Hammonjj

How do you check if a tubular glue job is adequate? I just glued my first set of tubulars and all seems well and good, but I'm nervous to corner hard on them since I did the job myself. It wasn't hard and nothing seemed to go wrong, but I just don't know!

I read somewhere that you can deflate the tire and give it a little tug all the way around and, if it doesn't lift up, then everything is good to go. I did this and everything seems good.

Thoughts?
James

rekmeyata

You should be ok, but to be safe test the tire gradually.

Also to help with flats use Stan's No Tubes latex based sealant. This stuff only adds a few grams of weight but will save you a lot of time and frustrations with flats. All tubulars have a removable valve stem, so remove it and pour one ounce of Stan's in, replace stem, turn stem to 8 oclock position and pump air in. Follow the directions because it may be different from what I'm telling you because I can't remember for sure how it was done.

SBinNYC

Liquid sealants for tubulars have been around for at least 30 years. Mike Fraysee sold a brand of tubulars with the sealant already installed. I tried out a pair on the GEAR 1977 ride. The rear flatted about 20 miles into the century and the front about 15 miles later. The only difference over tubulars without sealant that I detected was that in addition to gluing on spares and pumping them up, was that I now had gobs of a rubbery substance on the seat and down tubes that were the devil to remove. I also had some of that stuff up the back of my jersey for good measure.

Others have reported that the efficacy of tube sealants is inversely proportional to tire pressure. I would not recommend such sealants for narrow profile racing tubulars that are inflated to 100+ psi, based on my experience.

BTW, there are still tubulars sold without removeable valve stems.

rekmeyata

I never used any goo in Tubulars because they weren't out yet when I was riding on them. I know Slime is worthless in high pressure tires, but I did hear from a few tubular users that Stans was great stuff as is the sealant that Tufu uses, see: https://www.tufonorthamerica.com/accessories.php But I have no personal experience, though I haven't heard any complaints about those sealants.

But unless you have a fast sudden major blowout that blows goo all over your bike, a small pin hole which is what most flats consist of will not spray goo all over you bike because the good sealants seal so fast a lot of times you don't even know you had a puncture! I tried using Slime and that stuff wouldn't blow out of the tire hole, it blew out of the tube making a mess inside the rim, but that crap won't seal instantly and won't seal above 70psi so it's useless in road tires.

SBinNY says that there are some tubulars sold without removable valve stems, so if you want to look into sealants make sure the tubs you get have removable stems. I thought all tubs came that way today, but obviously not.