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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@frank Excellent. How many beers will it take?
@frank FMBs fitted. They were a bear to get on my stretching rims, but went on the Ambrosios easy. There is no lack of character in them, either.
Question on tubluars: After posting a few weeks ago that I have not had a flat since switching back to tubs, I now have a slow leak in my rear tub. I can pump it up, ride it fine for up to two plus hours and finish the ride with full pressure, or close to it. But when I then leave it in my office overnight, it is completely flat the next morning.
My question is, is it safe to try some ptistop or similar stuff or do I just need to replace the tub?
Thanks,
Buck
@Buck Rogers
Pitstop or Stan's would probably work, but before you do that check whether the valve stem core has worked a bit loose. Twice in the last year a found the same thing, and after tightening the core the tires retained air.
@Buck Rogers I've always refrained from using Pitstop or the like in the undestanding that if you put sealant in it, the life will be limited in that the sealant will eventually dry out and/or you've got to ensure that the tubulars are always reasonably well inflated even if you're not using them to prevent the tube getting glued up and ripping itself apart when you next inflate it.
I carry Pitstop on longer rides on holiday when asking Mrs Chris to pack the kids into the car and find some remote French crossroad would prove impractical and place unnecessary strain on the relationship.
If you can find someone that does repairs tubulars, they should be able to replace the tube.
@Buck Rogers Caffelatex might be the best sealant for a slow leak like that.
I have heard pretty decent things about this service too: http://www.tirealert.com/tirealert/Welcome.html
They used to only use butyl replacement tubes, if that matters to you.
@frank -
I am curious..how many other brands of tubulars have you ridden? I have had the pleasure to try all forms of Vittorias, Continentals, Schwalbe, Veloflex, Clement and even Dugast, but have yet to ride a hallowed set of FMB..any comparison note?
@Haldy
Warning!!! If you are looking for an objective review on FMB's from Frahnk, you're fucked. He has drunk the kool-aid on FMB's and even eaten the paper packaging that it came in!
Disclaimer: I am VERY jealous of FMB's and have never have ridden any. I ride the working man's Vit pave' tubs.
@Haldy
Even better than Veloflex, twice as expensive.
@Buck Rogers
And sniffed several tins of their tub glue...
@Buck Rogers
Odd how a thread gets resurrected on the very day my paves have been forefront on my mind.
I was out on a true rule 9 ride when the contemplation of rain dripping from my nose was interrupted by a squishy vagueness from the front. Looking down I could see I had lost air so pulled over to see what the problem was. No thorn, no tack or even gash but the wet surface one section of the sidewall was gently bubbling as though completely porous. Admittedly, they've not been ridden for a while but I hadn't expected that.