- Ah, punctures!
They're everyone's worst nightmare,
particularly during a race.
Unless, of course, you were looking for an excuse to stop.
But a question I've heard time and time again,
which is quicker to fix and replace,
a clincher, or a tubular?
Well, I think it's time we found out for you.
Okay, picture this, it's race day
and you hear that dreaded (hisses).
It's time to jump off your bike and fix that tyre.
Now, we're going to assume you don't already have
a sealant in the tyre, otherwise, you probably wouldn't have
got a puncture in the first place.
And we're not going to bother with something like
a pit stop or other sealant.
We're going to go for a full replacement and repair.
After all, if you are doing a long-distance event,
it's probably the better solution in the long run,
even if it does take a longer repairing at the time.
Today, I'm going to time myself repairing a clincher tyre
with a full replacement of the inner tube within the tyre.
And then, I'm going to time myself repairing a tubular tyre
with a full replacement of the tyre.
I have to be honest, I have no idea
which way this is going to go.
So, let's get stuck in, first of all,
with the clincher tyre.
Right, so you've got a puncture on your clincher tyre.
First things first, just have a little check over the tyre
to make sure there isn't anything obvious sticking out.
Then, it's a case of removing the wheel
to get on with the repair.
For this, I've a got a spare inner tube
with a valve extender already installed
because I'm running deep section wheels.
Now, I've got it already installed so that I don't
have to waste time removing the extender
from my previous tube, then installing on here.
I've then got a set of tyre levers for removing the tyre.
Then, for inflating the tyre I've got a CO2 canister
and an inflater already screwed on ready to screw on
and pierce the CO2 canister.
Now, next step is to remove the tyre, and this is where
the tyre levers come in.
Now, this can actually be one of the trickiest parts.
The bead can be quite tight and hard to remove
and pull over the wheel.
My top tip for this is to actually push the bead
into the middle of the wheel.
This just relieves the tension around the tyre.
Once you've finally got the tyre off,
then you can start removing the tube.
You can start pulling it out of one side of the wheel,
then, actually run your finger around the inside
of the wheel, just to make sure there isn't anything obvious
that has caused the puncture and you might need to remove,
otherwise you'd be left with another puncture
straight after.
Then instal your new tube.
If it is a brand new tube I suggest just putting
a little bit of air in, and you can do, actually, by mouth.
So, just
undo the valve and then just blow into it,
put a little bit of air in there.
Then instal the valve through the whole and opening
in the wheel and run the tube around.
Then, start pulling the tyre back on.
Now, for the inflation with the CO2 canister.
Now you want to pierce the CO2 canister
by screwing on the inflator.
A lot of these inflators, they actually have
a control button, so it won't actually release the CO2
straight away, but if you haven't got that then you're going
to need to be ready to put this onto the wheel,
or onto the valve, so you're going to want it actually
on the valve already as you screw it on.
In my case, I can screw it on
and then pile it on and release the valve,
and then inflate the tyre.
Right now, you've got a puncture on a tubular tyre.
Firstly, whereas on the clincher tyre we need to check
over the tyre to see if there's anything sticking out,
don't need to bother with a tubular tyre because we are
going for a full replacement.
Another thing to note is that when you do get a puncture
on a tubular tyre, say you're about a kilometre or so
away from a transition, you can actually ride a tubular tyre
when it's flat more easily than you can
with a clincher tyre, though, to an extent, and it could
damage the wheel, so it's not fully advised.
For this repair I'm going to need a tubular tyre,
a spare tubular tyre, and, again,
I've opted for a valve extender already installed,
so, save time.
It is advised that you go for one that's pre-glued,
so, sort of, the tackiness, sort of, they stick
to each other, the wheel and the tyre.
Then we've got a CO2 canister with an inflator again.
As I've done already, I've taken the front wheel off,
and now it's a case of a lot of brute strength
to get the tubular tyre off the wheel.
It's been glued on securely for a reason,
so it's going to be pretty hard to get off.
I opted for rocking it backwards and forwards, and,
eventually, being able to pries it off and pull it off.
Then, I started to instal the new tubular tyre.
Again, the latter stages of this, trying to instal it,
can be hard, but, really, just work hard to pull it on.
Then it's a case of lining the tyre up, so, making sure
it's nice and central to the rim.
Then, get your CO2 canister out, instal it onto the valve,
and then, turn the CO2 canister to it starts releasing
the CO2, and there you go, an inflated tyre.
We've come back inside and analysed the results.
We recorded the time from the moment that I got a puncture
and rolled in, and then we stopped the clock
once the wheel was back on the bike
and I was ready to roll it away.
We did that basically because that's a real case scenario.
Scores on the door.
Clincher tyre four minutes and 18 seconds.
Tubular tyre, five minutes and one second.
It is worth noting that I'm pretty well rehearsed
in repairing and replacing a clincher tyre,
whereas not so much with a tubular tyre.
I have a little bit of experience, but nowhere near as much
with the clincher tyre, so there's possibly a little bit
of time to be saved again with the tubular tyre.
Let's explain things a little bit, pros and cons to each.
Clincher tyre, you can, obviously, replace the tube,
and then you're good to go.
Even after the race you can leave that tube in the wheel,
whereas with a tubular tyre, because it is essentially
a quick replacement, you're not allowing the glue
to bond and set properly, you will still need to replace
the tubular after the race.
Pros to the tubular, though, is that you can ride
on a tubular tyre a little more easily and more safely
than you can on a flat clincher tyre.
Say you have got a kilometre or so left,
as I mentioned earlier, you could ride in for the last bit
of the race without having to replace the tubular tyre,
which is a big plus.
You can also get pinch flats on clincher tyres,
so if you're rushing, which, you're probably going to be,
in the middle of the race,
well, you can't do that on the tubular tyre.
Though you did witness me working pretty hard
to get the tubular tyre off, so that does take
a bit of practise,
and you've basically got to be prepared for that.
A little more straight forward with a clincher tyre.
I have heard tubular tyres can be quicker when
you're well practised in it, and possibly,
you've prepped things a little more.
I'd definitely be interested to try out repairing
a tubular tyre a bit more in the future.
For me, I personally really like clincher tyres
just because when I'm travelling for racing,
particularly if I'm away for a few weeks,
before a race I can ride a set of training tyres
and then quickly change over to a set of race tyres
just before the race.
That's not so easy with a tubular wheel set or tyres.
So, yeah, clincher tyre for me, but the results
were really interesting.
Now, if you haven't done so already,
you can subscribe to GTN.
And if you'd like to see how to repair a clincher tyre
on race day a bit more thoroughly,
you can see a video just here.
If you'd like to see something slightly different,
another versus between flat pedals and clipless pedals,
you can see that by clicking down here.