Clincher Wheels

jwroubaix said:

What's the difference between clincher wheels and tubular wheels?  I just purchased some rims that were clinchers.  Do they still use a tube?  Do all 700cc rims fit either 700/23 or 700/25 tires?

"Yup" on the 23 and 25mm question. 25mm tires are heading toward becoming the default 700c tire size and are even starting to be used by pros (those using clinchers and those using tubulars). Here's the info on tire types:

• Clincher: A tire held onto the rim by the rims' hook engaging the tire bead. The tire is U-shaped and given shape by an inner tube pressurized with gas.
• Tubeless: The tire is shaped like a clincher and is held to the rim by the rim hook engaging the tire bead. Unlike the clincher, there is no inner tube. Instead the rim's tire bed and valve stem mounting are quasi-"air tight". This tire is the bicycle analogue of a motorcycle or car tire. Note that the rim doesn't actually have to have a hook. It can also just be a straight wall.
• Tubular: the inner tube is sewn into the tire, and the tire is held on the rim via glue and/or special double sided tape. The rim doesn't have cantilevered walls. Instead, its cross section is "closed".

This image shows some clincher rim profiles and some tubular rim profiles: [img]bicyclesupportbymark.comrimProfiles3.jpgOpen ↗[/img] Note that clincher and tubeless rims can look the same in cross section, and some rims are both clincher and tubeless compatible. To further muddy the clincher/tubeless waters, some people run tubeless tires on clincher rims using conversion kits, and you can run an inner tube in a tubeless tire.

Thanks

So are special tires needed for clincher wheels?

jwroubaix said:

So are special tires needed for clincher wheels?

Just clincher tires, which are the tires that are most sold (by a huge margin) and are the most common tires found in bike shops.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by jwroubaix [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

So are special tires needed for clincher wheels?

Well 'special' relative to tubulars but in this day and age clinchers are the normal bike tire that the vast majority of riders use and tubulars though the design is much older are only used by a small percentage of riders and mostly by racers.

If you walk into a bike shop and look at tires they'll almost all be clinchers with perhaps a couple of tubulars to choose from and then only in higher end bike shops.

But just to confuse the heck out of you the marketing and technology folks have further muddied the water so you've got:

- Tubular tires that mount on tubular rims and are attached to the rim by a very strong adhesive glue or strong pre-glued adhesive tape.

- Clincher tires that have have wire or fiber beads that snap into grooves or are hooked under ridges in the rims Alienator posted cross sectional images of above and rely on exposed and easily changeable inner tubes to hold the air.

- 'Open Tubular' tires which are really clincher tires but tend to be pricey high end clinchers built using the same tread and usually the same basic casing as a company's high end racing tubular tires but they didn't sew the casing up to enclose an inner tube and instead finished the casing with mounting beads so that you use a normal inner tube and mount them on normal clincher rims. So the 'open tubulars' are really just high dollar clinchers and must be mounted on clincher rims.

- Tubeless clinchers which Alienator described above but basically clinchers in terms of how they mount to the rim but on rims prepared to hold air better and usually with tires that hold air better and possibly with a latex or glycol based sealant so you don't use an inner tube. These are really similar to modern car tires that also don't use an inner tube.

- There are actually some older clinchers that don't use a bead and or are designed to be mounted on rims that don't have a bead hook. These are sometimes found on vintage bikes and they're somewhat larger volume tires that aren't run at typical high racing and road riding pressures. Pretty rare to run into one of these anymore but if you have something like a fully restored 1960s Peugot and it isn't equipped with tubulars then it may very well have straight wall (no hook) rims and may accept straight wall (beadless) clinchers.

-Dave

daveryanwyoming said:

- There are actually some older clinchers that don't use a bead and or are designed to be mounted on rims that don't have a bead hook. These are sometimes found on vintage bikes and they're somewhat larger volume tires that aren't run at typical high racing and road riding pressures. Pretty rare to run into one of these anymore but if you have something like a fully restored 1960s Peugot and it isn't equipped with tubulars then it may very well have straight wall (no hook) rims and may accept straight wall (beadless) clinchers. -Dave Â

Note that there is at least one manufacturer producing at least one model clincher wheel that has no hook. To add to the tire types, there is Tufo's "clincher tubular" which is a tubular tire with "beads" added on so that mounts like a clincher. The important thing to keep in mind is that friends don't let friends ride Tufo tires. I'm not sure what drug they were taking when they came up with the tubular clincher.