Wanna Learn How to Glue Tubulars? I'll Teach You.

Here's the rub (see justification below): I am good at gluing tubular tires. I have glued many tires and I have never even come close to rolling one.

I am also a teacher by profession. For $100, I'll take your clean, new tires and clean, glue-free rims and prep them over two days and then teach you how to finish the job on the third day/night. The gluing lesson will take between 1 hour and 1.5 hours. You will leave with two securely and evenly glued tires and the knowledge that you need to do the job yourself in the future.

I will structure the lesson exactly how I would structure one of my classes at school: you will inspect examples of past work, hear about tubular gluing theory and practice and then see what you have learned applied directly to your tires. If you feel comfortable, you can glue your second tire with guidance after watching me glue your first.

I will provide all supplies, including Vittoria Mastik One tubular cement, acid brushes, painter's tape to protect the braking surface, plumber's tape for insuring that the valve extender/valve interface is airtight and any and all rags and solvents for clean up (including industrial strength citrus hand scrub).

All you need to provide is your wheels, free of all glue and glue residue (I'll wipe the rims with acetone before beginning my prep, but I will not remove glue) and a new set of tubular tires that have been properly stored and are stretching on your rims (these should be inflated to the highest manufacturer recommended pressure).

If you are interested in taking me up on this offer so that you can break free of paying others to do the job for you...hit me up. rmckittr at gmail dot com. If you just want your tubulars glued without a lesson, I could do two tires for $80.

Why I Decided to Offer This Service

I had to remove a tubular tire from a rim today. It took me over 1/2 an hour. I got blisters on my thumbs from pushing and pulling on the damn tire. Seriously, the tire was really stuck on there. Eventually, I was able to get a tire lever under the base tape. Still, I fought hard for every inch of tire that I removed.

During this excruciating and frustrating process, I realized something: I am really good at gluing tubular tires.

Over time, my method has evolved and improved. My ability to get the tire onto the rim "clean" has improved with every tire that I glue. The last set of tires that I glued is perfect. The glue is beaded up at the edges of the tire/rim interface, but not sloppy. You can pull on the tire with all of your strength at any point and the tire remains firmly in place, no peeling at all. The tire is seated perfectly and evenly.

I have also laid in a stash of the best tubular gluing supplies: cans of Vittoria Mastik One (google it, it is the best glue out there), acid brushes, strong solvents, plumbers tape, painter's tape (for protecting the brake surface from glue in the final mounting), a truing stand and blue nitrile gloves (though I now prefer to glue without wearing these).

Earlier in the road season, you may remember hearing about Gorgeous Gary Bavolar's terrible experiences with Wheelworks when he had them glue up his road tubulars (1, 2, 3, 4). I don't want anyone to be forced to ride on dubious tubulars. I glued Gary's first set of tubulars and that is why his standards were so high.

I never really understood bringing your tubulars to someone else to glue. You really, really need to trust the person gluing your tubs. Honestly, I just don't trust anyone more than I trust myself, therefore, I glue my own tires. If you feel the same way, then you should take me up on my offer before I get too busy and revoke it.

Cyclocross Wheel/Tire Selections for 2009.

I don't like to make excuses for poor performance. For instance there were a few mountain bike races that I didn't place well in. When asked about the race afterwards, I stated that I was happy with my performance despite my results. What I meant was that my equipment performed well, I evenly dosed my power output over the whole race and my bike handling was good. Results mean nothing if you rode the best race that you could and your equipment worked properly for the entire race, even when pushed.

At Blunt Park, I was forced to race on clinchers after discovering a flat in my only set of glued tubulars on the night before the race. Despite this curveball, my bike and my legs performed well and I handled my bike well. 4th place was nothing next to the feeling that I had put in good work to get the result. Palmer on the other hand saw my bike fail multiple times, which seriously irked me.

Last cyclocross season, I had two sets of tubulars, but lacked a real tire selection. After some races I felt like I would have performed better had I the luxury of different tires to select from.

I took this lesson to heart. I read articles. I did my due diligence and decided that I needed 4 wheelsets for cyclocross. One set of clinchers for training and 3 sets of tubulars for racing. I decided that my quiver should include a super supple 34 mm file tread, a robust, aggressive and durable 30 or 32 mm mud tire and an all-arounder, 32 or 34mm. I was not overly concerned with the quality level of the wheels, I was more focused on the tires.

