beginner's tubular tires
 

Hi I'm looking into switching over to tubulars. what is your recommendation? I won't be racing so, i don't really need the fanciest tires such as dugast. Thanks in advance.

If you aren't racing, then Vittoria Pista's are probably overkill, I'd look at the Vittoria Chrono's.

I train on Continental Giros and Sprinters, on an outdoor concrete track. Have Vittoria Pistas for indoor wood. They're durable but ride pretty harsh and there are more comfy tubs out there, but I'm cheap and want to keep Tubs on my race wheels as well as my training wheels so I change as little as possible between the 2.

You should ask some locals what works well at your track.

The continental Sprinter tire is a good utility tire that works well as a training tire on the track and road. It's very thick which makes it somewhat heavy. But, that's to help prevent punctures. Plus it will last longer than thinner race tires.

But, advice from knowledgeable regulars at your track trumps what we say :)

:lol:

When it comes to tires, yes!

The surfaces at the various tracks in the US are all very different either in texture, slope, stickiness, and/or level of debris. A supple tire that would last all season at one track might be punctured within a week at another. A hard tire that would be perfect for one track might be too hard and have you sliding down another.

I've seen it happen.

At one track I asked the locals, "What race tire would you guys recommend here?" expecting them to say, Evo Pista or Sonderklasse. Their response, all three of them, "Conti Sprinters." "Sprinters." "Yeah, I run Sprinters on my race wheels. Evo CS would flat the moment you set foot on that track."

The Vittoria EVO Pistas are definitely not what you want if you're just riding for fun and not racing, and if you race them on a concrete track they won't last that long. I used them for a while in SoCal (Home Depot Center/Encino/occasionally San Diego) and would go through 3 sets/season. The vanilla (non-EVO) Vittoria Pistas are like truck tires and I didn't like them at all-- Conti Stehers are about the same price and about as heavy duty, and are a much nicer and more durable tire. They'd probably work fine on any track. Tufo S3 Pro (be careful which S3 you get-- there are about a thousand different flavors of S3) falls somewhere in between and probably ok for most tracks.

OP has a Bellevue location, from which I presume the track will be Marymoor. I had good luck BITD with Vittoria Cronos at Marymoor. I second that recommendation.