I ride, train and race only on tubulars. As someone said, you can buy used tubular wheels so cheap, you can afford to ride good tubulars. At the last San Diego swap meet I bought a pair of Cane Creek tubulars with titanium spokes for $100! There's a used Zipp 440 front tubular sitting at my local sporting goods consignment store for $100 and, at the same store, someone beat me to a pair of Mavic SSC tubular wheels with Conti Competitions and a spare for $330.
Since I'm the Rocky Mountain Tufo distributor, I'm prejudiced but I figure I get one tire out of 200 that's defective. I always take them back and sometimes Tufo gives me a credit. The owner of Tufo in the Czech Republic actually checks each finished tire. They're machine made so I see very few out of round tires. Finally, the weight of the top of the line tires is guaranteed. And remember the usable cross section of a 23mm tubular is equal to a 25mm clincher (clinchers have to have an abrupt drop off to hook up to the rim bead.
It would be nice to see one or more of the dealers on the list publish a pro price list for members. And it would be really nice if the dealer bought the tires from me. I carry every Tufo known to man except the indoor gymnastic tires but I can get them too.
Jim Cushing-murray
9100 ft closer to heaven in Frisco, Colorado