Since I am a distributor for Tufo Tires, my favorite brand of tires is no surprise. I wanted to give some logical reasons but while thinking about tubulars, I was stumped by this issue:
Most experienced riders of tubulars like to feel the sidewalls: the more supple the sidewall, the better the feel and in theory, less rolling resistance. The feel test is a substitute for knowing the thread per inch count of the tire. And, in theory, the higher the thread count, the more supple the tire.
It seems in my research the highest real thread count is around 290 tpi. Victoria's tires seem to have the highest thread count followed by Tufo which has a 220 tpi series of tires. You have to be careful about thread counts. For instance, Continental says their thread count is 430 tpi for their top of the line clincher tires but they note that is total thread count of five layers! The same is true of their tubulars.
So before I tout Tufo's, some riders will feel a Tufo sidewall and correctly determine that is isn't a supple as a Victoria. And for good reason: the Tufo tire is tubeless but the inside of the casing is vulcanized with a butyl rubber compound. So you're feeling both the tires and sort of a tube. On other tires, you don't really feel the tube.
If you pumped up a Victoria and a Tufo, they would feel close to the same. So perhaps the feel test isn't fair. On the question of rolling resistance, however, there seems to be general agreement that a tubeless tire has less rolling resistance than a tire with a separate tube. My thinking is this is why Tufo tires have a good reputation of low rolling resistance but not quite the feel of a traditional tubular.
Since I'm not an engineer and hardly a good mechanic, I'm wondering if my thought process is correct?
Jim Cushing-murray
Del Mar CA