Tufo Tires

Just as I was about to move to Conti Gatorskins as an easy to swap
fairly robust tire, a friend of mine at work, who seems to know his
stuff, said he's changed 100% to Tufo tires. He asked me why I wasn't
riding my road bike (I'm on the mtn) to work so I told him of my tire
miseries.

He especially likes an 'Elite' tire from Tufo which he says are very
robust against our local thorns. They are also tool free change in the
field if it comes to that. He is VERY high on these Tufos.

He made it sound as if these are the tire design of the future - that
the tire / tube combination was something of the past. Now I do think
these tires which seem to be essentially tubeless tires for road rims
(or tubulars for my rims) do seem to make sense.

However, before I go off on another expensive solo experiment, I thought
I'd ask the group of experiences using these tires.

Well, I hope this isn't representative of what you can expect. There are a
lot of different styles for a lot of different applications. I got a very
light pair for a set of serious racing wheels. My very first ride on them,
I hit a rock and the tire just pretty much burst. It's toast. I'm lucky I
wasn't toast. That was a very expensive lesson learned. I'll never buy
those again. But I use a more robust set of Tufo tires on a set of tubular
wheels on my time trial bike and they seem to do just fine. I really liked
the way the "tubular clincher" tires mounted up on the wheels. Maybe
someday I'll spring for another, more robust, set.

But another drawback is that, if you want to be prepared for a flat, you
pretty much have to carry another complete tire. That's a bit of an
expensive and bulky proposition. Some will say you can just use the Tufo
sealant in the tires and you won't have anything to worry about. That junk
can screw up the inside of the valve stem and make it nearly impossible to
pump up your tire.

Bob C.

"Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts."
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)
"Paul Cassel" wrote in message
...
Just as I was about to move to Conti Gatorskins as an easy to swap fairly
robust tire, a friend of mine at work, who seems to know his stuff, said
he's changed 100% to Tufo tires. He asked me why I wasn't riding my road
bike (I'm on the mtn) to work so I told him of my tire miseries.

He especially likes an 'Elite' tire from Tufo which he says are very
robust against our local thorns. They are also tool free change in the
field if it comes to that. He is VERY high on these Tufos.

He made it sound as if these are the tire design of the future - that the
tire / tube combination was something of the past. Now I do think these
tires which seem to be essentially tubeless tires for road rims (or
tubulars for my rims) do seem to make sense.

However, before I go off on another expensive solo experiment, I thought
I'd ask the group of experiences using these tires.

Paul Cassel wrote:
Just as I was about to move to Conti Gatorskins as an easy to swap
fairly robust tire, a friend of mine at work, who seems to know his
stuff, said he's changed 100% to Tufo tires. He asked me why I wasn't
riding my road bike (I'm on the mtn) to work so I told him of my tire
miseries.

He especially likes an 'Elite' tire from Tufo which he says are very
robust against our local thorns. They are also tool free change in the
field if it comes to that. He is VERY high on these Tufos.

He made it sound as if these are the tire design of the future - that
the tire / tube combination was something of the past. Now I do think
these tires which seem to be essentially tubeless tires for road rims
(or tubulars for my rims) do seem to make sense.

However, before I go off on another expensive solo experiment, I thought
I'd ask the group of experiences using these tires.

tried s22's. punctured constantly.

i also had s22 pro, tubular version, less than 300 miles, punctured, using
sealant and worry every time i go riding since it leaks slowly.

david

"jim beam" wrote in message
...
Paul Cassel wrote:
Just as I was about to move to Conti Gatorskins as an easy to swap fairly
robust tire, a friend of mine at work, who seems to know his stuff, said
he's changed 100% to Tufo tires. He asked me why I wasn't riding my road
bike (I'm on the mtn) to work so I told him of my tire miseries.

He especially likes an 'Elite' tire from Tufo which he says are very
robust against our local thorns. They are also tool free change in the
field if it comes to that. He is VERY high on these Tufos.

He made it sound as if these are the tire design of the future - that the
tire / tube combination was something of the past. Now I do think these
tires which seem to be essentially tubeless tires for road rims (or
tubulars for my rims) do seem to make sense.

However, before I go off on another expensive solo experiment, I thought
I'd ask the group of experiences using these tires.

tried s22's. punctured constantly.

psycholist wrote:
Well, I hope this isn't representative of what you can expect. There are a
lot of different styles for a lot of different applications. I got a very
light pair for a set of serious racing wheels. My very first ride on them,
I hit a rock and the tire just pretty much burst. It's toast. I'm lucky I
wasn't toast. That was a very expensive lesson learned. I'll never buy
those again. But I use a more robust set of Tufo tires on a set of tubular
wheels on my time trial bike and they seem to do just fine. I really liked
the way the "tubular clincher" tires mounted up on the wheels. Maybe
someday I'll spring for another, more robust, set.

But another drawback is that, if you want to be prepared for a flat, you
pretty much have to carry another complete tire. That's a bit of an
expensive and bulky proposition. Some will say you can just use the Tufo
sealant in the tires and you won't have anything to worry about. That junk
can screw up the inside of the valve stem and make it nearly impossible to
pump up your tire.

Bob,

My coworker uses the sealant. He says before opening the valve, he spins
the tire then puts the valve at 5 or 7 o'clock and he never fouls the
valve. I pass that on FWIW for the Tufo and others who run sealant.

I am concerned about your bursting the tire. The last thing I want is
another blowout like I got when I rolled a tire off the rim (Jobst's
analysis of what occured). The Web site implies these are very tough
tires so not apt to burst such.

