How the Pros Use Continental Carbon Tubular Glue

On my recent trip to Interbike I spoke with one of the big-wigs of Continental who gave me the lowdown on how to properly use continental carbon tubular glue. All this information is kind of in the instructions, but it's not explained very well -and who reads instructions anyway?

Firstly, you might be wondering what the difference between carbon glue and normal glue is. Basically, the carbon glue is formulated to hold up in the extremely high heat generated from braking on a carbon rim. Can you use carbon glue on an aluminum rim? Yes, but it's harder to work with because it tends to get boogery and stiff more easily due to the low flash point of the thinning solvent. More on that later.

More importantly, here is the exact instructions on how to apply Conti carbon glue, straight from the kahuna.

1. Lightly sand the carbon rim with a fine-grain sand paper. This is just to rough it up, don't take off any carbon layers. After that, clean the rim and tire casing with alcohol or acetone. After you do this make sure you don't get your greasy fingers on the newly cleaned surfaces -wear gloves.

2. Apply ONE thin, even coat to the tire. Work quickly because like I said the stuff dries fast.

3. Apply ONE thin, even coat to the rim. You can use the side of the glue tube to spread the glue if you don't have an acid brush handy.

4. Let those two layers sit for at least 3 hours, optimally 12.

5. Apply a layer of glue to the tire and work it on to the rim. You put the glue on the tire because you want it to soak into the cotton casing a little bit.

NOW I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING HERE. You think you need to layer a few more coats on the rim and tire, get a nice build-up before we go jamming tires on rims. That's how I've been doing it because that's how I was taught. But NO, says Captain Conti, and this is why: The solvent in the glue evaporates quickly initially, but there is still traces of solvent in there for a while after it feels dry. If you put a layer of glue on top of another layer you'll trap the solvent and the glue job will always be weaker for it. This "Degassing" process takes at least a day once the tire is on the rim. Which brings us to the final step-

6. Fill the tire to it's maximum PSI and let it sit for at least 24 hours, but longer is better.
If you like to put protectant on the sidewalls you can do that after the initial 24 hour "degassing".

SO, for carbon glue you're looking at a 2-3 day glue job as opposed to the 4-5 day glue job of a regular tubular glue. Feel free to add any tips or tricks you know in the comments section.

Olympian Bobby Lea knows the importance of a good tubi-glue

 Railing a corner at Cross Vegas is a bad time to roll a tire, as the guy behind this fellow learned.