Tubular or tubeless tyres for cyclocross use.

[palinurus]

Bear with me here. I know the way it’s supposed to go: use clinchers for a while then move on to using tubs. I want to do this next season.

But there is something about clinchers that fits with the way I do cyclocross. I ride to most of my events. I get lifts sometimes but mostly I ride, or use the train for part of the journey. If I puncture on the way to or from the event it’s easy to fix. If I puncture during the event: tough luck, I don’t have spare wheels. As it happens I don’t puncture frequently, I’m a relatively light rider- that probably helps.

I can see a number of potential solutions,

I can get some wheels, some tubs and a Yak Bob trailer (or similar) tow them to races and I’ll have tubs and spare wheels. Very good, but trickier to get onto a train. This solution would work- I could stuff the rest of my race kit in there too.

I can ride on tubs to and from the event, but I must be able to get home without calling for a lift if I puncture. I’ve no experience with tubs at all. Can I pull out a spare and tack it on? What if I use tubs and squirt in some of that sealant used with tubeless systems? (there are some rather impressive videos on YouTube showing whopping great spikes being jammed into tyres which then fail to deflate very much)

Thinking that got me wondering about tubeless. Tubeless systems do not appear to be widely used in ‘cross, but some riders in the US seem to be adopting them. On the face of it they have similar advantages to tubs, and there is the option of fixing with a tube if needed, although the sealant should do the business most times.

I’m interested in opinions as to the practicalities of these, or other, options as regards puncture resistance and relative ease of roadside repair.

 

[MartinC]

Nothing changes! They had the same problem in the first half of the 20th century when they rode their bikes to time trials. They clipped their fancy sprint wheels with light tubs to either side of the front fork and rode on their training wheels. Got to the event, swapped wheels, left the heavy ones somewhere safe, rode the event and swapped back.

You need to make some device for carrying a spare set of wheels. Someone older than me (and that's narrowing it down a lot) may know wher to find a picture.

 

[palinurus]

Ha! shortly after posting I thought "sprint carriers!".

 

[mattsccm]

Not hard to make with a strip of steel. Slot at either end.2 dog legs to move the upper slot out from the lower 1 but keeping them in same plane. Clamp lower slot either side of forks and 1 wheel in each upper slot. Toe strap form wheel to bar. I proudly carried my first sprints home from Bristol with double open ended spanner doing the same job. Much better than trailer etc.