As Keepers Tour crossed from dream to reality and routes over the cobblestones of Northern Europe were sketched out, with it came the familiar tingling in my fingertips and uneasy sensation at the base of my spine as my mind starts its irrevocable journey towards categorizing as mandatory an unnecessary indulgence. I was going to need a wheelset and tubular tires that were up to the job.
The folklore goes a long way towards that justification; Paris-Roubaix is the race where every trick of the trade is exploited to deliver riders safely to the finish. Equipment which usually carries riders for a season or more finds itself in the trash heap after a single day on in Hell – maybe good enough for training but certainly not be trusted for another race. Special wheels are built, and only the strongest tubulars are glued to the rims. Aldo Gios, De Vlaeminck’s mechanic, is said to have aged his tires in his wine cellar to allow the rubber to harden, making them more resistent to punctures.
Ignoring the possibility that there may be some difference in strength, speed, or skill with which the Pros ride over the Cobbles, it didn’t take me long to determine that it wasn’t so much a matter of wanting a set of tubulars for Keepers Tour, but that it was indeed my obligation. I have a responsibility, after all, to the attendees of trip that I not fall off my machine and bash my head open on a cobblestone. Messy, certainly, but it may also frame the event in a somewhat negative light, and I think we’d all like the opportunity to do this again some time. The only way to assure I don’t suffer some catastrophic equipment failure and jeopardize the trip was to build a set of wheels based on the same components the Pros select for the purpose, and line them in the same rubber they choose. Logical, really.
The seduction of symbols was the first phase, followed quickly by the art of building wheels. The final step was to procure the right tires for the job. FMB is perhaps the most revered name in hand-made tubular tires; inspection of photos of Roubaix will reveal the pale yellow or green sidewalls of the FMB Paris-Roubaix tire on many of the wheels bouncing over the cobbles – often rebadged on order to satisfy sponsorship obligations.
I needed a set, naturally.
The tires were ordered in December, as from January onward Francois (of Francois-Marie Boyaux from which FMB takes its name) becomes overburdened with orders from the teams riding Roubaix and indicated he wouldn’t have time to squeeze in an order from a nobody such as myself. They arrived in February, at which point they displaced a few bottles of wine to age in the darkest corner of our basement which doubles as our wine cellar. Having mounted another set of tubs on the wheels in order to bash the bejezus out of the wheels so as to make myself a little less certain that I buggered the wheel building process, they had to wait until this past week to be mounted.
They have not yet been ridden, but they certainly look the business.
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Gluing on a tubular tire is a glorious study in patience and settles beautifully in the intersection between art, science, and ritual. And the glue smells distressingly fantastic.
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@Chris
Ooooh, that stinks. They were pave's that you had on?
@Buck Rogers very stinky! I suspect that's the end of the road for that one and it's twin already has pitstop in it. I keep saying it would be good to learn how to repair them, I should give it a go with new tubes.
@Chris
It seemed like fate to post on this thread this morning. I had a day of gluing tubulars ahead of me at the shop today as track racing season has returned to Seattle and many folks needed new tires on their race wheels. So when I was logging in to make my VSP picks...this thread was at the top of the random list. As I have a set of Nemesis( 2 actually) wheels in my own stable..I dream of having some FMB's on them someday. But I must admit..the Vittoria Corsa SC's I'm using now are quite nice!
@Chris
I managed to triple puncture at the w/e on The Butler so was knackered when I'd used foam and spare so had to bail and resort to getting a lift to base. I've seemed to go for years without a puncture and this spring is making up for that big time. Lost count of how many I've had. Then again the roads are so bad and with so much of it being fine flint slivers it's a bit of a 'mare. Roll on some cleaned up roads.
@Teocalli
Let's hope so.
Yesterday was also a day of hitting potholes hidden beneath murky puddles.
@Haldy My Paves are on Nemesis rims as well. Got them cheap on ebay from an ex racer who'd acquired them in Belgium. Came with old school Dura Ace hubs. Got them re-laced to suit my bulk and they've gone three years, countless pot holes and two Roubaixs with the Keepers without needing so much as a turn of a spoke key. There are a couple of small cracks in the coating but they're over 20 years old. Can't ask for more than that.
This is happening very soon!