Fixing flats in tubulars while out on a ride

portuguese mike

What do people do?

i'd really like to get a pair of deep section carbon wheels and the tub versions are all so much lighter but i'm worried about what happens if you get a flat out on the road.

cougie

Seriously you dont know ?

You dont fix them on the road - just put on the spare that you have with you.

There is a gunk like substance that some tyres use - but its not 100% so you still need the tubs.

FWIW - unless you're minted - I'd save the tubs for racing and train on high pressures.

portuguese mike

that's what i thought but don't you have to wait for the adhesive to set before riding on them. i also wondered if there wasn't any kind of tyre repair foam that you could carry with you.

LangerDan

portuguese mike wrote:

i also wondered if there wasn't any kind of tyre repair foam that you could carry with you.

http://www.vittoria.com/index3.asp?lingua=en

dennisn

portuguese mike wrote:

that's what i thought but don't you have to wait for the adhesive to set before riding on them. i also wondered if there wasn't any kind of tyre repair foam that you could carry with you.

If you flat a tubular you simply pull it off and put on your spare. This will get you home
where you can glue the tire on properly. However you shouldn't race and or ride the spare
really hard(hard tight corners especially) as it may roll right off the rim and that's not good.
A company called "Tufo" makes a tubular gluing tape that could be used on the road.
It's pretty good stuff in that once you mount the new tire on the rim with it, all you have to do is pump it up, the glue sets right away, and you're ready to go. Still I prefer to do
my gluing at home but I have seen people use "Tufo" tape on the road.

Dennis Noward

mrushton

portuguese mike wrote:

What do people do?

i'd really like to get a pair of deep section carbon wheels and the tub versions are all so much lighter but i'm worried about what happens if you get a flat out on the road.

You put on the spare you carry, pump it up or use the foam and cycle carefully home. if you are racing/tt-ing you've lost anyway unless you've built a big lead . Note that if you are carrying a pump you might as well use a clincher anyway.

portuguese mike

Thanks guys, you've confirmed my suspicions about the suitability of tubs for everyday riding. Maybe if i had nice smooth roads round here but i don't

dennisn

portuguese mike wrote:

Thanks guys, you've confirmed my suspicions about the suitability of tubs for everyday riding. Maybe if i had nice smooth roads round here but i don't

I don't really buy into the idea that tubulars are not for everyday use. Plenty of talk on this forum about how many flats clincher riders are having and the difficulty they have
in getting a clincher off and on a rim (for whatever reason this was not that much of a problem some years back). Changing a flat tubular is probably quicker than changing a
clincher, if that means much for everyday rides. I have used them for years on a more
or less daily basis and haven't had much in the way of puncture problems. Then again
I'm over here in the US and most of the roads out in the countryside are paved
and kept in fair to good repair. As far as road quality goes I don't think that that is a reason
for using one as opposed to the other. Seems to be more of a question of actual wheel,
rim and spoke, durabilty and carbon on bad roads may not be the best of ideas.
However, a good set of light, tubular, race only wheels is a good idea if you race and
can resist using them on a daily basis.

Dennis Noward

portuguese mike

Thanks Dennis, Maybe i'll condsider them as sportive only wheels

andrewgturnbull

HI there.

Save the tubs for racing... Dennis is the only one around here who still rides tubs on a daily basis. I raced on tubs tonight, but I'll be riding clinchers to work tomorrow.

The problem with tubs for sportives is that the courses tend to be hilly, and when you replace a tub on the roadside you're not using fresh glue, and you're not waiting for it to set. So you can't really trust the repaired tub not to roll off the rim when you take that hairpin turn while descending an alp (or dale).

You'll get away with it in a time trial, but not really on a sportive. If that's your bag, then I'd go for a carbon clincher - a bit heavier than the tub versions of the same wheels, but more suited to the purpose. Planet X 50s, Cosmic Carbones and Zipp 404s are all good choices for this sort of thing (in ascending order of price).

Cheers, Andy

Bugly

great for racing on especially if you have a wheel car following with your spare set of wheels. Otherwise rip of the old tub and put on the spare then ride home very carefully as rolling the tub of the rim can be expensive and painful. Then during winter you can spend your winter evenings unstitching the case sealing the leak and restitching the case and regluing the tape. Endless hours of fun.

Or ride a nice set of clinchers. Top quality tubs are still better to ride on but not many people buy top quality tubs. Cheap tubs feel no better (and can be worse than) good clinchers.

YMMV

Bugly

portuguese mike

Yep, i think i'll stick to clinchers, i'm thinking of getting a set of custom wheels made based on corima aero clincher rims and tune Mig/Mag hubs with Aerolite or CX-Ray spokes (20/24).

Raph

"Endless hours of fun"

Yes that's how I remember tubs, and like bugly I mean the repairing... as well as the riding.

Decades ago I used to use tubs for everything, courier jobs in London, commuting, touring, the lot. I spent a lot of time by the roadside with needle and thread, e.g. in France when I'd run out of unpunctured tubs on a 2000 mile tour. I don't think they were any more puncturable than clinchers, and as mentioned above they're actually easier to change by the roadside, but ultimately when you've changed a tub you still have the repair hanging over you. Also it's almost impossible to get the stitching exactly the same as the original machine stitching, so the tub always ends up wonky, though that's not's a problem in practice, it just looks rubbish.

If you do go for tubs, take a roll of tubtape as well as a spare tub - it's double-sided tape, or more like a layer of glue held together with very sparse cloth. It's supposed to hold well enough to use without any other glue, and though it's not as strong as the original glue it will definitely hold a tub on top of a previous layer of proper glue so it still solves the problem of not being able to re-glue rims by the roadside, and there's no waiting for anythig to dry. If you're taking a brand new tub as a spare it's worth putting a layer of glue on it and letting it dry before stashing it away as a spare - tubtape on a brand new dry tub doesn't hold so well.

These days light clinchers are so good that I wouldn't consider tubs again - I've still got some Royce/GP4s that are lovely but it's more nostalgia than anything.

dennisn

Lately, what with my obession for trying things, I have been riding "Tufo" tubular
clinchers. It's a tubular tire with a bead on it that works on a clincher rim. Very easy
to change a flat or even rotate tires. No need for tire levers. Holds much higher air
pressure than clinchers. Stays on the rim if you flat, unlike clinchers. I really like the ease
with which you can change a tire, all by hand, no tools. Tubeless to boot, so no pinch flats. Imposssible to fix except with
"Tufo's" own version of Slime. Cost?? Still up in the air, although I have had only a couple
of flats and they were taken care of with their flat fix stuff. So far so good.

Dennis Noward