Challenge Adds Wider MTB Two Tubular, Effetto Mariposa Develops Revolutionary Carogna Tubular Tape

So $350 for a complete bike setup of tires + tape. For consumable parts that can be trashed by a small piece of glass or the right piece of rock (sealants work in tubulars but only to a point). Owch. Who’s actually buying these things?

Conti makes a $200+ dollar tubular for the track. On the track, you have little chance of getting a flat. Still, almost nobody buys them, even top racers that get free stuff don’t use them in mass.

***That being said, you better have a spare wheelset if you use these. I can also see patching tubes as not being a big deal with MTB tires. Still a pain but a patch won’t hinder performance as much as it will on a road bike. You also wouldn’t need to be as great at sewing

If this glue can do what they claim, I’ll be super stoked! Hopefully Cyclocross Magazine will do a review of this product soon.

Jimborello

Are you going to call for a cab when you’re 8miles from the closest road(in the event of a flat) or are you gonna fight the tire off the rim and bring out your sewing skills and start mending these tires and attach a new strip of tape that you probably forgot to bring with you?

I’ve patched a tubular road tire before. It was in the comfort of my own home and wasn’t that big of a pain but I wouldn’t want to go out on a ride with a sewing kit. I was also lucky enough to know where the hole was. I wouldn’t want to get a pinch flat with these because they’d leave no evidence of the location of the flat on the outside and you may wind up removing the entire tube from the tire…that’s a lot of sewing. I only had to sew about 6″ of tire to do my repair

WOW

Some of the comments are just ridiculous. These tires are NOT for the everyday ride, they are designed as a race day only tire. If you get a flat your not to far from the pits/car. If you have every ridden tubulars on the road for for CX then you know they are absolutely amazing?
I bet most of the people bashing these have never exerienced the joy of riding tubulars

I’ve run Stan’s tubeless setups on mountain bikes for years… no chance I would ever run tubular.

The thought of getting a sidewall tear or flat in the woods that I can’t fix and freezing to death just doesn’t sound like fun.

M- agree, these are race wheels, and just like in cx it’s appropriate for it’s narrow niche.

Veganpotter – Just like cx racers don’t use their race wheels to train, I’d also argue that you don’t need to train on them. If it’s been raining the night before, you quickly adjust after your pre-laps to available traction. At a DH race it could be dry on practice day and rain on race day. You quickly adjust. Having the extra traction on race day, helped by a few warm up laps, is a measurable advantage. Using the argument that you can’t benefit from them everyday therefore you shouldn’t benefit from them on race day is false logic.

FWIW, anecdotally, I commute on my tubulars in the city during the summer months. For me, the risk of puncture and expense is offset by the fact that I would hardly get to ride and train if I didn’t commute, I love the feel of tubulars and I don’t want to own something I hardly ever use. For me, the risk benefit ratio works, for some one else, not.

It’s the difference between ‘that thing is ugly’ or ‘I think that thing is ugly’.

I’ve raced on schwalbe racing ralph tubulars this season. Ironically it was initially a cost effective choice as I used my spare CX disc wheelset (that I choosed to build with ambrosio MTB tubular rims). Obviously I only did “sprint” races of less than 2h. I had a flat once which forced me to DNF and reach the finish line by foot but it wasn’t too long and I wasn’t the only one to flat in that area. Back home I put some tubeless milk in them and inflated and the puncture was sealed.

In the end I sold the wheelset. Not because they weren’t great and didn’t want to deal with tubulars but I was also doing marathon events on tubeless wheels I purchased later and didn’t want to keep two wheelsets. I have already way too many wheels with the road and CX bikes.

Sometimes I regret selling them.

I don’t get some of the claims on the tape … if it’s so easy to peel the tire off the rim (“Challenge told us the tape is nearly just as easy to remove as it is to install by simply deflating the tire completely and pulling up on the tubular”), I’d be skeptical that it’s going to hold the tire on when you’re running low 20’s psi in your cx tubbies?

@the other Andy: until recently I would have completely agreed, but Challenge tires have been solid in my experience for the last year. Prior to that, they were constantly failing.

I rode MTB tubular wheels for 2 years, and still would be if I still owned the wheelset, but I foolishly sold it to a friend. The traction was shocking out of them. I carried a can of sealant with me (Caffelatex) just in case I had a flat. I did put Caffelatex in the tire from day 1 and never did flat.

Coincidentally, I was riding a few years back with a Schwalbe/Stans tubeless setup and sliced my sidewall on some glass. Guess who had to call for his wife to pick him up?

Tufo has been selling mtb tubular gluing tape for several years. http://www.tufo.com/gluing-tape/

Id buy this in a heartbeat for my CX wheels, despite it being more than a can of Mastik, for the ease of install. However, I do not want to be the first one to test how easily a tire may roll off. Ive been gluing (glue only) my CX tubies for years, and while 3 days of a prep and a whole lot of praying is a pain in the a$$, I havent ever had tubular contact failure.

Tufo makes tape too. you couldnt pay me to ride that $hit on my Tufo cx tires. HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT??? (It looks sorta like the Tufo tape, too). Until it can be confirmed that this “liquid tape” with “two specific sides” will hold my tires and/or until the pros are confident enough to use it, why should I?

Any tech specs on the tape? How does it differ from Tufo?

I have been riding tufo tape for years, and mostly ride tubulars for every ride. I can change a tire in under ten minutes this way.