I had two sets of tubulars already on hand, Reflex rims laced to 2006 Campagnolo Centaur hubs and a set of Easton EC90 Aero carbon tubs. I considered buying a set of Easton EA70 x tubs to round out the collection, but eventually settled on a set of 2006 Campagnolo Record hubs laced to vintage Campagnolo Omega semi-aero ceramic rims, which I procured on eBay. The new wheels are very pretty; you can fix your hair in your reflection off the hubs.

My next concern was matching the tires with the correct wheels. Conventional wisdom says that I should put the mud tires on the aero carbons in order to take advantage of their mud shedding abilities. Another school of thought said that I should put the all arounders on the lightweight aero rims, since I would use these wheels the most. In this case, I would get the competitive advantage of the carbon wheels in more races.

I decided on the following pairings:

1. Carbons with file tread
2. Mud tires on Centaurs
3. All arounders on Records

My logic is as follows: I put the file tread on the most expensive and most fragile wheels since I figure that these wheels will only be used on fast dry courses. I don't want to deliberately destroy my fancy wheels. The mud tires will see the most abuse so they are mounted on the most abused wheelset. The Centaur hubs are still smooth, but the rims are thrashed, so they are the perfect wheelset to misuse. The all arounders will see varied use. I am sure that they will get taken through the mud sometimes, but Record hubs are quite resistant to slop and are resilient. Also the ceramic rims offer great, predictable stopping in variable to sloppy conditions.

Oh, I have to go now. I have tires to glue...

Once they are all glued up, I will post pictures of the wheel/tubular tire quiver.

Rolled Tubular at World Track Championships--Who's the Hack?

As an amendment to this post, Dave was kind enough post a link to video of the crash. As you can see, the tire popped off when Kevin Sireau lost control of his bicycle. I still maintain that the glue job was garbage, watch how easily the tire broke free:




I guess that I have to ask: would Sireau have been able to recover and avoid the crash if his tire hadn't rolled, or was he a goner by the time the tire came off?







Sometimes tubular tires roll. A weak joint is able to work itself loose and then the rider hits a hard bump while the weak spot is gripping the pavement, usually while cornering. The result is that the tire breaks free. When the glue job is good, most of the tire will remain adhered to the rim, though the rider still crashs. Even in cyclocross, where lower tire pressures make the glue job that much more important most of the basetape remains attached.



These photos are remarkable for a number of reasons. Firstly, notice that the tire is completely off of the rim, even before the rider hit the deck, as if it was not glued at all. Secondly, notice that the other rider remains upright even after being bumped pretty hard at the end of a sprint. Thirdly, in the last photo, notice that there is no evidence of glue on any part of the offending rim.


My question is: who the hell glued these and shouldn't they be sanctioned for negligence? If a cat 4 rolls a tubular in a criterium USACycling has the right to fine and/or suspend the rider.

While these photos have gotten wide circulation, there has been no comment on how tubular failure appears to have caused this crash.

