Tubeless Tires
I'm thinking of purchasing tubeless tires almost strictly for race days. I'm tired of changing a flat in the middle of the race as I feel it ruins the momentum. I don't know what sort of mileage to expect and I hear they are a pain to change out, so I would like to avoid using them frequently in order to avoid that one accident during a race.
I had a recommendation from a co-worker for Continental Gatorskins. I'm open for suggestions, recommendations, and good stories if you have them!
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I had tubular race wheels for a while and totally HATED them. I sold them at a huge loss and went to Carbon Clinchers... It is true that tubulars flat a lot less than clinchers and they are often a little lighter as well. And the fix-a-flat stuff will also fix 'most' flats on tubulars. However, a 'real' flat on tubulars was essentially catastrophic for me. If the tires are glued on properly, they are damn hard to get off. And you'll need to carry a whole spare tire on every training ride or race which is also a P.I.T.A. since they don't fit in any saddle bag (also causing an incremental aero penalty I.M.O.). So the absolute fear of blowing up an entire race or entire training session was just too much to bear for me, especially since I can change a regular tire in less than 5 mins, which will hurt my race time a tiny bit but not destroy my whole race (unless it is freezing cold then all bets are off with any kind of tire).
Bottom line, I will NEVER recommend tubulars to anybody for any reason now. I hate them that much...
Tubulars:
Pretty expensive and a hassle unless you are good at gluing them and good at getting them off in a hurry. As JW and others mention probably not worth it to most folks out there unless you have s truck behind you with ready spare wheels. Tires are pretty expensive and unless you are good at maintenance a single tire change can ruin a $90+ tire in about 5 seconds if you rip the base tape. Having said that I love my tubulars and won't be giving them up anytime soon but I have confidence in gluing them properly and also use sealant in them for small cuts. I've ridden every race I've ever done including off road races like Hell of Hunterdon and Battenkill on tubulars, however, I would not recommend them to a new racer.
Tubeless:
New technology not around all that long in the road or cross world but around in the mountain bike scene for years. You will need tubeless specific rims and tires with sealant to accomplish a good seal. Yes there are conversion kits out there for existing wheelsets - www.notubes.com - I would not recommend them especially in a cornering situation where you can roll the tire easily. I have some tubeless wheels and tires for cyclocross where the PSI and speeds are much lower but if you roll it you are done which I have done using a stan's conversion. Also if you puncture you will still need a spare tube. If you puncture a tubeless and the sealant can't fill the void you will lose all the sealant from the tire as soon as you pop the seal to change the flat. Once this happens you still need a spare tube to get back on the road. Ahem this is no different than just riding a high quality latex tube in the first place and bringing a spare in case you flat.
The sealant is also a mess if you flat on the road and gets over everything. So think of your adrenaline pumping trying to change this flat and now for the rest of the day you are also covered in latex sealant. As with tubulars above I would not recommend tubeless.
Stick with your existing rims get a nice fast tire and latex tubes and enjoy your race.
x3 on clarifying tubeless vs tubulars. I think you mean tubeless judging from your post. Attila did a great job of explaining things there. Too new of a technology. Plus you need wheels and tires that are tubeless specific... which are not Gatorskins.
Gatorskins: I use Gatorskins in training because I don't give a rat's ass about speed and rolling resistance in training. Whole different matter when racing. The difference in rolling resistance between Gatorskins and something like the GP 4000s w/latex tubes is astounding. The numbers don't lie. The amount of time saved using 4000s + latex tubes over Gatorskins would probably be equal to changing a few flats over an IM.
In fact, many of them use tubeless on their training wheels, but use traditional regular tubes on their fancy carbon race wheels which I think is the exact opposite of what you were thinking of doing.
Thanks for the info everyone!
I did mean "Tubeless" and not "Tubular". Of course now I'm a little wiser, and possible a little more afraid, of tubular tires! I had no idea about the Gatorskins, I didn't even have time to really look them up.