Enough late night typing for me!

I think we really can't know if the carcass stresses are identical or not, because we can't really see the cross-sectional shape. The carcass is self-supported while inflated off the bike, so it pretty much must be circular since the only forces are internal pressure which is uniform in all directions, and carcass tension, which is again uniform due to continuity. We can't see how the shape might change after tire mounting. There is certainly stretch required to get the tire on teh rim, but we don't know if there is stretch remaining after the tire is aligned and pressurized, 'cuz we can't see it. But I agree that the rim/cement combination is adding a force to the tire, otherwise the glue wouldn't hold the tire.

Personally I don't think we can know the answer to this question - happens a lot in engineering! Now with a shape-measuring machine ... but I don't have the spare $50k lying around!

If you have to be conservative about your tires, maybe it's best not to apply full stress to an unsupported tire, but if I was the manager of a tubular design team, I'd at least investigate providing full reliability in the full-inflation unsupported case as in the full-inflation mounted case.

Road Fan

Road Fan