Effetto Mariposa’s Carogna Tubular Gluing Tape Makes Regular Glue Look Bad
The ditch runs across the course at the bottom of a long, fast descent. It’s about a foot deep, two feet across, and slightly off-camber. As I rolled through—fast—on the third, or fourth, or fifth circuit (who can really tell when you’re going round in circles), I chose to pedal through. And I clipped my pedal.
For those unfamiliar with cyclocross, clipping a pedal in a situation like this causes the bike’s rear end to jack up in the air and the whole thing to pivot; the rear comes down at an angle, and either skitters across the ground or catches. If you have tubulars, as I did, this can expose the weakness of your glue job—few will hold up under this type of force. I heard the tire roll over, and the buzz of the tread hitting the chainstay. Remarkably, my tire stayed on.
Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t using glue: These tires were stuck on with tape.
To say I was skeptical about Effetto Mariposa’s Carogna (pronounced: Car-own-ya) tubular tape might be a bit of an understatement. I’ve been gluing tires for both road racing and cyclocross nearly 25 years now, and my track record for keeping tires on the rim is pretty solid. My repair methods have generally stayed the same; I’ve tried different tub tapes (products used on their own, with no supplemental glue), and on the whole they’ve been completely unimpressive.
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Until I tried Carogna tape. In a typical glue job for cyclocross, thin layers of glue are applied to the rim and base tape and allowed to dry between coats. Before sticking the tire, I apply Belgian tape to the rim, then one more layer of glue. It’s time consuming and labor intensive. It also stinks to high heaven. With the Carogna tape, there is little fuss and no smell. Taping takes about 10 minutes per wheel, and positioning the tire to run true is easier. Attaching tubulars to the rim with Carogna is also a much simpler affair. The tape works well on both carbon and aluminum rims; any type of tire, be it nylon, cotton, or poly-cotton; and all sorts of external finishes (raw, brushed, vulcanized, or coated by neoprene).
So far so good. I’ve got about 15 hours of riding on the Carogna taped wheels, and have been running pressures down to the high teens with no peeling, and little to suggest the tires could come off inadvertently. I’ve been on a mixture of farm-tracks, trails, dirt roads, and singletrack; I’ve skidded, thrashed, and pushed the tires as hard as I can, and they have stayed on. Both Clement LAS and Challenge Chicanes were used, and both stuck equally well. Because the testing was done over the summer, I can’t speak to Effeto Mariposa’s cold weather claims, but I did ride in plenty of mud and water with no problems. I’m impressed enough that I ordered a roll to glue up other wheels.
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Interested in trying out the tape yourself? Here are a few things you should know.
Carogna tape has two distinct sides. The exposed side with a lighter adhesive gets stuck to the rim, while the side with backing tape’s heavier adhesive grabs the tire’s base-tape.
Bond now, ride a day later. Both adhesives are pressure-activated and reach maximum bond in about a day. (In a pinch, Effeto Mariposa says they can be used after eight hours of curing). Working temps for installation are best kept between 70 and 100 degrees, but the performance range once cured is claimed to be -40 to 300 degrees. (I don’t plan on a trip to Mars anytime soon, so don’t look for a test of that range.)
Make sure to buy the right size. The tape comes in two widths: 25mm (medium) and 16.5mm (small). The 16mm tape works on rims up to 21mm at the rim bed, and the medium is for rims wider than that. (If the tape overhangs the edge of the rim, it can easily be trimmed with scissors or a razor blade.) The tape runs about $14 for a single-wheel roll, and $7 per wheel when you buy the 16-meter shop roll.
Easy on, easy off. The tape can be rolled off the tires, but leaves a glue residue on the base tape. At about 2.5mm thick, the tape was able to span imperfections easily in the base tape and, upon inspection, had a good bond over the entirety of the rim and base tape.
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