Been a mechanic 7 years and i didn’t know this even exists

never seen that in my life! can’t even find it with a google search, the AI searches can’t stop insisting such a thing is a tubular tire, but that is no tubular!

Tubular tires are a thing but I’m not sure whether this is one of those.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubular_tyre

> The combination of a tubular tyre and its tubular rim is lighter than that of a clincher tyre and clincher rim

…
*glares at it, brain processing what the F I am even lookign at*

What the…
What type of hybrid shit is this?!

I haven’t seen any of these yet, and I’ve been around bikes for 20 plus years, working on them Myself for 3…
I know and had back then tires with tubes, last one before upgraded set had tubes and tires, now currently tubeles ones but…
This is just weird.

Either it’s something totally new or something so niche, only some folks know.
Tho, likely nieche, if it’s how I think it’s going to work, it’s something you can’t even fix with normal patch.

Sure it is really one combined product?

I did already have the case that tire and inner tube got an almost glued-together-like connection. When installed with no chalk. But actually this used to be two different parts initially, years ago.

Giant made tires like this for a while. Idk what the advantage was though.

This looks like the worst of both worlds.

Can you please post a picture of the sidewall information? [particularly, the brand/model if it’s there]

I’ve heard of these before, but only from Reddit. An OP described that they had a tire with a built in tube and IIRC there was no picture. Everyone had the same general WTF reaction. Many refused to believe it was a real thing.

I imagine they must be pretty rare because I can’t see any advantage to having these over a separate tire and tube. Seems like whoever designed these tried to take the worst of both to produce an abomination. The presta valve is the chef’s kiss OFC.

Don’t really see your picture clearly, but if it’s what I think it is… These were a thing about 20 years ago. Possibly more. A tubular for clincher rims.

Pretty much the worst of both Worlds.

Think Tufo made a couple of models, every shop I’ve seen that has ever had them in stock has them at a massive discount!

If you’ve only been a mechanic for 7 years it would make sense you wouldn’t see this as it hasn’t made much sense to use them in quite a while. Mostly there were around 20-25 years ago that I remember. Tufo “Open Tubulars” were the most common one I remember. I never tried them but I remember friends trying them on race day only wheels. IIRC they were often small and used at sky high pressures > 120psi that normal clinchers didn’t support. I remember one of my friends trying them for hillclimbs as they were light and he could run a tire smaller than 23c this way, use the higher PSI to be able to support his weight, and since it was a hillclimb compliance didn’t really matter.

They were like a halfway point being sold to try and get you partly to tubular tire performance benefits/claims without having to buy a new set of wheels and down the rabbit hole.

I think they probably became utterly pointless earlier than tubulars but were doomed anyway as soon as clinchers started being faster than tubulars even when used with butyl tubes. In today’s world it’d definitely be weird to use them.

Also if I remember right these were really expensive, which was one reason I never tried them.

Can you add some sealant and keep it going? Seems preferred over trashing the entire setup.

Must be a Giant Crosscut ERT tire.

Didn’t know that Apple was now in the market for bike tires & inner tubes!