Lessons learned from 3 years of riding with tubular tires. Some of you out there are riding tubulars with no idea on how to take care of them! Shame, shame….this will put you down the path of being a proficient tubular rider!

General Items For Consideration:

•  The positives: They ride superbly (noticeably smoother than clinchers to even inexperienced riders), you won’t have pinch flats, they inflate to ridiculously high pressure and roll very easily. If you value quality above all else, these are for you.
• Another positive: tubular rims are generally considerable lighter than clincher rims. The HED Stinger 90mm  set is about a half-pound lighter than the HED Jet 90mm set and the price is the same.  It’s hard to find ANYTHING on a bike to save a half-pound.
• The negatives: They are more expensive, and require more time to prep and keep your supply of riding tires available than clinchers. There is a learning curve to using them…really.
• Myth: They are hard to change if you get a flat. Fact: If you have practiced and know what you are doing, they are easier to change on the side of the road than clinchers. Plus you will NEVER get a rim pinch flat which in my experience is at least 50% of the flats you get with clinchers.
• You probably want to have a set of clincher training rims available, just to save money. The cheapest tubular I have found that you would actually want to ride is $34.

Tire recommendations:

•  Buy only tubulars with removable valve cores. You need this to pour in sealant and to put on good quality valve extenders for aero wheels
• For triathlon, the standard tubular primary tire seems to be the Continental Gatorskin. These can be had for $59. These are great tires.
• I am currently testing the $34 Kenda Domestique as a primary tire. These have gotten good reviews and I certainly like the price. I have been riding Kenda clinchers with good results. Its almost impossible to find a tire at this price with a removable valve core.
• Buy some smaller, lighter tubulars for your spare tires that are easier to fold and carry and intended to get you home. (The Gatorskin weighs 300g and folds very bulky) The Tufo Elite Jet weighs only 160g and folds to the same size as a clincher tube. When you get home, you remove them and install a new regular tire. Ironically, these will probably be more expensive than your primary tire. Keep your eyes open for sales….One time at an Ironman expo, I found a vendor selling Tufo Elite Jets for $20 (normally these are $90!) I bought all he had…4 of them. He did not know what he was selling.

Working with Tubulars:

• You have to stretch the tubular to work with it. Keep an old wheel around to do this. You fight and stretch the new tire over this rim. This is the hardest part of the entire operation. Put the tubular on the old rim before you put any glue on it, inflate to 40-50 lbs and leave it there for 24 hours.
• Keep your supplies well stocked up. It’s hard to find stuff at a LBS on a moments notice because they just don’t sell enough to warrant keeping it in stock.
• Critical supplies: glue, brushes, acetone, Goo Gone, cheap wheel truing stand (used for gluing wheel and centering tire), valve extenders, Teflon tape for putting valve extenders together.
• Buy glue in a can (like Vittoria Mastik One) instead of tubes of it.
• Buy a 50 pack of glue brushes…they only work for one use.
• Sealants (such as TUFO Sealant or Extreme Sealant) can work….both as a preventative by pouring in a new set of tires, or by adding to your tire when you have a flat. As a flat fixer, this should be viewed as a money saver, not as an alternative to carrying a spare tire. I would estimate that the sealer works about 50% of the time when trying to seal a flat on the side of the road. If you ride tubulars with no spare tire, you WILL be making the “call of shame” for someone to come pick you up at some point.
• Pre-glue your spares. Fold them up and carry 1-2 with you. The glue will seem dry on the spare, but it WILL bond sufficiently with the glue on your wheel…no problem.
• When you change a tire on the side of the road (if you are riding a tire that has had valve extenders put on it) bring your flat tire home so that you can recover the valve extenders from it.
• When you order new tires, immediately stretch and pre-glue them with one coat. That way you have a stock of tires that are ready to go as spares or primary tires. You will add a second coat of glue to the primary tire (along with another coat of glue to the wheel) when you install a new primary tire, while the tire and wheel glue is still tacky.
• Some people obsess about cleaning all the old glue off their rims when installing a new primary tire. You do not need or want to do this. The glue actually bonds better to a wheel that has been “primed” with a coat or two of glue. You do want to use a wire brush and clean off the rough surfaces, and then clean the brushed wheel with acetone.

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