Gumwall Tire Question

[Calnago]

Totally understand all that, you could build a crappy “open tubular” as well. But the marketing value comes from the fact that most people would associate the term “tubular” with the nicest riding tires available, what the pros use, still today, blah blah blah. Do you think the manufacturers would be calling these “types of clinchers” Open Tubulars if there was a general consensus in the marketplace that tubulars were crap? Of course they wouldn’t. The word tubular would have no place in the description. Marketing, as pure as it gets, but this is a term that is very confusing to people. It shouldn’t be. What people should get out of seeing a tire labeled as an “Open Tubular” is simply that it is likely one of the best clinchers the company makes and probably is very similar in compound and construction to their actual tubulars, except in a clincher form. That’s all.
Good discussion, nonetheless

[Junior Varsity]

Totally understand all that, you could build a crappy “open tubular” as well. But the marketing value comes from the fact that most people would associate the term “tubular” with the nicest riding tires available, what the pros use, still today, blah blah blah. Do you think the manufacturers would be calling these “types of clinchers” Open Tubulars if there was a general consensus in the marketplace that tubulars were crap? Of course they wouldn’t. The word tubular would have no place in the description. Marketing, as pure as it gets, but this is a term that is very confusing to people. It shouldn’t be. What people should get out of seeing a tire labeled as an “Open Tubular” is simply that it is likely one of the best clinchers the company makes and probably is very similar in compound and construction to their actual tubulars, except in a clincher form. That’s all.
Good discussion, nonetheless

Yes, I think they would still call them open or cotton clinchers. Looking around, I believe Veloflex is the only brand calling them "open tubulars" but please correct me if I'm wrong. Vittoria (the largest producer of cotton casing clinchers) and Challenge both call them either 'handmade clinchers' or 'cotton casing clinchers'. Specialized calls them Turbo Cotton.

I see your point on the marketing aspect but I think you're extrapolating a bit. I would also say tubeless (TLR) will dominate the UCI World Tour in the coming years. The one think I can say with 100% certainty is that we're at a great time to be a tire nerd. There is so much investment and development happening right now, the likes of which haven't been seen up to this point in the bicycle industry.

[BdaGhisallo]

Totally understand all that, you could build a crappy “open tubular” as well. But the marketing value comes from the fact that most people would associate the term “tubular” with the nicest riding tires available, what the pros use, still today, blah blah blah. Do you think the manufacturers would be calling these “types of clinchers” Open Tubulars if there was a general consensus in the marketplace that tubulars were crap? Of course they wouldn’t. The word tubular would have no place in the description. Marketing, as pure as it gets, but this is a term that is very confusing to people. It shouldn’t be. What people should get out of seeing a tire labeled as an “Open Tubular” is simply that it is likely one of the best clinchers the company makes and probably is very similar in compound and construction to their actual tubulars, except in a clincher form. That’s all.
Good discussion, nonetheless

Yes, I think they would still call them open or cotton clinchers. Looking around, I believe Veloflex is the only brand calling them "open tubulars" but please correct me if I'm wrong. Vittoria (the largest producer of cotton casing clinchers) and Challenge both call them either 'handmade clinchers' or 'cotton casing clinchers'. Specialized calls them Turbo Cotton.

I see your point on the marketing aspect but I think you're extrapolating a bit. I would also say tubeless (TLR) will dominate the UCI World Tour in the coming years. The one think I can say with 100% certainty is that we're at a great time to be a tire nerd. There is so much investment and development happening right now, the likes of which haven't been seen up to this point in the bicycle industry.

It looks like Vittoria is now terming the tires it used to call 'open tubulars' as 'foldable bead' tires.

[TobinHatesYou]

It looks like Vittoria is now terming the tires it used to call 'open tubulars' as 'foldable bead' tires.

https://www.vittoria.com/eu/road-tire

No? Folding bead means folding bead, almost always aramid/Kevlar...as opposed to non-folding steel wire beads. If you’re talking about the product filter, it seems to be their way of distinguishing between a regular clincher and a tubeless clincher, however they aren’t mutually exclusive. Most if not all tubeless clinchers have folding beads. Vittoria is still referring to cotton-casing clinchers with glued on treads as “open tubulars” in the link above.

I think it’s a fair colloquial description for tires using supple cotton/silk/etc casings, though simply calling them “supple cotton/silk clinchers” makes even more sense.