Review: Challenge Grifo Tubular Tires 32c

I bought these tires from the Echappe Equipment people at Gloucester after I flatted one of my Tufo's in the last lap of the Sunday race. Turns out that the Tufo took tire sealant moderately well and after a full bottle of Tufo sealant (twice the recommended amount) the tire is still rolling 2 months later.
I stretched the Grifos for one week each, re inflating them to 60 psi every 48 hours, since the Grifos loose air quickly due to their latex tubes. Both tires were keep in clean, dry conditions throughout my pre-mounting ownership. They appeared to be clean and free of dirt when I purchased them.
I dry mounted the tires twice on their intended homes, Edge Composites 2-68 rims (review to follow) so that I would be able to foresee difficulty and minimize mess when I was mounting them with glue on them. They were a tight fit. But the tires were supple enough that they were able to rolled over so that you could "flip" the base tape into place on the final section.
On initial application, the basetape absorbed lots of glue. The exposed cloth basetape has no coating on it, which eliminates an annoying and time consuming step in tubular mounting, scraping the protective coating off. But this lack of coating means that the tires must be stored and transported in dry, clean conditions before mounting. the tires do not arrive wrapped in any covering at all, which maximizes opportunities for contamination before the tires are mounted.
I found it necessary to apply a second layer of glue to the basetape, which I normally do not have to do, but thought prudent considering the low intended tire pressure and the forces involved in cyclocross.
Mounting the tires was certainly not easy, but if one used a hand over hand method of pulling away from the stem on one side then the other, the final section had enough slack to allow the mounter to use the afore mentioned roll and flip method of finishing the mount. The tire sat fairly well even before adjustment. The tight fit makes me feel that the chances of rolling a tubular while cornering is low.
Since the tire is supple, it was easy to adjust the lateral alignment of the tire. Furthermore, the basetape is symmetrical, so that one can sight line the tire; there should be an even amount of basetape showing on either side of the tire.
After adjustment, rolling around with low pressure and a rider on a bike and then inflating to high pressure, the tire was very evenly round.
The ride quality of the tire is hard to get used to for someone coming from a road background. I have ridden tubulars in cross before, but the Challenge is a different experience. At low pressure (under 30psi) the tire feels unstable, squishy. It moves laterally when out of the saddle on a straightaway. On my first ride, I had to stop and check my quick releases three times, as I thought that my wheels were loose. At this low pressure the tire deformation in a corner was disconcerting. The tread would roll up onto the braking surface. I did not loose grip in the corner, but this was a true test of my gluing job. No failures.
I found that I am more comfortable running these tires at a higher pressure than I normally run my cross tubulars. Normally I run about 32psi in back, 28-29 up front. With the Challenge Grifo's I found that my 175 pounds feels perfect with 38 psi in back, 34 up front. Obviously these numbers are tweaked to reflect course conditions. At the aforementioned pressure, I bottom out the tire infrequently, which is desirable when you are riding wildly expensive carbon tubulars.
The tread pattern is a good balance between high grip and low rolling resistance. I have the chevrons pattern on the tire pointing forward on both the front and the rear. Reportedly, you can run the chevrons pointing backwards in the rear if you want more traction, but in doing so you will increase rolling resistance. The open tread pattern sheds mud well, while the sidewalls tend to collect a thin layer of grime in their fabric. The only tire that I have ridden with better grip is the Michelin Mud 2.

There are problems with these tires:

First, the thread began separating from the casing almost immediately after being ridden for the first time. This ride was in dry conditions, on a buffed out course, with high tire pressure (50 psi). A friend of mine has multiple sets of Challenge Grifo's and Fango's where the tread was seperating from the casing when he removed them from the box that they were shipped in. Clearly this is a manufacturing defect that Challenge should be ashamed of. I was able to address the problem with a tube of vulcanizing glue and some patience. I felt that my fix was less trouble than trying to warranty a tire that had already been mounted. After I ruined one of these tires in a race, I was easily able to remove the tread from the base tape with my bare hands. As I have stated, the problem can be fixed, but should you really have to fix a $100 MSRP tire before riding it?

Second, the supple casing is thin and vulnerable to puncture. In my second race with these tires, I sliced the sidewall of my rear tire in a corner. The tire was unable to be repaired. I am convinced that if I had been riding my Tufo Elite30's I would have ridden away without a puncture. Obviously, suppleness is a function of this sidewall thinness; its a tradeoff. Some vendors recommend using Aquaseal sidewall sealant to make the sidewall more robust. I find this option unpalatable for a number of reasons:

1. Should I really be required to fix a $100 tire before riding it?
2. If Challenge wants the sealant on there, can't they just do it in the factory and save me the trouble?
3. Aquaseal adds significant weight. I just spent $1000's to shave precious few grams off of my rotating rims, why am I going those grams back in the form of latex?
4. The Aquaseal often peels and looks horrible. Peeling latex on your sidewalls is the opposite of PRO
5. Since you can't really create a true seal with this stuff (are you really going to paint it up onto you rims to seal it for real?), this Aquaseal works to seal in the water instead of sealing it out. Go take a look at a set of Dugasts that have been sealed, don't they look rotten near the rim where the water has gotten in and caused the cotton sidewall to decompose?

Third, latex tubes don't take standard tubular tire sealant well. Obvious, they are lighter and they may offer lower rolling resistance, so this is a tradeoff. If you flat them, you are probably out of luck. Some reviewers have suggested trying Stan's Sealant on these tubes or even Vittoria's PitStop, I can not comment on the effectiveness of either remedy.

The short story is: If Challenge could deal with the issue of the tread separation, they would have a world class set of tires. The tires offer great ride quality, good deformation and grip in corners, low rolling resistance and good mud shedding, but the quality issue would prevent me from choosing Challenge tires in the future.