Tubular vs. Clincher (Page 2)

I went with tubular wheels when I found a "lightly used" set of Zipp 404's, circa 2009, for under $800 that included very new Vittorria Corsa CX tires glued on...I couldn't touch similar wheels in a clincher for under $1300 at the time. I was also attracted to the smoother ride and I guess the "mystique" and history of tubulars. 

I recently did get a flat and my can of Pit Stop failed on me and I didn't have a spare so I did have to have my wife come pick me up...(Ended up being some old sealant clogging the valve stem.) Bought a new Vittoria CX on eBay for about $80 and glue for another $4. Removed the old tire without too much trouble, (I now know to just muscle it off, I don't expect it to take more than 2 minutes to remove during a race if Pit Stop were to fail again. I now carry a spare and would be fine mounting without glue as the pressure will keep it on...just no fast corners!)

I actually enjoyed spending time removing the old glue from the wheel, applying glue to the new tire and wheel, letting it sit for 24 hours, then another coat before mounting the tire. Was not messy at all, was relaxing and pretty cool actually. Would changing a tube in a clincher have been faster? Of course...but this was an enjoyable experience!

My perspective on the issue:

Tubular Pros: Smoother ride, seems faster to me, lighter weight at wheels, used wheels plentiful and lower cost

Tubular Cons: Replacing tire is more costly than just a tube in a clincher, similar tires a bit more in tubular form (Vittoria Open Corsa Evo CX about $65 online vs Vittoria Corsa Evo CX about $85 online), replacing a tubular tire in a race without glue would cause me to take corners much slower...but how often do you have a high speed corner in a triathlon event??

Thus far, 3 months in, I'm happy with my decision! I do much of my training on my 404's too...heck, I bought them, I'm going to use them!

Final note, if you go with all carbon wheels, be sure to get brake pads that work with the carbon wheels; I'm using Swiss Stop Yellow Carbon pads....takes all of 90 seconds to swap out pads as you won't want to use these with Aluminum wheels.

Just my .02