Choice · 5 min read · updated 4 September 2026
What your wheels already decide
The first answer is in your wheels. A tubular rim — hookless, with a rounded profile — accepts only tubulars. A hooked clincher rim accepts tubed clinchers, Tufo tubular tyres and, if it is tubeless, TR tyres. A hookless rim accepts TR tyres and nothing else.
| Tubular | Tubular tyre | Tubed clincher | Tubeless ready | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rim | Tubular | Clincher, hooks | Clincher, hooks | Tubeless, hooks or hookless |
| Fitting | Tape, 10 min | By hand, 5 min | By hand, 5 min | Rim tape + sealant, 20 min |
| Pressure | Highest | High | Medium | Lowest |
| Pinch flat | Impossible | Impossible | Possible | Impossible |
| Puncture | Stays on the rim | Stays on the rim | Tube to change | Sealant, plug |
| Repair | Through the valve | Through the valve | Patch | Through the valve, plug |
| Weight per wheel | Lowest | +70 to 80 g | Tyre + tube | Tyre + sealant |
The tubular, for racing
It is Tufo's origin, and the lightest construction: no beads, no separate tube. Its first quality is not weight but safety: a punctured tubular stays in place, the wheel does not give way, and sealant injected through the valve puts it right without removal. It needs tubular wheels and tape. Track, cyclo-cross, competition MTB, para-cycling and cycle ball know hardly anything else.
The tubular tyre, to taste the tubular without changing wheels
The profiled bead patented by Tufo turns the tubular into a tyre that fits without glue on a hooked rim. You lose 70 to 80 g per wheel and keep the rest: the pressure, the absence of pinch flats, the puncture that does not throw you to the ground. The S33 Pro, the Hi-Composite Carbon and the Elite Ride exist in this “C” version.
The tubed clincher, for simplicity
The easiest to repair anywhere, the cheapest per unit, the only one you change at the roadside with a tube in your pocket. At Tufo it takes over the compounds of the tubulars, with a Vectran barrier on the Comtura Duo and Aero. Its limits: pinch flats at low pressure, and slightly more rolling resistance because of the tube.
The tubeless ready, to ride lower
The newest construction in the range, and today the most widespread in gravel and MTB, where the absence of pinch flats allows pressures a tube could not stand. On the road, the Comtura TR and the Endurance 7 TR bring the comfort and grip of low pressures. What it requires: a tubeless rim, airtight rim tape, sealant to renew, and a pump that pops the beads.
Our opinion, by type of riding
- Road racing with tubular wheels: Elite S3 or Elite Prima for racing, S33 Pro for training.
- Clincher wheels, craving a tubular: C Hi-Composite Carbon.
- Road, every day, no fuss: tubed Comtura Duo, or Comtura 4 TR if the wheels are tubeless.
- Long distances, damaged roads: Endurance 7 TR in 32 mm.
- Gravel and MTB: tubeless ready, without hesitation — except in MTB racing on tubular wheels, where the XC2 to XC6 keep their followers.
