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Written by Alan Starrett (Big Al)
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Thursday, 24 February 2005 |
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Page 1 of 2 
There is no doubt that tubulars have advantages over clinchers for racing cross. The low pressure, supple ride, great grip and elimination of pinch flats are all useless though if you roll a tire off due to a poor glue job. I have always been a proponent of the old school method of glueing up tubulars. Multiple thin layers built up over the course of a couple days on both the rim and base tape. Combined with a wet mount coat this method always produces a strong bond that is critical for cross racing tubulars. It is however time consuming, tedious and if you are not delicate, can be pretty darn messy.
Tubular tape is allegedly the solution for all your gluing woes. The tape replaces glue with a quick and easy, mess free double sided adhesive. This isn't any space age technology here really, tubular tape has been around for awhile. This is just the first time I have dared try a new method in hopes of finding something that is quicker, cleaner and just as strong as my old way. Here is how my setup went down.
 | | (Pic 1) The Wheel |
The wheelset for the experiment was the Bontrager Race X-Lite Tubular. (see Pic 1) These are the wheels of choice for the 2004 Bikeman Cyclocross Team on the Salsa Las Cruces. They light, fast and hey if they are good enough for Lance to win the Tour on they are good enough for us to win cross races on.
A Little Glue to Start: I wanted to boost up the bonding power of the tape so I couldn't resist putting a very thin layer of glue on the fresh rim. (see Pic 2) The purpose of the tape is to not use any glue at all. | | (Pic 2) A little glue |
The idea here though is that the glue-tape interface is a strong rigid bond and the tape itself provides a resiliency to react to the compund shear forces exerted on a cross tubluar. I let the glue set up about 10 minutes, so it was a little tacky but not wet.
The Tape: The choice for this project was the Tufo Extreme. The Extreme is intended for use in temps above 70F or in applications where the rims will get very hot. You don't normally see either of those conditions in cross races here on the East Coast but if the tape holds well in those conditions it will hold even better on a cross tubular in December. The intructions are printed on the inside of the box, be very careful not to destroy them along with the box when trying to open it. You can't just push the tape out like push pop either, the glue on the edges of the tape does a pretty good job of sticking to the box.
 | | (Pic 3) Read Carfully |
Read the instructions carefully as there is a Rim Side and a Tire Side of the tape. (see Pic 3) The Rim Side is marked as such, and the Tire Side has a distictive white strip which has some sort of magic potion in it becuase it is refered to as the 'activated strip.' Both sides have a protective foil that covers the adhesive. I started by peeling back a small section of the protective foil on the rim side of the tape.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 January 2006 )
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 The Wheel',300,350,0,0); "(Pic 1) The Wheel")
 A little glue',300,350,0,0); "(Pic 2) A little glue")
 Read Carfully',300,350,0,0); "(Pic 3) Read Carfully")
