Boy, this one is making my head spin. I've never used Tufo tape. Last night I bought some Tufo t34 tires from a local guy who is an experienced cx racer and wrench. He uses a glue (Continental I think) + Tufo tape method, similar to the "Belgian method" but with Tufo tape instead of that stuff cyclocrossworld.com sells. He says he's done many pairs of tubulars over the years and has not had one roll off. He says the regular tape + glue works well for aluminum rims, and the extreme tape + glue works well for carbon rims.

I read lots of "I saw a guy..." or "The mechanics at my shop say..." posts here, but not a lot of direct experience with Tufo cx tires + tufo tape, with or without extra glue.

Who here uses Tufo tape for Tufo cyclocross tires? What is your experience with it?. I find the anecdotal information interesting too, but I'm most interested in direct experience. I've read the Tufo tape is really only for Tufo tires, because of differences in the base tape of Tufo tires.

I am building a pair of wheels right now based on Mavic Reflex rims. I'll either be using the old, traditional glue method or maybe the Tufo tape + glue method for this build. I hope to have the wheels done tonight and to race on them with the T34 tires Sunday at Surf City.

I searched here, searched Google, talked to a couple local friends who have lots more experience than I do. (None of them have tried the tape.)

Thanks,

Morgan

P.S. Some links I found:
http://tufonorthamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=33&highlight=cyclocross
http://www.bikeman.com/cyclocross/tech/2004techtubtapesetup2.htm

yeah i used tufo tape "cyclocross" not extreme plus conti glue. put down a layer of glue on the rim, layer on the tire, layer on the rim again, applied the tape, then applied the tire to thr wheel.

after 3 or 4 races no issues.

jeremy

I used Tufo regular tape only, only two races so far but no problem at all. I held my breath the first race every time I went through the downhill paved corner, but I didn't even think about the tires last race.

I found removing the accumulated gook from one of these "euro" gluejobs to be a godawful process entailing rubber gloves and many coats of gel stripper. That alone has me using the plain old glue method for my cross tires, though I do use straight tape for my road tires from time to time. I got the big can of conti glue this year, it beats the little tubes.

{Who here uses Tufo tape for Tufo cyclocross tires? What is your experience with it?}

I had problems with my tubulars not adhering to my Reynolds carbon cross wheels last year. They were glued with 3 layers of Conti glue. That was before the article that came out in VeloNews about tubulars coming off of carbon rims and before Lennard Zinn went on record as NOT recommending Continental glue on carbon rims. I had a back tire loosen up in warmup in 1 race and after having both the front and rear reglued the next race I rolled the front in a tight off camber turn and took a nasty high sided trip over the handlebars.

I spoke to Stu at cyclocrossworld.com and ordered some Vitorria Mastic and the regular tape to do the 3 layer with tape method. In the meantime a friend - my coach - suggested I try the Tufo extreme tape as a temporary method until the order from cyclocrossworld arrived.

To make a long story short I still have the unopened Vitorria glue and tape and Tufo Extreme has become the choice for mounting tubulars on all my wheels. I raced the rest of the NC Championship series and the NC winter cup as well and never had any problems. When it was time to replace the worn rear tire the it was stuck down really hard - in fact you really need a plastic tire lever to peel the tire off. And when you consider that the Tufo tape is a pressure acitvated contact adhesive and that it grabs even harder when the tire is inflated I can't possibly imaging the tape letting go.

This year I have ridden tubbies on the road exclusively logging around 8000 miles so far. All my tires have been mounted with Tufo Extreme tape and there have been no problems. I have done epic mountain rides in western NC and north GA with 50+ mph twisting descents, road races, criteriums and time trials. No problems. I wouldn't consider gluing a tubular again.

John

Well, I've always been kind of skeptical when it comes to the Tufo glue tape. However, I smashed a rim on a Saturday and had to race again the next day about two weeks ago. I had to break out my new wheelset early and had no time to do a traditional glue job. I used just the Tufo glue tape and spare used Tufo tire that I had in the garage for just this type of occasion. Well, I've raced on it twice now and so far so good. Last weekend had more high speed turns and it held up fine. This weekend a Granogue should be the real test as there is a good bit of off camber stuff where I've see other guys roll tubulars. In the end, my opinion is the stuff works but I'll still only use it if I'm in a jam. When I have the time I will peel it off and do a real glue job.