Read this advise from Peter White Cycles:


Tubular tires require careful installation on the rim. The tire must be properly glued to the rim. If it's not properly glued, the tire can easily roll off the rim, you will crash, and perhaps be severely injured, or even die. Please keep this in mind when buying these tires. If you aren't prepared to learn to properly glue your tires to the rims, and then put into practice that which you have learned, don't buy these tires. It's bad enough reading about dead cyclists in the newspaper. It's even worse to read about dead customers.

Tubulars do have a safety advantage over clinchers. If the tires are properly glued, and you have a flat or blow-out, you'll have a better chance of retaining control of the bike with tubulars, than with clincher tires. The reason is that with a clincher, the rim is likely to directly contact the ground, and an aluminum rim can easily slide across pavement. With a tubular, the glued tire is always between the rim and the road, providing traction. So after a flat, tubulars are generally safer, as long as the tire doesn't roll off. And if it's properly glued, that's unlikely to happen.

Also, it's easy to damage tubular tires when mounting them. If you have any doubts as to your ability to mount these tires without damaging them, please do not buy them. Tires that are damaged during installation will not be accepted back for exchange or refund, no matter how vigorously you insist that you did no damage while installing the tire, or that the damage to the tire was due to the faulty construction of the tire, or that the person who made the tire was drunk, or a child molester. Believe me, I've heard it all! People with no or little experience with high quality racing tubulars frequently buy and damage them, blaming not their own inexperience, but the quality of the tire. While I've done it myself, and I understand the frustration of having a tire be damaged before it's even been ridden, I will not accept responsibilty for damage done to tires during installation, unless I'm the one installing the tire. And these days I only install my own.

For example, if the tire is stretched too tightly onto a glued rim the base tape can tear, resulting in a narrow section in the tire casing above the torn base tape. I've had people buy tubular tires, tear the base tape during installation, and then blame me or the quality of the tire for the problem, and then insist that I refund their money. I never take back tubular tires once they have had glue placed on the base tape. You must determine to your satisfaction, before applying glue to the tire, whether or not the tire is defective. That can only be done with the tire inflated on a clean rim. Once glue is applied to the base tape, the tire is yours until the end of time, or the year 3278, whichever comes first. Light weight tubular tires have a wonderful ride, but are very easy to damage during installation. It's a fact of life, and there's no way around it.

I do not sell cheap tires. For example, the Andre Dugast tubulars I sell are the most popular tubular tires used by professional bike racers in Europe. These are very expensive, and very well made tires. They are also very lightweight. The casings are designed to be very fast rolling and reliable. But you can apply far greater stress to the tire casing when stretching the tire onto a glued rim than the tire will ever receive when ridden. So you must be very careful when installing these tires, lest you damage them.

I've been using and selling tubular tires since 1974. I've damaged several over the years while installing them. These things happen. It's not the fault of the tire, it's the fault of the installer. If you are not willing to accept the fact that it is possible to damage a tubular tire while mounting it onto a rim, please do not buy them. I have no desire to argue with people who have damaged a tire, possibly without any realization that they have done so, but who insist that they couldn't have damaged it, and that the damage now done to the tire was the result of manufacturing error. That's just not a conversation I want to have. So if you don't believe me, if you think that anybody should be able to just smear some glue on a rim and on a tire and put the tire on without any concern for proper technique and the tire should just work perfectly regardless, I'd suggest you not use tubulars, but instead use clincher tires. Clinchers are easy to install without causing damage.

If you're willing to learn to mount tires properly, and willing to accept the possibility of failure, and accept responsibility for the results, I'm sure you can find articles on the web describing proper mounting technique, and I'm happy to give my best advice on proper technique to all of my customers.