Which wheels for Hilly Sportive? Tubs or clinchers?

[Disgruntled Goat]

Ok we need light weight yes? But a little bit aero yes? Tubs are good for saving weight but not so good if you keep having punctures no?

I'm seriously impressed with these guys www.williamscycling.com

£250 for a sub 1500g wheelset?
£600 for sub 1200g carbon tubs?

 

[walker]

Ok we need light weight yes? But a little bit aero yes? Tubs are good for saving weight but not so good if you keep having punctures no?

I'm seriously impressed with these guys www.williamscycling.com

£250 for a sub 1500g wheelset?
£600 for sub 1200g carbon tubs?

Tubs are more lighter over there Clincher counter parts. Your best bet is to go with the lightest wheels you can afford when it comes to hill climbing, Tubs generally again, are cheaper over the clincher counterpart, but if you do get a flat they arn't that easy to repair on the roadside unless you carry a spare wheel

 

[RedBike]

I would go with tubs. Just make sure to take a spare tub, a small bottle of sealant and the number for a local cab firm (if all else goes wrong).


On most sportive rides there is a some sort of mechanical assistance. It's somewhat unlikely they will be able to repair a tub but if you're lucky they will give you a lift back to the start!

 

[walker]

I would go with tubs. Just make sure to take a spare tub, a small bottle of sealant and the number for a local cab firm (if all else goes wrong).

Are you sure? I was aiming more towards the clincher as adhesive takes a good 15-30 minutes to dry and thats the quick drying stuff.
and I have no idea how you would be able to take off a tub on the side of the road

 

[andy_wrx]

Agree with Walker.

Tubs OK on a TT, crit, short tri, etc where it's a short event and if you puncture you're stuffed anyway.

(or a road race if you have a team car full of spares following behind you...)

But on a 100mile sportive or an Ironman, no way, I'd go for clinchers simply because the risk of p*nct*res in that sort of distance is obviously higher and the side-of-road easy-fixability is so much greater with clinchers.

I've done a couple of wet sportives and passed numerous riders at the side fixing p*nct*res - I reckon they were riding on ultralightweight race tyres which holed too easily with the sort of cr*p washed onto the road by the rain.

People posting on cyclosport forum have complained of puncturing three or more times, using all their spare tubes and having to beg them from other riders.
You really don't want to be coming back in the broom wagon.

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

Plus, if you take a spare tub and need to use it, you have to carry your punctured tub with you until you find somewhere to dispose of it. Unless you are Dave Lloyd, then you can leave your tub at the side of the road in the middle of the Dales.

 

[andy_wrx]

Is that anti-litter thread still on cyclosport ?
Why don't you go on there and make that point against the worshipped Mr Lloyd ?
(would be interesting how long it stayed there before Mark Harding removed it, if nothing else !)

 

[Disgruntled Goat]

I did, but no-one ever took the bait. I think they were in collective denial.

 

[RedBike]

Are you sure? I was aiming more towards the clincher as adhesive takes a good 15-30 minutes to dry and thats the quick drying stuff.
and I have no idea how you would be able to take off a tub on the side of the road

If you're got some way of getting back if disaster strikes and you're willing to except that a puncture means the end of the ride then why not.

 

[walker]

If you're got some way of getting back if disaster strikes and you're willing to except that a puncture means the end of the ride then why not.

as spare tubes are easier and lighter than spare tubs and inner tubes can be repaired

 

[Tynan]

'repaired'

heresy!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Just noticed this. DG, mate, are you serious? We're talking about sportives here. They aren't races, just 100 mile rides at a bit faster than club pace. It hardly matters what wheels you use. And I wouldn't even think of risking tubs.

And BTW, before you ask, yes, I have done plenty of sportives, including some of the hilliest ones possible, using the same wheels I ride every day - standard open-pros with whatever tyres on that I happen to be using at the time.

 

[Foghat]

Tubulars are a monumental pain in the arse to repair, and with the high quality clinchers now available offer very little over them other than a better tendency to stay on the rim in the event of total deflation.

Also, if you are an aggressive descender (i.e. very fast, with hard braking into the bends/corners), tubulars will rotate on the rim in warm conditions, leaving the valve at an extreme angle (awkward to pump) and needing rotating back.

The performance gain of tubulars over clinchers is so marginal, and the embuggerance factor so high, that it makes little sense to use tubulars at all, except in a few controlled environments.

 

[itisaboutthebike]

I can't believe someone is considering using tubs in a sportive !

Yes probably if you have dedicated support like the top 10 or so guys in the Etape or Marmotte and have a chance of 'winning'.

But for the rest of us mere donkeys tubs would make very little real world differrence over a decent pair of reasonably lightweight clinchers and decent tyres (Pro Race3's, Schwalbe Ultremo, etc etc).

 

[andy_wrx]

I did the Cheshire Cat last weekend and was again astonished at the number of people with punctures I saw, particularly within the first few miles.
It was dry but the roads were wet from overnight rain.

I say 'again astonished' because it was the same at Cumberland Challenge (wet last two years) and Tour of Wessex (again wet).
Dry sportives don't seem to have the same issue - yes there's a few people with a flat, but with the number of people out someone's bound to be unfortunate.

OK, wet roads will bring stones and things onto the road and they're more likely to stick to wet tyres, but what are people running so thay have so many punctures ?
We don't get anything like so many on club runs on wet days...

I reckon people are running superlightweight race tyres on sportives, e.g. Michelin ProLite rather than ProRace, the sort of tyres that save 20g but don't have any puncture resistance built-in.

Yes fine on a 10m TT or if you're a pro with a team car or Mavic following with a set of spart wheels on the roof, but on a sportive ???