Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Here's a recent video from the Peak Torque YouTube channel, posted a few days ago. The guy who makes the videos for that channel is a bike racer and engineer.
For the video, he calculated the complexity of design requirements and the costs involved in producing a hooked rim versus hookless and the benefits of each design. (Apparently, the main benefit for hookless is the substantial reduction in the cost of the molds.)
https://youtu.be/bAgxTdNIOhA?si=xlPmzj1Sphv_tsmY
Fascinating. And, though he never mentions it, a really elegant argument for tubulars. Go to 18:00 on the video and look at his advantages for each, hooked and hookless. Tubulars have all of them. Any pressure that tire can handle. Rim simply isn't a factor. Road damage - as long as the rim is still a hoop, tire stays on. Yes, it does require a good glue or tape job, but we are talking a technology worked out completely 125 years ago. There is no flange that needs to stay more or less intact. No flange - easier and cheaper to make. Lighter. Much simpler from the molding, layup and QC angle. Virtually any tire can be run on any rim.
And yes, I know, such an observation is completely unacceptable here.