Any 33ers racing with Tufo tape?
 

*EDIT* -or any other tubular tape?

Ive done searches...didnt find what I was looking for.

I like riding my tubulars. All the time. And I dont necessarily have any problem with gluing. But for obvious reasons Im sceptical, yet curious about the tape method.
Having said that, there are a lot of guys in the 33 with tons of experience, and whose experiences and/or advice I would take seriously.

Anyone?

I used to use Tufo extreme until I saw it rip carbon of 2 sets or Baras when switching tires.

I also didn't like how, once the tub touched the tape it was no longer adjustable. This alway lead to a slight funky wobble here and there in my tires.

Now I use Jantex tape. it won't trash my carbon rims and it still allows me to adjust my tire alignment one last time before I inflate to pressure and seal the deal.

My team has raced on Jantex for a season and a half without issue.

interesting...I guess I should have asked about tape in general. Im really only familiar with the tufo stuff.
Ruining rims is no bueno. So I assume there are other tapes, like the Jantex, that can be used with multiple tire/wheel combinations...

Yes, there are other options.

All the trackies I knew always used tape.

Glue can leave pockets of air and never really dries under the tire. if it does dry out it loses it's adhesion.

Tape allows you to install and ride. The contact area is more consistant as well.

i'll never use glue again.

The Cat 4 that rolled his tire and caused a huge crash at the New Britain Crit had tape. I checked his bike discretely, took pics. The rim was nice and slick, tire was half peeled off. It was the 3rd rolled tire I know of in 2 weeks in this area. The 1st one also had tape, wasn't at Attleboro for the rolled tire there.

Whatever it is you do, tape or glue, verify that with no air in the tire that you can't remove the tire by hand. If you can then it'll fail.

#t=47m40
Time specific link appears to be not working. Go to 47:40.

^^^All I can say is user error.

My entire team has been racing on tape for 4more than 4 years without a single incident. That incuded screamimng mountain descents under very hot and humid conditions.

First turn, Naugatuck 3-4 race. Someone rolled their tire, front tire. No one else crashed. Didn't bother going over to see if it was tape or not. Will ask the bar-cam guy if he got that too.

Tufo tape is only recommended on tires without a coated base layer. I raced on it for several years...a lot of cyclocross guys use it.

You lose a bit of rolling efficiency but it's good stuff if done right.

I have some experience with Tufo tubulars, tape and slime. I used them on my first set of TT race wheels. This was primarily from a recommendation of a mechanic with a lot of international race experience. The tires look very nice and install easily with the Tufo tape. The racing theory behind the slime is one has to finish a race to score anything other than a DNP. The slime seemed to work for other local racers.

RacerEx touched on the first issue with tape. It may increase rolling resistance. In fact, Tufo tires (with or without tape) have some of the highest rolling resistance of all tubulars. It can be somewhat reduced by pumping them up to high pressure but then IMO, the ride and handling are not great.

I used those for a year and decided to replace the Tufos with Vittorias and glue them. The tire was difficult to remove so it appeared that the tape with a Tufo tire was very secure. Once the tire was removed, there was a layer of tape on the carbon rim. I wanted to remove the tape so that I could put a layer of glue directly on the carbon rim. This proved to be extremely difficult to remove and I tried various liquid removers (safe for carbon rims) and scraping. It was a very slow process.

That concluded the use of Tufo tires, slime and tape.

Since I race road and track, trackies (the gang that I hang out with) do not use tape on tubulars for the track. I think a lot of this is tradition and properly glued tires have proven efficacy at the track.

Since tape may increase rolling resistance, it seems like a no brainer to use glue at the track since tape does not have proven reliability.

And at the track, racers take turns at high speeds with the bike perpendicular to the surface such that the 2 "Gs" that are experienced in a flying 200 meters on a 250 meter track pushes the tire directly onto the rim.

Contrast the track to a road criterium that has an off camber turn. The tire will see more force laterally as the racer applies downward force to hold the turn.

My takeaway from using tape and glue is that I will not use tape again. Glue has the efficacy for both road and track racing and seems to offer the best performance.