Search for a cheaper tubular

Most of the people I ride with know that I ride exclusively on tubular tires. It is something I am used to and something I am very familiar with. I have weighed the trade offs between using clinchers and tubulars and I am happy with the decisions I have made. This post is not to persuade anyone to choose one type of tire over another. I just want to find a tubular that I can train on that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

So what is really driving this is cost, then followed by reliability, and lastly build quality. I have tried quite a few tires and have found one that seems to fit the bill quite nicely, but before I tell you which one I will go through a few I have tried.

Continental Sprinters: These are good racing/training tires, and with the change in compound to the Black Chili they are more puncture resistant than ever. In the past some Sprinters had lumps in them or had a tendency not be perfectly round, but I think that Continental has really upped their game with these tires and they are very good now. The only issue I have with them is the cost. For training they are a bit cost prohibitive. These would be the lowest level Continentals I would recommend to anyone that wants to stick with a true German made, mid-level tire.

Vittoria Rally: Some say they are better now, all I can say is, ‘crap, crap and more crap.’ I have never found these tires to be without lumps after mounting. The best thing that I can say about them is that they can be cheap at times and do come in Red and Green besides black. If you must have a cheap tire and insist on Vittoria this is your only option. If you don’t mind a slightly wider tires you should look at the Pave. If you want a better tire you must look at the Corsa EVO, but then you are now looking at a race tire to train on. Not something I am willing to do in the winter time with all the crap we find on our roads.

Tufo S33: I do not know anything about the Tufo tire offerings other than what others have posted and that they are not repairable and require the use of tire sealant. more on that later. So I will not pass judgement and let someone else with firsthand experience talk about the Tufo tires.

Veloflex Carbons: One of the best tires I have ever ridden, but way too expensive to train on. Enough said.

And the winner is Yellow Jersey 3 for $50 tubulars. They are simply marked Servizio Corse on the sidewall. They come in two varieties, a tan sidewall and all black model. They are round and do not appear to have any lumps. They are fairly easy to mount. They are consistent weight wise. I purchased six of them this year and they were all with 5 grams from heaviest to lightest. They have butyl tubes so they do not lose air overnight. They are just good all around and cheap tires. There iis a slight difference between the two tire types. The all black tires have removable valve cores the tan ones do not. This is important if you are going to use some type of sealant.

A word on sealant. If you are going to run tubular tires, take a hint from the mountain bike community. Many of them are running tubeless tires. Running without a tube requires that the tire have a sealant inside. It doesn’t take much just about an ounce or so. Sealant is basically a liquid latex solution with suspended bits of rubber. What it does is coat the inside of the tire, when you get a small puncture, as some of the air escapes the hole seals itself with the small rubber bits and the liquid latex dries to completely fix the puncture. It does all of it’s magic while you continue to ride. Tufo and Stan’s both make sealant. I prefer the Stan’s since I can buy it in quart sizes, saving a bit of money in the process. With sealant in my tubular tires I have been able to ride all but one tire until the cords where showing in the tire carcass.

I do not recommend using sealant in tubes as they are easy to patch or replace and the leaked sealant will make putting a patch on next to impossible. I also don’t recommend using Slime as it is too thick and simply does not work well for small applications like bicycle tires.

On more note about sealant. The best way I have found to inject the sealant into the tubular without making too much of a mess is to go to your local Taget store and go to the small kitchen gadget section and pick up what they call a flavor injector. It is basically a large bore syringe that can hold an ounce or two of liquid. Make sure you get the one with the metal needle and you may have to cut off a section from the tip to make sure it does not extend so far into the tube that it punctures the tire on the other side. A dremel works well for lopping off a small bit. It is much easier to inject the sealant with a syringe than with the small squeeze bottle that sealant usually comes in.