Originally Posted by
aclinjury
You perceive no difference because your boundaries of "performance" is narrow, like riding at a constast speed in a straightline.
However, when I'm talking "performance", i'm talking about many factors, like high-G cornering while trailbraking. This is where I'd use latex on the front, this gives me great road feedback into my arms and fingers that are squeezing the lever, and feedback translate to confidence at higher speed.
I personally don't use latex because of its slightly better rolling resistance compared to butyl, main reason being the higher cost of latex.
As for tubeless. I won't use the if the tire size is not at least 32c. Tubeless tires have sidewalls that are too hard (it's necessary for tubeless), and to compensate for the hard sidewall, people run at lower psi. This is fine going in a straightline. The problem is high-g corners. Lower pressure makes the tire tend to "fold" in high-g corners, this gives an ambiguos road feedbak to the fingers. A highend clincher like Veloflex or Vittoria with latex doesn't do this, you can run them at higher psi (to avoid the "folding" feeling) while still getting great road feedback due to the suppleness.
I could also make a counter argument about using tubeless (with low psi) in fast group rides. Low psi will feel like you're acclerating in mud out of corners, and fast group rides we do this a lot, repeatedly, and if you gradually lose positions at every corner, then it's only a matter of time you'll slip off the back. In this setting, I don't care about comfort or rolling resistance, I care about instant acceleration where I won't lose the wheel of the guy in front.
Not everyone is out there doing high-g corners, but than again not everyone is interested in riding in a straight line at constant speed all day either.
The debate of tubeless, regular clincher, latex, butyl,... to me is choosing difference horses for different courses. In the car world, I don't want to bring a soft and comfty truck tire to a road course with flip-flopping high-g corners.
I’ve ridden and raced on clinchers with latex and butyl tubes, tubulars, and tubeless. Having done a few hundred crits, and even won a couple, I think I have some idea about “high g” handling.
Imho, I think I can feel a difference in ride and handling between clinchers and tubulars, although I’d be afraid to put that belief to a double blind test. I’m pretty confident I can tell the difference between tubed and tubeless clinchers, almost entirely from the difference in air pressure run.
I don’t believe I can tell any difference between the ride feel or handling of latex vs butyl.