-paul

david wrote:
i also had s22 pro, tubular version, less than 300 miles, punctured, using
sealant and worry every time i go riding since it leaks slowly.

david

"jim beam" wrote in message
...

Paul Cassel wrote:

Just as I was about to move to Conti Gatorskins as an easy to swap fairly
robust tire, a friend of mine at work, who seems to know his stuff, said
he's changed 100% to Tufo tires. He asked me why I wasn't riding my road
bike (I'm on the mtn) to work so I told him of my tire miseries.

He especially likes an 'Elite' tire from Tufo which he says are very
robust against our local thorns. They are also tool free change in the
field if it comes to that. He is VERY high on these Tufos.

He made it sound as if these are the tire design of the future - that the
tire / tube combination was something of the past. Now I do think these
tires which seem to be essentially tubeless tires for road rims (or
tubulars for my rims) do seem to make sense.

However, before I go off on another expensive solo experiment, I thought
I'd ask the group of experiences using these tires.

tried s22's. punctured constantly.




Thanks. Three replies and three negatives with one half positive. I
think I'll continue conventional for now.

-paul

I, too, was a TUFO convert. For awhile, anyway. I had a set of HI
Carbons on my clincher wheels. The front went first, with a 10 mm cut;
the sealant couldn't hold on a slice that big. The rear went twice -
the sealant held on a tiny puncture, then failed on a larger one. I
replaced the HI Carbon TUFOs with Vittoria EVO CX's. No problems.
I had TUFO S33 tubies; they were great for about 200 miles. Then, the
tires wore such that their profiles were virtually square. As noted
elswhere in rbt, Tufo tubies do have a higher-than-claimed rolling
resistance. I was constantly checking to see whether my brakes were
rubbing. I replaced the Tufos with Vittoria EVO CG Pave tires, and it
was like getting a tailwind.(These famous green-and-black workhorses
have been said to have been discontinued, but are still featured on
Vottoria's website.)
The Tufo 'cross tires, however, wear pretty well. I have a Diamond on
the front, and a Special on the back; the back tire flatted, but the
sealant has been holding well. When the Tufo 'cross tires are worn,
though, I'm going conventional.
The good news - the Extreme gluing tape works great on any tire, and
the sealant also works. I have noticed, though, that the valve core
seals can be affected by the sealant, causing slow leaks.

psycholist wrote:

Some will say you can just use the Tufo
sealant in the tires and you won't have anything to worry about. That junk
can screw up the inside of the valve stem and make it nearly impossible to
pump up your tire.

Tufo sealant will not fix tires that have a damaged casing because
there's nothing to support the film of sealant and it just blows out of
the tire and starts leaking again. OTOH, it will fix punctures of the
type you get from thorns or slivers of glass or slow leaks of unknown
origin that can be difficult to locate without ripping open half the
tire.

It doesn't screw up the inside of your valve stem or make it nearly
impossible to pump up your tire. I guess it _could_ do that, but I
don't take any special precautions and in the numerous times I have
used it I have never had a problem.

I don't have any evidence that it can be used to prevent flats although
it seems possible it could. Because of the way it is packaged I can't
think of a way to use it to repair a flat on the road, either.
Nevertheless, I think it is a preferable try-it-first alternative to
the needle and thread procedure for fixing tubulars.

I had a set of the Prestige 'cross tires on my bike. The first thing
that happened was that the front tire rolled off the rim when I was in
a turn. That hurt. Could have been my mistake during installation,
don't know but that never happened again. I did get a flat on both
tires at different times, and added sealant which worked, except that
the valve stems over time became clogged so it was hard to air them up.
I had a hard time getting the stems unscrewed to add air. I finally
did get a flat that wouldn't seal, and I decided to toss the TUFOs.
Thing is, they were expensive, gave me just as much trouble as any
other tires I run, and didn't feel any better on the trail.

wrote:
I, too, was a TUFO convert. For awhile, anyway. I had a set of HI
Carbons on my clincher wheels. The front went first, with a 10 mm cut;
the sealant couldn't hold on a slice that big. The rear went twice -
the sealant held on a tiny puncture, then failed on a larger one. I
replaced the HI Carbon TUFOs with Vittoria EVO CX's. No problems.
I had TUFO S33 tubies; they were great for about 200 miles. Then, the
tires wore such that their profiles were virtually square. As noted
elswhere in rbt, Tufo tubies do have a higher-than-claimed rolling
resistance. I was constantly checking to see whether my brakes were
rubbing. I replaced the Tufos with Vittoria EVO CG Pave tires, and it
was like getting a tailwind.(These famous green-and-black workhorses
have been said to have been discontinued, but are still featured on
Vottoria's website.)
The Tufo 'cross tires, however, wear pretty well. I have a Diamond on
the front, and a Special on the back; the back tire flatted, but the
sealant has been holding well. When the Tufo 'cross tires are worn,
though, I'm going conventional.
The good news - the Extreme gluing tape works great on any tire, and
the sealant also works. I have noticed, though, that the valve core
seals can be affected by the sealant, causing slow leaks.

Thanks. Beats me why my coworker is so high on these things based on the
feedback I'm getting here. Maybe he rides where there are no road
hazards or he hasn't given them enough time.

Curiously, he's a guy who is always racing. His everyday ride is a Moots
custom something with all Campy so why he'd tolerate a bike with a slow
tire is beyond me. He's a TT kinda guy too.

I'm hoping after going to the tougher tire (probably the Gatorskin) I'll
be able to do away with the sealant. I don't mind doing tire repair in
the field. My problem with the current tires is that I can't.