Originally Posted by
Flatballer
There is still the very real gap of weight. Tubular rims can be made MUCH lighter than clincher rims.
Once I get more money I'll be buying a set of tubulars for racing, and sticking with my clinchers for training. I think it makes the most sense to race on tubulars and train on clinchers. But that's just me.
Ignoring carbon, I don't think that's true. There was a lengthy thread on the BOB list quite a while back, that concluded that the minimum weights available in each format were about equal. For extruded rims, the variation caused by die wear (around 25 g) can swamp out the differences. I think you can make a superlight aluminum clincher set up that is lighter than most tubular setups, and you can make a superlight tubular setup that is lighter than most clincher setups. But carbon changes the game significantly.
Used to be you could get tubular rims in weights from around 220 g through nearly 500 g. Now I think it's hard to find anything aluminum lighter than around 400 (Mavic Reflex and Velocity).