What exactly does "clincher" mean when referring to wheelsets?
Thanks

What exactly does "clincher" mean when referring to wheelsets?
Thanks

There are two types of rims; Clincher and Tubular. With clincher rims the tire and tube are seperate. With tubular rims, the tube is sewn inside the tire and the whole unit is glued onto the rim. You can tell the difference because clincher rims have a hook for the tire.

The first picture is a clincher rim and the second is a tubular rim

There are two types of rims; Clincher and Tubular. With clincher rims the tire and tube are seperate. With tubular rims, the tube is sewn inside the tire and the whole unit is glued onto the rim. You can tell the difference because clincher rims have a hook for the tire.

The first picture is a clincher rim and the second is a tubular rim

That was a great reply! just what I needed. What are the advantages of one over the other?

That was a great reply! just what I needed. What are the advantages of one over the other?

Tubulars supposedly ride better, clinchers are easier to repair when you get a flat.

To repair a flat on a clincher, all you have to do is remove the tube and patch or replace it. To repair a tubular, you need to use the tufo stuff (like fix-a-flat) or remove the tire from the rim and glue another one on. This is difficult to do on a training ride, which is why most people choose to train on clinchers and race on tubulars.

I personally ride clinchers because it's easier for me. After seeing Beloki's tire come off his rim, I'm not chomping at the bit to try tubulars, although plenty of people ride them with no problems whatsoever. Guess I'm a 'fraidy-cat! I don't trust myself to glue a tire on a rim.

Until maybe twenty, twenty-five years ago, virtually all racing tires, and most all tires of any quality, used to be tubular. A whole generation grew up thinking that only pikers used clinchers. You still will hear the old salts (still crusty from all that sweating inside their polyester racing jerseys, which were truly awful) say that nothing rides like a tubular. Clinchers only approximate round. Tubulars are round. There was (and is) a limit to how much pressure you can put in a clincher before it blows off the rim. With tubulars, the limiting factor is the integrity of the tire, so that psi's approaching 200 were not unheard of. Trackies, I think, still use tubulars almost exclusively, in part because you can blow them up to pressures that have your bike bouncing like a ping-pong ball.
With technology being what it is, however, most people concede that clinchers offer 90-100% of the ride of tubulars, and they are a lot easier to deal with.
There are some differences that still seem to be true -- while clinchers are easier and cheaper to fix (cheaper all around), you'll never get a pinch flat with a tubular, they more tend to keep some of their pressure even if you do puncture, so you can fly it in on a wing and a prayer, and, Joseba Beloki aside, are actually supposed to be safer at speed.
Most everyone I know uses clinchers except said old salts.

oh, and tubulars generally are lighter, too. The rim is more spare, because it doesn't include a lip for the clincher to fit under, and they are lighter as a result. this may be the single best reason to get a tubular, if you are so inclined, because the weight savings is all in the rim, in the rotating mass, so that it is the most critical kind of weight to lose.
I have to say though, I've talked to people who even still use them, and to a person they say, you know, I use them because I'm used to them, but they're really not worth the trouble.