Nims

At least in a bill and ted sense of the word.

Anyway, I got a great deal on a set of Volos track wheels and thought I might as well commute on them occasionally as well. I mounted a set of the Tufo S3 Pro's, and off I went.

So in the first week of riding them, I've had a few daunting experiences. My goal here is to not discuss (preferably at all) the clincher vs. tubular battle, but just to ask a few tubular questions.

1) My rear is flat after about 15 miles of commuting on (relatively) clean san diego roads. Is this something I'm going to continue to experience on a weekly basis or do I have really bad luck?

2) I didn't use any kind of sealant like the Tufo sealant. Do people riding tubulars on the street use something like this preventatively and/or as a flat fix?

3) If I can't fix the very small puncture with the sealant, what is the recommended method of repair?

4) I just noticed when inspecting after the flat, what appears to be a small piece of tube(?) material coming from between the rim/tire (I'm now talking about the front wheel/tire, not the rear which has the puncture). It isn't a bubble in the sense that it isn't holding any air pressure, rather it's a small flap of rubber. The tire is currently holding ~200psi without issue or leak. Should I ignore it? Other suggestions?

thanks guys!
-James

piwonka

you should expect to get more than 15miles out of a tire...must be bad luck.

i don't know what that little flap is.

i don't ride tufo's and i don't use sealant in any of the tires i ride...if the tufo sealant doesn't work then i think your tire is trash because it's a tufo and you can't repair them...

i ride 120-140psi even though most of my tires are rated to 170psi.

bonechilling

I don't commute on tubulars, but I use the Tufo sealant because my track has Goatheads, and it works pretty great. I pull them out all the time and never lose any pressure.

dutret

1) if you run s3 pros you will likely have lots of flats they are a pretty lightweight tire.
2) some do some wait till a flat to put it in as it can gunk up the valve. Others just carry a spare and there there are the idiots who will ride all day on a flat.
3)if you can't fix a tufo with sealant it's garbage. They don't have tubes and can't be patched
4)It looks like it's below the base tape.... Did you install the wheels? Are they glued or taped?

DDYTDY

Continental sprinters may be a better choice for road riding. I never ran Tufos so I can't comment on them.

I've had good luck with the sprinters though.

sykerocker 

I've been riding Vittoria Rallye's for the past couple of years, ride about 3500-4000 miles a year, and get one puncture per.

Check your tyre pressures daily - tubulars are incredibly critical about tyre pressure. I normally run 90-100 psi, and they work. Better than clinchers (although a couple of my bikes are equipped with them).

Nims

4) I did install the tires. This was my first experience in any way with tubulars, but I think I did a decent job. The rims were about 100 miles old and I did remove the stock tires (ebay, off of someone's pista concept that they skidded through the rear in a week (******))

I didn't scrape the rims clean, I just left the remaining glue and did a coat on the tire, coat on the rim, then the next day a light coat on the rim and installed. Everything seemed to go fine, and I'm pretty sure if it was something stuck to the rim before I added the new tires I would've noticed. At first glance it looks like a piece of pinched tube or something, but as far as I remember there was no tube-like material exposed at all on these tires.

When I pull on it, it stretches as if it's a piece of tube, extremely thin and flexible. I'm 1/2 tempted to just rip it off and see what happens, but so far I'm ignoring it until I get sealant for the rear and/or hear other suggestions.

Care to elaborate on this? I've heard quite the opposite, since there's no risk of pinch flats that a high range of pressures are accommodated by tubulars. I haven't ridden them long enough to experiment.

What would people recommend for commuting pressures and track pressures?

Thanks!
-James

goldenskeletons

first off, i really like this thread. i'm over here learnin' stuff.

second off, i bought tubulars that can handle 160. i thought that would be pretty great for track riding. then i took 'em out to kissena and realized that all the bumps and cracks are really pretty jarring at max pressure. i dropped down to 130 - 140 and started performing better. i mean, i changed a lot of things to start performing better, but when you're not constantly worrying about bumps you can concentrate better.

so my two cents says lower pressure for street riding. granted, i haven't done a whole lot of street riding on my tubulars. probably less than 50 miles.

DDYTDY

I run my Sprinters @ 110 psi. It feels a lot better then 150psi+

livesoundz

you might want to reconsider a new tire. if you want to stick with tufos, the s22 is a tire with a thick tread, perfect for commuting. the s3 pro is actually a thin, light, low profile tire typically used on TT bikes. i had s3's on a pair of deep carbon wheels before, and they didn't last very long; i already have a bald spot on my rear tire after a quick emergency brake during a road race.

as for the rubber protruding out the side of your wheel, since you said it's thin and rubbery, it's probably the tube inside the tire. maybe you got unlucky and picked up a defective tire. i'd pull the tire off and visually check it, or have a friend fill it with air and inspect the rubber that's sticking out for leaks. my guess is that the sewing job was done kinda half assed in that spot and the pressure caused the tube to blowout.

dutret

track pressure depends on your track.

For san diego 125-140

commuting 100-110

Landgolier

This statement restored my faith in the existence of absolute dumbasses with more money than brains.

