As above. Any roadies on here use them? Or just racers?
I'm looking at carbon wheelsets on ebay, and many of the sets on there are tubular.
EDIT: I should add that I am not tempted by them; I'm just curious.
I use them quite a bit, actually every day on the commuter, plus I run my CX bike with road tubs in spring and summer. Then there's the TT bike, but it's fairly standard to run tubulars for testing. And CX, obviously. So I guess I like them!
As far as the road goes it's dead easy really due to the good tapes you can get, miles simpler than the glueing ritual necessary for cyclocross. Punctures are pretty rare out on the open road IME, so whilst you do need to be prepared, there's seldom any hassle. This is a drawback, though, having to take a spare tyre rolled up under the seat if you're doing any serious distance. Common to use a track tyre as the spare as they roll up really small like an inner tube. Some designs of tubulars [tufos] can also be fixed with sealant in the event of a puncture [quite reliably, as I do get punctures on my urban commute].
One good reason for running them is to do with the inherently flawed design of carbon rims, rim brakes and clincher tyres for sustained, heavy braking [ie on big snakey descents]. Not such an issue in the UK but I personally wouldn't ride carbon clinchers regardless. This issue is now going away, though, with disk-braked road bikes.
Now tubeless is so easy & reliable the hassle of tubular tyres seems to make them more and more pointless.
We've had 3 dyed in the wool road riders convert from tubular to tubeless this year as they were fed up of the expense, puncture hassles & unreliability of tubular.
Not the hassle many believe them to be. I seem to get less puntures. In the old days many used them so there were plenty of spares on a club run although I can't remember 2 being needed. Modern wired ons are nicer so the need is less.
I still us them on my older road bikes and the trike.
Hate tape, its less forgiving and when you remove a tub half stays on the rim and half on the tub. Useless on the side of the road. Anyway gluing is part of the fun.
If I was still racing CX, then yes. For road racing there are some benefits - stronger. lighter wheels, better puncture resistance but not for general riding.
I use them on the nice bike - Paves on Ambrosio Nemesis in the winter and Schwalbe Ones on 40mm carbons in the summer.
I use them on the CX bike (naturally) and I have a pair of Dugast for my mountain bike too. I really like them!
Got them on the TT bike just cos those are the cheapest way to get a disc rear / Tri spoke front.
I would use them for road racing too but I have a nice set of tubeless, can't believe tubs are massively better. Repairing a puncture when I'm racing is fairly irrelevant either way cos I don't carry anything to repair roadside.
Modern open tubulars and latex tubes have rendered them largely irrelevant, unless a spare arrives with the rising of your right arm. I have some on a fixed wheel, but the magic ride is available on clinchers now. Weight savings are real, but relatively modest at about 100g/end.
And for testing, it's tubeless Corsa Speeds. Get with the watt-saving program.
I used to use tubulars for hillclimb racing when I lived in Japan. The distances were fairly short so the chances of a puncture were small, and every gramme saved helped. Almost never used them outside of racing though. Partly the hassle of getting a flat while out in the mountains and partly because the old Zipp wheels they were glued to had nasty pulsing, ineffective or grabby braking which took the fun out of the downhills.
I'd use tubeless instead these days.