Clinchers, Tubulars and Tubular Clinchers.

polybikeuser [quote]J4mmd I have a few Tufo tubular clinchers,

Er, I'm confused, are these tubulars or clinchers? As I understood it tubular tyres are "tubular" having the inner tube (semi)permanently sewn into the tube, while clinchers fit onto the rim around the inner tube and are “clinched” in place by the bead on the tyre being trapped under the hook on the rim when the tyre’s inflated. So surely a tyre is a tub or a clincher, but not both.

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Tufo do a weird half way tyre where a kind of expanding rubber wedge folds outwards to engage with the bead hook (on the inside of the rim), as the tyre is inflated. On top of this is the tubular tyre, all incased in the same bit of rubber. The best (fastest) tyre will offer as little resistance as possto the movement of the air inside the tyre. At higher pressures the threads in the tyre casing compress adding further unwanted stiffness to the tyre. A really nice tyre will iron out the road, especially at high speed and power. The point of the Tufo (and regular tubs) is to eliminate the tubes contact with the rim and remove the bead. When a clincher tyre is inflated the bead will not move in the rim and in order for the tyre to squash it must fold itself over the hook edge of the rim, this offers restance to squashing of the tyre. By contrast a tubular shape, of any sort, is easy to squash and so the tub depends, more exclusivly, on air pressure. safe