained AND raced over 2000 miles last year on my Carbon 50s with Tufo's without any punctures - Rob Wells PX Athlete

Everything you need to get going

We’ve compiled a choice selection of carbon tubular wheels and paired them with top-notch tubs and tape, everything you’ll ever need to go tubular. Check the boxes below.

Buy Carbon tubular wheels here
Great offer on Tufo Tubular Tyres here

16 February 2011