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Dugast goes tubeless, sort of, with cotton Ori mountain tubulars

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A-Dugast_new-Ori-tubeless-cotton-tubulars_carcass-difference

Most of us riding performance mountain bikes have made the switch to tubeless setups years ago, but some of the holdouts have been the elite pro cross country racers. They haven’t been racing on tubed clinchers, but rather handmade tubulars glued onto their rims, but with latex tubes inside. One of the premier tubular mountain bike tire makers has been A. Dugast who have been supplying the likes of World Champion Nino Schurter for many years. While Dugast tubulars have been ridden to numerous World Cup and Championship wins in recent years in XC and CX, Schurter’s win last fall in Andorra was in fact on a new prototype tubular made by Dugast with a new Ori casing that does away with that latex tube altogether. Just like with clinchers, the goal of creating the Ori was to further reduce the risk for flats…

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Like the rest of Dugast’s tires, the new Ori still uses the ultra-fine 100% cotton casing that gives it the incredibly supple ride. They’ve been working with Schurter, Thomas Frischknecht, and their Scott-Odlo MTB team for more than a year to get rid of the tube.

While previous tubeless tubulars like those from Tufo had been vulcanized, which makes the casing durable but much stiffer, the new Ori does almost the opposite. Dropping a claimed 55g of tube out of the tires – down from the standard weights of 540-610g – makes a pretty big impact overall, and with less material comes more flexibility and lower rolling resistance, as you are not deforming both casing and latex tube. Dropping 10% of the tires weight can’t hurt making them feel quicker, too.

Of course the biggest plus is the reduced flatting. Tubular tires are XC race-only. Without a sharp clincher bead, pinch-flatting is pretty rare on XC tubulars, but when they do occur a victory is often on the line. More common are small punctures; if you do puncture that latex tube inside, you’ll end up running to a pit, making you think that cyclocross season has come early. Now with the Ori’s paint-on gray coating on the inside of the casing, you can add a special latex sealant just like riders of traditional tubeless clinchers. That may be a big enough shift in tech to see more and more XC racers back on tubulars, even beyond those at the World Cup level.

 

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Having ironed out the kinks in 50mm mountain tires, Dugast has been testing the tubeless tubular casing on road and cyclocross tires as well. They’ve said not to expect tubeless road tires this year, apparently as the higher pressure and lower tire volume has proven harder to solve. Curiously they didn’t discount cyclocross at all. They’ve even said that some races were won last season on tubeless prototypes, so we expect to see Ori CX tires prominently show up to win some top-level races this fall.

Mountain bike tires are ready to get out to consumers now, though. Dugast hasn’t started to list the new tires, but says that they have put them into production. Since everything is handmade to order at Dugast, they can make the Ori tires in all of their treads – Fast Bird, Rhino XL, Pipisquallo MTB, and the new Ernst. They’ll be available in 26”, 27.5” & 29” options, just like their regular tubed tubulars which will carry on. So if you need the ultimate XC race tire, say in your own lead-in to the World Championships in Nové Město or the Olympics in Rio, then maybe now is the time to reach out to the Dutch tire masters.

A-Dugast.com

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MaraudingWalrus
MaraudingWalrus
7 years ago

This is actually very cool.

I just can’t wait to explain the difference between a tubular, tubeless, and tubeless tubular to a confused and ill informed soul.

i
i
7 years ago

That’s actually very easy: if you don’t already know about tubulars, you don’t need to worry about it. Even if you do know about tubulars, unless you’re talented enough that Dugast is paying you to ride them, you don’t need to worry about them.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
7 years ago
Reply to  i

Definitely not true. Just like in cross, tubulars handle significantly better. Its not just about the weight. With these, you also can’t burp which is great. Every I know that’s ridden them have said they’re far faster than tubeless on technical and rocky terrain. EVERYONE can benefit form that. Of course, everyone can’t afford them. In reality though, if someone made nice, wide aluminum tubular rims, you could spend $150+ on a tire and you’d still be rolling cheaper than a high end carbon rim(something tons of people buy and for good reason) and probably wind up with a better performing setup than carbon with tubeless clinchers. Sure, we don’t all need the lightest stuff if we aren’t racing but everyone should be able to appreciate better handling which is what these bring to the game.

***Of course, for training, I’d hate to get an actual(rare) flat on these things and be over 10 miles from a trailhead I’m parked at

sad
sad
7 years ago

tubeless is like your car
tubular is not something you should care about
tubes is the old thing

done 😉

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
7 years ago

Tubular MTB, does this apply to anybody who’s name is not Nino?

AlanM
AlanM
7 years ago
Reply to  thesteve4761

Yes, Thomas is also acceptable.

Jason Miles
7 years ago

I think this is cool tech, but Clement has made tubeless CX tubular tires for some time now. Was Clement the first to do this, or is this even older tech?

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
7 years ago
Reply to  Jason Miles

Tufu probably did it on the road even before Clement, probably for cross too. Of course, Tufos were total junk for road cycling. I know its spendy but tons of things are. I’m surprised more people aren’t rolling around on these. Its less of a waste of money than a Dura-Ace cassette(performance for the dollar), that’s for sure.

shore
shore
7 years ago
Reply to  Jason Miles

Tufo makes (the new generation of) Clement Tires, including their tubeless CX tubulars.

Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
7 years ago
Reply to  Jason Miles

Clement tires are made by Tufo and as such uses the same system mentioned in the article – a vulcanized casing that seals sans tube. While I’m sure the Dugasts feel amazing, the Tufo approach does result in a pretty tough tire and in large-volume format is still much nicer riding tire than any clincher (tubeless or no).

Never ridden tubulars? You should try it… The first time I did the first (and best) analogy I could find with regards to the feeling was, “Holy god. This is the biking equivalent to having sex without a condom on.”

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

On all accounts, YES! Get this man a beer, a chicken dinner, or whatever. Cheers Tyler Durden!

Cryogenii
Cryogenii
7 years ago

My conspiracy theory is that some XC riders started this whole 29er thing so they could get MTB tyres to go on tubular 700c rims…

Antipodean_eleven
7 years ago

As a race tyre, very cool and no doubt they will ride a dram but as @Veganpotter said, on a training ride, miles from the trail head, not so hot. Changing tubs on a road bike was bad enough, changing them on a mtb and then hoping there’s enough tack left in the glue so they won’t roll off…..

tlj
tlj
7 years ago

I’m riding Tufo MTB tubulars with the same technology for some time. The ride is great, you can ride very low pressures. They have sealants both for preventive and instant use so one don’t have to worry about flats.

dypeterc
dypeterc
7 years ago

The feature that distinguishes Dugast from Tufo is the cotton casing. Much more compliant.

Cory, what kind of sealant did they use to coat the inside of the cotton casing?

My ideal tire would be tubeless open tubular (cotton casing) mtb tire. Though I run my 2.2 SW Fast Traks at 1 bar tubeless and they feel great!

TJD
TJD
7 years ago

Any update on these? I was hoping to see the tubeless tubular cross tires by now

Steve
Steve
5 years ago

So it’s been 2 years. Where are these??

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