fitting tubulars. glue or tape ?

[scotto]

your experience ???
mine are glued, but replacing a busted one and was wondering about tape.......

[funnybike]

There are lots of opinions about this issue. Mine is glue only, never tape. (with the exception of CX guys who use both to achieve better stick at lower pressures).
If your tyres are already glued then it is a moot point. In order to use tape, you would need to remove every last skerrick of glue from your rims. That is going to be next to impossible. Stick with the glue. It's (IMO) going to be more secure and you don't need to clean the rims first. If the issue is the hassle of gluing, then watch some youtubes and practice, practice, practice. It's not a difficult or messy task once you've got the hang of it. Remember to stretch the new tyre on the rim (unglued) at full pressure for a few days as this will make getting the glued tyre onto the rim so much easier. Good luck, and enjoy that magnificent tubular ride!

[scotto]

1. before i check the online guides, dont i remove the old glue from the rim before re-glueing ?

2. its for my track bike, so i dont really notice a magnificant difference - that might just be me though !

[funnybike]

Only need to remove any big clotted lumps that will cause a bump in the tyre.

If they are for track, then glue. Lots of very thin layers. No tape for track, not ever ever ever.

You really don't want to be the guy whose rolled tyre takes down half the field.......

[geoffs]

Zipp have warnings about not using 3M tape on their carbon rims
I use selleys Kwikgrip for gluing singles on and have had no problems even with the A-Grade guys using them

[jacks1071]

your experience ???
mine are glued, but replacing a busted one and was wondering about tape.......

What kind of riding are you doing?

Tape is generally considered acceptable for TT and Triathlon, for everything else glue is recommended.

[scotto]

Thx. It's back to the sweet fumes of conti cement and a week of gluing !!

[jacks1071]

Thx. It's back to the sweet fumes of conti cement and a week of gluing !!

A week of gluing? How many tyres are you doing?

They take me like 5 minutes.

[ironhanglider]

Thx. It's back to the sweet fumes of conti cement and a week of gluing !!

A week of gluing? How many tyres are you doing?

They take me like 5 minutes.

There are many folk who advocate 3 thin layers of glue on the rim with a day of drying in between followed by a last layer and install straight away. (also a layer on the tape which has been left to dry for a day) This is the method for new rims with no residual glue. For previously glued rims (with the glue in good condition) usually only one layer of new glue is sufficient.

The bit that puzzles me is why scotto is using a soft road glue for track wheels. In my mind there are only two reasons to use tubulars on the track, 1) inherited some old wheels that are still perfectly good, or 2) chasing a performance advantage.

Soft glues are used on the road so that in the event of a puncture a new tyre can be fitted and will have enough adhesion to be safe if ridden conservatively.

Hard glues such as shellac have a measurably lower coefficient of rolling resistance I'm told, however if you pull the tyre off there is no residual tackiness to hold a new tyre on. This is not a problem on the track when a puncture is the end of your race and you are not going to be using the wheel again until a new tyre is properly glued on. If you use tubulars for performance it defeats the purpose to use anything other than a hard glue. Does Shellite smell better than road glue?

Cheers,

Cameron

[jacks1071]

Layering the glue up is only for a new wheel - Scott says he's replacing a tyre. Unless he's gone and cleaned all the old glue off, one coating, bang the tyre on and you're ready to race.

I read a post from a pretty well respected wheel builder in the USA yesterday who avocates using tape. I've got a few rolls of it but havn't tried it due to horror stories. Then again you hear horror stories from people who've done bad glue jobs as well...

Maybe I should test the tape out? Would be a hell of a lot quicker and easier.