Greetings!

 

After a season racing on tubs I rolled one, in the muddiest race, but apart from that they've been great. 

The one rolled tub cost me a league place and I can't help but think that it would not have happened if I was a more experienced tub gluer.

My question is: what is the process of checking the glueing between races?  I've been dropping the pressures to about 20psi and then going round the tyre seeing if it lifts with gentle sideways pressure.  I have no idea if this is the best procedure, and don't really know what is OK and what is not OK.  I will usually find a few places where the glue can be stretched a mm, but only re-glue if there is an obvious failure.

What do you do?

Are there any helpful interweb sites on this?

 

Cheers!

 

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Sounds about right to me, though I don't check every race - two or three time in the season should do it. Just a gentle tug usually reveals if it is coming away at that point.

Now the season has ended, I am taking the tubs off, storing them on rims (unless needed for summer cross) and then will reglue in August.

My experienced tub gluer is very experienced but even one of his almost came unglued on my rim at the Macclesfield Supercross - if it wasn't for my brilliant pit helper spotting it when I changed bikes then either him or the tub gluer would have had words. 

Seriously - lesson learnt for me: Check regularly. I bet the tub you rolled was ready to come off before the race had you checked it then

We will never know... but it probably was ready to do the dirty on me, and I certainly had not checked it before that race.  Some of my other mid-season checks found a few dodgy sections that either needed a bit of glue patching or total re-fitting.

I've been surprised how few problems I've had... and how rock-hard my 'old' pressures now feel in comparison.  At the one and only proper icy race last week I was almost 10s a lap quicker on my tubbed (old) bike compared to the clinchered (new) one, despite the new one having superb brakes and being stiffer and lighter.

I'll go like a rocket once I get tubs on the new bike (at least that's the theory).

The weather and course conditions play a great part in checking tubular tyres... Water logged courses mean more checking that dry ones..

and tub glue does not like very cold temperatures...

I have two sets to fit onto wheels but its too cold at present,,

Common sense is a great mechanic..

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