I have put perhaps 8000 miles on a top grade Continental 240g tubular. It was a miracle tire, repaired at 4000K by Tire Alert. I sent that crusty tire back to Conti in Germany with a note. It still held air but the tread was gone.
Only double flatted once on tubulars. Less populated area east of Minneapolis and it took a long while (say 2 hours) to hitchike 25 miles to my car in White Bear Lake.
Ridden tubulars by choice all the way across Iowa on Ragbrai (dirt roads for brief sections). I don't think I had a flat.
But for real touring, like Mike, I like clinchers.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
gabriel l romeu wrote:
>
>
> Mike Schmidt wrote:
>
>> My preference is tubulars for my vintage racing bikes and clinchers for
>
>> touring or randonneuring bicycles. I just like the way they ride.
>> Tubulars are a snap to change should they flat, but I will never ride a
>
>> set of vintage setas on the street. Usually a modern tubular such as a
>
>> Vitorria CX works for me for those vintage bikes that venture onto the
>
>> street.
>>
>> Gabriel, surely you remember the Tom Adams ride when I blew out that ol
>
>> tubular on the Montelatici? We were back on the road in two shakes.
>>
> we certainly were Mike, and it did not take me long for the subsequent
> blow out of my clincher on the same ride- then I had the old tube
> patched on the quick stopover at the convenience store and it then
> resided in the bag as a spare.
> It is not the fixing, but rather the potential of a second blowout
> that makes me a bit paranoid as i ride alone most often for quite some
> distances. Any tube i can patch quite easily to make it back, I only
> have one extra shot with a tubular realistically. However, I have
> gone through many more tubes than i have tubulars, to the point that I
> think my paranoia is a bit ridiculous. Also, there are the greater
> chances of
> a second blowout on a clincher if the original issue had not been
> completely resolved (happened once with 3 tubes and multiple glass
> shards for me).
> This is what i am trying to ascertain the actual durability of tubulars,
> and how one determines the end of life for an old one. some of the
> old tubulars look terrible that i have and ride, I would not ride a
> similar looking clincher.