Boss Moniker

I don't have much experience with tubulars, but I wouldn't ride any tire that's meant for racing (track or otherwise) if I'm not racing, and especially if I'm commuting.

Tufo tires are generally nice, and supposedly the sealant works perfectly, so I'd pick up some S-22s or S-33s from here: https://www.worldclasscycles.com/tubu..._only_cart.htm for cheap. Free shipping, I think.

onetwentyeight 

i commuted on tubies for about 6 months out of this year, and still do about 50% of the time. I use gatorskin sprinters, as the duraskin puncture protection really helps alot. I've killed sever sprinters and hate them for street use.

i also hate the sealant, it may give you some peice of mind but it also adds a lot of rotational mass, kind of negating the nice part of riding sew ups.

to repair a tire, peel back the base tape, undo the stitches, patch the innertube, sew it up, and glue back on. vittoria makes a nice little kit that I use.

i always ride with an extra pre stretched and glued tire just in case.

tufos are my least favorite tubular tire, as they stretch the least and are harder to install than vittorias or continentals.

BoSoxYacht

BTW www.yellowjersey.org has a good deal(3 for $50) on their house brand tubular. Someone here recommended them to me, and I've been very happy with so far(about 800miles).

I wouldn't recommend Vittoria Rallys though. 1 lasted about 150 miles before getting a cut that exposed the tube + the other seemed fine(other than the lump at the valve) until it burst, just sitting on the deck of my boat. I was about 3 feet away from it, lighting my gas grill, when it blew. It scared the crap out of me.

acoldspoon

As previous posters have stated, commuting on racing sew-ups is less than ideal. I use Conti Gators pumped to between 80psi and 120 psi and love them.

vobopl

all my bikes are running tubular, mostly tufo tires.
S3 Pro is not ment for commuting, use heavier ones with puncture proof ply and thicker threading - my S22 on my first tubular set is still going strong except for wear. I have S3Pro on the front on my brakeless track bike - it got punctured when I lent it to my friend for a week.
I have repaired it with less than 3ml of the sealant with the following procedure:
1) Find the leak and mark the spot.
2) Remove the core of the valve, apply a little of selant through the valve - I have used syringe.
3) rotate the wheel so the puncture is down and let the sealant do its work, you might want to lay the wheel flat to distribute the sealant if you suspect the puncture is on the wall of the tire.
4) pump the wheel

frymaster

i know it's a pain in the tuckus, but i would suggest stripping the old glue before putting on the new. i always take off the glue if someone else put the tire on. if i'm going to kill myself rolling a tire, it's going to be 100% my own fault, right?

as for the pinched material... i'd yank that tire now. better to deal with a defect on your own terms than blowing a flat ten km from home at midnight, right?

dzinehaus

at worst, rip the tires off, cut them open, replace the tubes, sew the tires back up, put your tire tape back on, glue tire, glue rim assemble and voila! tubulars should last you a long time... I've always thought about tubulars as the cotton diaper of tires. With that said, anyone who has been riding tubulars for a long time will tell you "if installed right they will last a long time."

dutret

try reading before posting.

I vote for ripping it off. It's definitely not innertube. Even if your tires had tubes there is no way one could work itself out of the casing like that without blowing out first. And if one did alreadly look like a flap then it would already be blown out. My guess was that it was something either left from a previous installation or some debris that stuck to the glue.

If you want these to be race wheels try sealing or get some a new s3s. If you want them to be around town wheels get some s22s or gatorskin sprinters. Really though since it sounds like you own another wheelset I don't see any reason to not keep these as track only wheels and use clinchers with affordable flat resistant tires when you're not at the track.

filtersweep

I am commuting on those yellow jersey tubies with Tufo sealant, and can attest to them. I sometimes ride a bit of gravel with them.

p3ntuprage

i ride tufos on the road [s22s and jet pros.]

the s22 is tough as fu<k. i don't know how many miles i've put on them but after almost two summers they still look like new.
they're a bit slidey in the wet though

the jet pro is more grippy and stable at the expense of life. once again, still pretty tough.
the best bit is that my bike feels like a tie fighter on them. [trust me on that one].

avoid vittoria rallyes like the plague [lumpy, unstable in the dry and *really* slidey in the wet].

contrary to popular belief, tufo sealant doesn't clog up valves as long as you remember to pump up your tyres with the valves at the top [away from the sealant which rests at the bottom of the the tyre when stationary].

otherwise as soon as you open the valve the sealant is forced out and over the carpet. and it's a cock to get out. errr... i'd imagine.

fsnl
sparky

12XU

Wait...did you say TWO HUNDRED PSI??!

Nims

Max pressure on S3 pros is 220psi!

12XU

Imagine riding on rock solid tires...now feel your tubulars pumped up near max pressure. Vredesteins are rated to 150 but only misguided cyclists believe that it does any good to even approach that. 100-120 (depending on your weight) is all I would pump tires to on the road and only slightly higher than that for the track. Anything higher is going to make your bike feel like ass.