Originally Posted by
big john
Clinchers are the tires most of us use, the tires have the tube that comes out. Tubulars have the tube sewn into the tire and have to be glued to the wheel. They are not interchangeable.
Tubulars are a pain if you get a flat, you have to carry a spare tire and peel the flat one off.
Or carry sealant and CO2. I haven't yet had the 'opportunity' to see how well this works. My one tubular flat so far was a "garage flat", the day after a long ride out into the boonies. I somehow got some good karma.
Some of the lightest wheels on the market, and most expensive, are carbon tubulars.
The lightest are carbon tubulars. The most expensive are carbon clinchers. I now have a set of each, as I replaced the stock wheels (that gave out) with a set of carbon clinchers I got used from someone advertising on a forum: Bont Race XXX lites. The ones I got (a friend saw them advertised on the roadbikereview forum) have only a few hundred miles, ridden by a 135# rider, and I got them for less than half retail - roughly what one would pay for new carbon clinchers from the smaller manufacturers.
I went with carbon clinchers when I had to replace the stock wheels because (a) I wanted light weight, (b) I wanted clinchers for training because you get flats a lot where I ride, and (c) I didn't want to swap brake pads when I swapped wheels. With both sets being carbon, I can use the same pads, though I'll likely have to adjust them each time, which is also a pain, just not quite as big a pain.