Making the switch to Carbon

[monkeytusmc]

I am ready to make the switch to carbon fiber wheels and have a couple questions. Looking for general advice and past experience help also. Here goes

Clincher or tubulars? It seems most carbon wheel are tubulars. I’m kind of leaning towards clinchers but it seems I might get a better deal on a used set of tubulars

Cheap to mid range set. As great as some of the higher end carbon wheels are, I don’t make the money to drop a couple grand on a nice set of carbons. Any recommendations?

Braking and brake pads. I heard a lot about textured brake track and using the right brake pad for the brand of carbon. How important are these?

Thanks for the taking the time to read and answer.


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[Hexsense]

On any carbon wheels without proper texture brake track,
braking in wet are going to be bad (but fine in dry).
you can't avoid it unless you go disc brake.
Tubular will always weight less. But it is more hassle and actually roll not as fast as wide clinchers (see bicyclerollingresistance.com for their test).
Pro still use tubular because of weight and ability to ride with flat tire for a while until support car arrive.
For a normal person, flat on tubular is a lot more hassle than flat on a clincher. Hence you can afford to run less robust tire (but faster) on clincher knowing you can fix flat road side easily.

Just read back a few (or tens of) pages in this topic. There are some wheels to check out.
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/foru ... start=1755

[Multebear]

Definitely clinchers, if you haven't got any experience working with tubs. The reason used tubs wheels are cheaper is, that people in generel are moving away from tubs.

Recommendations: Farsports or Light Bicycle. Lots and lots of good experiences from countless users regarding their current products.

Many have good experience with the blue carbon brakepads weather they are from Reynolds, Wiggle or Aliexpress on chineses carbon rims. Actually on carbon rims in generel. They are soft and easy on the braketrack. They wear faster than other pads, but if you buy them from wiggle or aliexpress, you wont break the bank.

[Multebear]

double post

[monkeytusmc]

Picked up some powerway lb wheels. I think I got a good deal at 350 bucks. Thanks for all the advices. Now to pick up some brake pads.


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[sungod]

...
Tubular will always weight less. But it is more hassle and actually roll not as fast as wide clinchers (see bicyclerollingresistance.com for their test).
Pro still use tubular because of weight and ability to ride with flat tire for a while until support car arrive.
...

well, you need to be careful about what you quote...

the fastest tyre listed is a clincher, second fastest a tub, oh, but hang on, that clincher is running tubeless, what happens to the crr of this tyre when adding a tube? (i have no idea, but i would guess with extra material to be deformed it gets slower and even heavier)

but vs. tested clinchers with tubes, that site says the best tub is the fastest

the benefit of tubs when flat is not only that you can ride them flat, it's that they typically stay on the rim giving you good control and braking, so you are far less likely to have a nasty accident if you flat at speed - a flat clincher can come off the rim even at low speed, even on the rear wheel it's horrible

tubs: lighter, safer, and faster

of course it's hair splitting, unless there are good clean road conditions, or you are desperate for an all or nothing tt result, none of the low ccr tyres will be a good choice

the point is that blanket statements like "tubs are not as fast as clinchers" are unsafe, it depends which you choose and how you use them, and there are other important factors that should influence decisions such as safety and resistance to damage

[Hexsense]

Yeah that's right. , they test most tire with butyl tube or tubeless.
But Actually Latex tube is the fastest in (other) tests.

Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ tested in tubeless form is faster than Vittoria Corsa Speed G+ tubular. That one you already mentioned.
But also:
Vittoria Corsa G+ tested in clincher form is faster than Vittoria Corsa G+ tubular.
But again, this is hard to compare as the clincher Corsa G+ were tested using butyl tube but being physically wider (on 17mm internal width rim they test) than tubular version Corsa G+ which come natively with latex tube inside.
So for the tire with the same name and supposely very similar specs, it seems to roll faster. And not only that, tire-rim interface of (very wide rim) clincher is also more aero than rounded tubular.


Clincher come off rim at low speed will happen with loose fit tire/rim. But i don't see that happening on tubeless rims. My non-tubeless tire seems to lock into the rim even after deflation (ofcouse not as tight as tubular glue, but not loose enough to fly off easily).