Originally Posted by
carleton
Is that the same as nylon? I used some nylon tubed tubulars made by Vittoria. They were lighter, but the air escaped very quickly. I'd have to re-pump the tires up in the middle of a training session.
I'm pretty sure you mean latex, i don't know of anyone putting a nylon tube in a tubular. Not the same thing, butyl is what "normal" tubes are made out of. Latex is the more expensive lightweight stuff.
I'm not worried about the weight difference on the track, but at road pressures on a rough (relative to many velodromes at least) surface you can be giving up significant wattage to latex tubes using butyl tubes. I'd imagine that difference is a lot smaller on a track, because it's smoother (well, at least some), and because you pump the pressure up so high the tire isn't deforming nearly as much. I'd like to have some ballpark on where it falls between 0w and the 12w or so that's probably a reasonable approximation of the difference on chip seal roads.