The end of an era - goodbye tubulars

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mises
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by mises

After 25 years living the total tubular lifestyle I am throwing in the towel. Cracked another carbon rim, something like the 9th or 10th one, and decided that was enough. The absence of light Al tubular rims made the decision go by default to clinchers.

Kinlin XR-200 rims (385-386g)
CX Ray spokes 20F 24R, 16 DS - 8 NDS
Extralite UL Rear
AC Micro 58 front
Total 1208g
Better weight than I was expecting, 140g heavier than the carbon wheels, but I still feel dirty for throwing my long term tubular girl over the side for the cheap clincher tart.

Tires will start out Vittoria open All Weather and probably switch to Veloflex Pave when they wear out. Latex tubes of course.

Any wagers on how far into the first ride I flat?
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jjmstang
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by jjmstang

traitor :?

Oh , probably flat in 3 miles.

John
Friends don't let friends ride clinchers

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Rich_W
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by Rich_W

give pro race 3 a try... I far prefer them over open tubulars.

Actually to check myself again, I did some back to back rides against a pair of Veloflex opens last week... and yep... pro race 3 all day long.

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legs 11
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by legs 11

Mises, your a turn coat and an all round bad egg, hope you puncture first ride and feel very bad for deflecting to the dark side.
Yoda will never forgive you. :)
Sounds like a pretty good build though. :lol:
Pedalling Law Student.

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Gold Knight
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by Gold Knight

Mises--i understand completely and my 22 years of tubulars i am thinking of the clincher game. I am using LW Ventoux but if they have problems that is it with me too. I have no idea about clincher tires though and hope you chose some fast ones

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HammerTime2
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by HammerTime2

Girlie-man!

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HanSolo
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by HanSolo

Understandably, some of these comments are made in jest. However, I've been riding my CF tubular wheels more and more as they're getting older. The lightness and aerodynamics are awesome but I cringe over any bump I hit on the road. Clincher for peace of mind. Peace of mind = happiness.

HammerTime2 wrote:Girlie-man!
Everything can be drilled, except tires.

too slow
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by too slow

Seems like a low spoke count. How much do you weigh? How do you like the wheels?

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madcow
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by madcow

Nice wheels Doug, I'm working on a very similar set for myself(just waiting for some new hubs, which coincidentally are being factory drilled 16/8 for the rear.)

On the rear hub, did you just use a 32 or is this something Sergio made for you? Also, It looks like it's 2x drive and 1x non drive correct? Let me know what you think of these after you have a few rides on them.

mises
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by mises

I usually max out at 64kg so spoke count isn't a problem.

It's triplet laced on the rear with a 32h hub. Those extra holes save weight!

I wouldn't be overly worried about carbon rims, but for me the combination of bad roads and bad eyes was a recipe for expensive disasters. I rode them on gravel, dirt, decommissioned and other sketchy roads, ran over a few forearm sized branches, and do a lot of miles in areas with rockfalls. Other than one black hole of a pothole at 80kph the rockfalls were always where the damage was done.

NOTAWOFTAM
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Location: Mid-Atlantic, USA

by NOTAWOFTAM

There's no guarantee that alu clinchers won't fail riding in the same sort of conditions.

Depends upon the engineering of each wheelset, how they were built, distance/conditions ridden, luck....................

Best of luck

eljamoquio
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Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:26 am

by eljamoquio

...But fortunately the rims are $60, rather than $600 (or whatever the carbon rims cost).

To the OP: Kinlin makes a similar... OK, a little heavier... tubular rim. Too heavy for you?

rruff
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by rruff

mises wrote:CX Ray spokes 20F 24R, 16 DS - 8 NDS


Curious about how that worked out with such a light rim... any lateral waviness?

mises
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by mises

Exactly - even with crash replacement prices it was getting close to $500 a pop (or crack). $60 is a whole lot more palatable.

I thought about the Kinlin tubulars but it would have ended up around 110g heavier so it didn't seem like such a great idea for a WW. Ambrosio F20 would be close to the XR200 in rim weight but would have needed 20 more spokes so that got struck from the list too.

No problems with waves using triplet with the XR200. I thought there might be since I used Alex R400 before and had a little of that but these built up fine. Might be the slightly higher profile deals with it better.

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cerro
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by cerro

Rich_W: Why do you prefer Pro 3 Race over Open Tubulars?

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