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@pip
My opinion is that tubies are nice to have at Herne hill but not essential.
During training and all the go-race stuff no-one in the beginner group was using tubies and most folks ie Speedy Yasu and wee Scott, were racing on the tires they'd ridden down to Herne Hill.
I did at one point bring a nice set of Ultraspeeds with me for racing but it was such a pain to swap tires twice in an evening so I ended up doing the same. Road most of last season on some Vittoria Rubino Pros which did a great job (pretty cheap and never punctured riding back to Hackney)
Pretty much any tire with a decent TPI >= 120 TPI (Continental GP Supersonic, GP4, Vittoria Open Corsas etc) will do fine on the rough and ready surface of Herne Hill. Its one of those tracks where no-one seems to care about what type of tire you have.
Tubies would are a little bit faster, have a nicer feel and its often claimed they're safer if you flat out on the track (though never had a problem - touch wood - with flatting in a race).
But the nice thing about clinchers, if you have to ride to HH, is that you can fix 'em if you flat. With tubies you're pretty much hosed unless some lends you a wheel or you bring a spare.
So if you're comfortable with tubs and don't mind either: riding on the street with them or bring a spare wheel, then go for it. But until you get 'up to race speed' they're not going to buy you anything IMHO.