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p>Road racing season is almost here, and another round of gluing tubular race tires begins. Here are some of tips for making the operation less messy.
1) A truing stand allows you to layer glue on the rim easily. You can do it without one, but you’re making your life more difficult.
2) The fingertips from latex gloves. I can’t get a really good grip on a tubular with gloves on and often get the gloves pinched between the rim and tire. But I’ll cut the fingertips off and use them to apply the glue. You get good control, and the clean up is quick. I usually use a new fingertip for each glue layer as the tips get fouled with clumped glue.
3) Hand lotion. Since I don’t have good luck wrestling stubborn tubulars with latex gloves on, I apply a liberal amount of lotion on my hands, especially to the backs, before I go for it. Allow lotion to dry so that it won’t rub off on the work pieces. The lotion helps prevent the glue from sticking to the skin, easing with post-job handwashing. Actually, I usually wear gloves for the first half of mounting the tire, then I pull them off for the final bit. It depends on how many gloves I have and if they are snug enough.
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I’m a convert to the toothbrush or cheap paintbrush. You can lay down the dobs of glue along the track and spread it very evenly with a brush. Nice thin coats that way.
I’m not a racist, so I don’t believe in racing. I’ll ride clinchers for life… or at whenever tubulars cease to be an OCD obsession. Since Lennard Zinn hasn’t written about anything else in the past year, I’m counting on the former.
I think the attention to tubulars is related to the popularity of cyclocross and carbon race wheels. Both often use tubulars