foul smell

I'm going to be commuting to school once in a while and I bought a cheapo vintage bike. The thing has tubulars but I have absolutely no idea of tubulars...I ride clinchers only. Is this a bad idea? Should I swap out for clinchers. I have other bikes but I bought this old bike because it was cheap in case it gets stolen on campus. The only worry I have is what to do with flats.

Lt.Gustl

if it has tubulars it likely isn't a cheapo vintage bike, more than likely something decent. Post a picture in classic and vintage and they will tell you all about it.

crhilton

I think fixing a flat on a tubular involves a new tires and stitching or something like that.

I basically know nothing about them, except they're on high end track and racing bikes.

AEO

tubulars usually come on nice bikes. If you get a flat with a tubular you'll have to replace the entire tube and that requires ungluing and regluing the tyre. Although with tubulars you only have to worry about puncture type flats. You'll never, or it's extremely hard to pinch flat with tubulars and you don't have to worry about the tyre falling off the rim when it's flat.

charles vail

Newer tubular tires have Kevlar in the tread and stick on glue strips are available in place of liquid glue so tubulars are easier to use these days. Replacing a flat tire isn't all that difficult. I have a bike that I will be converting back to tubulars. Its a 1980's Flandria built lugged steel bike with vintage Campagnolo parts!
Check out some of the tires from Tufo.

orange leader

roadside maintenance on tubulars will be a lot more hassle. I'd say it depends on how willing you are towalk the distance to or from school when a flat occurs. You can most likely replace those sew-ups you have with the more modern tubulars described by the previous poster, to make life easier, but clinchers are still going to be easier, especially since most flats (at least for me) happen in the rain, and then you have to deal with keeping patches AND rims dry while patching and waiting for the glue to dry before replacing and pumping up the tire. for commuting i'd say, get a 2nd set of wheels, and ride those.

But if your bike came with sew-ups, it's probably a very nice bike. It may look old and beat up, but that's probably because it was such a nice bike, it was overly loved (used a LOT).

BCRider

Sounds like you're not all that strongly into the whole vintage riding issue and are more interested in a simple and easy to fix bike.

I'd say you're going to want to find some clincher rims. Depending on what hubs you have it may just be possible to use the wheels you have in trade or partial trade for a set of clincher rim wheels.

sean000

Back in the day (mid-1980s to early 1990s) I had sew-ups for my racing bike. I also had a set of wheels with clinchers that were more for training... and the lighter wheelset with the sew-ups was for racing.

How well these will work for commuting depends on the tire and the wheels... as well as the roads you take while commuting. Some wheels are built to take abuse, while others are built to be as light as possible... meaning they may not hold up as well to many miles over bad roads. I've ridden a number of sew-ups until the treads wore out, but as with any tire punctures can happen. You have to carry another sew-up tire (unlike most clinchers you can fold them up) and a pump with you. When you flat you just pull the flat tire off the rim (it's glued on, but pretty easy to remove) and then roll the spare tire onto the rim. Pump up the tire and the air pressure will hold it to the rim. Ride carefully. There will be some glue on the rim to help the tire stick, but without proper gluing it is possible for a sew-up to roll off the rim if you take a corner too hard or puncture again.

The big downside to sew-ups is price. That's why I had the clincher wheelset. Nice clinchers and tubes were cheaper than nice sew-ups. As clincher tires improved I stopped riding sew-ups all together. I still have my 1988 Pinarello, but have only ridden it with clinchers in recent years. The sew-up wheels are somewhere in the basement.

Eventually you may want to get a decent but inexpensive set of clincher wheels. You could have new wheels built around the original hubs as well.

Sean

charles vail

Tufo makes some really nice tubulars for use with conventional glue or stick on adhesive strips, in addition they also make tubular tires that fit clincher rims. I also noticed they sell a tire sealer that reduces flatting. I don't think tubulars are all that inconvenient and they offer a better ride with some qualities clinchers don't offer. True, you can't buy them for $9.99 on sale at Performance Bike!

logdrum

Buy Stans and put about 4 TBS per tire every 4 months. Unless it is a nail or something nasty, you should be okay. I am in the flat capital state and so far so good.

Continental sells a tire called Sprinter Gatorskins, they are really a road racing tire and they are great 48-60 sepends where you get them. You can also buy Vittoria's Rally Training tubular from 20 to 29 I've seem them on sale for 14. Again Stans is the key.

I have repaired tubulars on the road. All you need is a curved leather needle, nylon string and a seam ripper and they are about 10 grams extra that you can add to your patch kit. You probably need a Park tire boot as well or a dollar bill. If you use stans small punctures will be sealed quickly any other puncture may be a big gash on the tire that requires booting the tire. This is my experience. If you use Stans, any puncture on a tubular is a big enough puncture for you to boot a clincher tire. It is easier to carry a pre stretched tubular tire.

Yeah all the gluing is a hassle, but I still love tubulars. I just found out that cyclo cross racers use them a lot and if they do a commuter should be fine.

Raiyn

I'd stick to clinchers if only for quickie flat repairs.

Cyclist0383

Another factor to consider in favor of clinchers is that you can get them in all sorts of flavors, including ones that are very flat resistant. Tublars are made for race day, and their weight and flat protection reflects this.

dwainedibbly

Yes, it's a terrible idea. Sell that cheapo piece of junk vintage bike to me. I'll offer you $50 for it.