kayakdiver

Ridden down Hurricane Ridge many times with my Reynolds Attack carbon clinchers... never a problem. I'm 160 for what it's worth though.

Seattle Forrest

Slightly off topic question, but maybe you know the answer, KayakDiver. I've heard they're going to keep Hurricane Ridge Road paved seven days a week this year. Is it rideable in the winter, or is that just for cars?

wrr1020

I've been running carbon clinchers for months now and haven't had any overheating. Then again i don't have several thousand foot descents to go down so i haven't extensively tested how durable the brake surface and the pads are. I'm 5'11, 150 pounds so i'm not the biggest guy weight wise.

calamarichris

There's simply no way to have a problem, IMO. There is simply too much surface area hanging in the wind, cooling back down. Even if you tried to synthesize a problem by overbraking on a miserably hot day, I doubt you could cause clincher tires to explode. And if you didn't glue your sewups on properly, you probably would have had a problem before you ever went on this dreaded theoretical descent.
Every empirical example of exploding clinchers I've heard so far could easily be explained away by the other conditions, (such as debris on the road) with a little bravado on the part of the teller.
I've heated clincher rims up enough to make the TSSSS sound when I squirted a little bottle water on them, but with all that exposed surface area bleeding off the heat, and the slow rotation of the braking surface area (compared especially with motorcycle disc brakes), there's no way you could heat it up enough to explode a clincher tire.
I've heated motorcycle brakes up enough to feel brake fade, and I've glazed brake pads, but there's just too much surface area on bicycle rims, nipples and spokes for this to be a problem.
And I also don't think we'll be seeing hydraulic disk brakes on racing bicycles in our lifetime. The brake-to-rim design is especially efficient at dissipating heat.

Kind of Blued

I use alloy clinchers, but I've had some very noticeable fade on a 5-6 mile descent on a winding gravel road. Had some 10-12% grades, and I had to stop and let the rims cool for ~5 minutes since I didn't know the descent, and what to expect. I don't know how hot they were, but I could tell they were hot enough to burn myself on, judging by holding my hand an inch or so away from the braking surface.

I would consider carbon (clincher) wheels for flatter courses if I was racing, but light (and cheap) alloy clinchers are hard to beat in the mountains.

Hillbasher

Have been on rides twice where the friends had clincher tires blow out due to over heating. One was coming down off Baldy, rider was about 180 pounds or so. The other one was coming down a short but extremely steep hill on a very hot day, and he weighed in at about 240 to 250 at the time. The condition of his tire may have been questionable, but he didn't hit or run over anything to cause the problem.It does happen, just hope not to you.

fishymamba

Nope never had any problems with overheating my wheels(aluminum). Probably because I weight ~120 lb


But one guy in my club who had a set of tubulars did have a blow out(front) while descending behind a car. The lip of the rim was kinda distorted and the pads smelled like they were burning.