Originally Posted by thebulls
It's really worth going and looking at posts on tubulars on the Randon group that bmike pointed out. I never would have thought of tubulars as being practical for a brevet, but after reading those posts, I was somewhat convinced. Sounds like you can buy decent-enough tubulars for $20 or so. Carry a couple of spares. They're less likely to flat than clinchers.
If I wanted to change out a flat fast with clinchers, I'd put some baby powder on the inner tube, put it into the clincher ready to be mounted, and then if I get a flat I'd yank the old one off, throw the new one on, and be ready to go in just a few minutes.
Tubulars less likely to flat though is a myth and has never been proven one way or the other! My own personal experience proved to me that tubs flatted more often the clinchers but back in my day they were silk or cotton casing which were extremily flimsy; new casings are more durable then what mine were back in the 70s and 80s, but so are clincher casings! With clinchers you have a larger choice of tires from ultralight racing tires to heavier puncture resistent tires and everything in-between. Also if your away from home and have no spare tubs left you could be hard press finding one in some small town...though someone could have one Fed-Ex'd to your location.
I can repair a flatted clincher tube in about 5 minutes (depending on my mood at the time) IF I can find the hole fast which usually I can. I simply remove about 1/2 of one side of the tire and pull about a 1/4th of the tube out with the hole being in the center of the section. Buff the area and apply a glueless patch, then restuff and reseat the tire. It's just as fast for me to repair a tube as it is to replace it, plus this method allows me to always have a new tube if the other one is unrepairable.