Bicycle Mechanics - What a pain!!!

Just changed my first set of sew ups.:mad: They are a pain in the a**. Have a question though, what is the trick to not getting the glue on the side wall? What is the best way to apply the glue? Hopefully I don't have to do this again for some time, but the glue, sticks to every thing, any suggestions would deffinitly be appriciated.
Slainte:beer:
Matt

If you have the luxury of time, you might start by putting the tire onto a dry rim, pumping it up to full pressure and letting it sit for a day or two, to get it to stretch out a little. The extra slack helps. This also identifies tires with bad tubes.

When installing a tubular, I generally put a coat of glue on the rim, a coat on the tire, then let them tack up. Then I applied another coat to the rim and set it valve-hole-up on a piece of clean cardboard, leaning against my knees, let the tire pressure down until it was soft, put the valve through the hole and began stretching the tire on.

At the halfway point, I would bear my weight very hard on the tire, stretching the top half that I'd mounted to the rim, and keep the tension on as I eased it onto the rim on the bottom half, while watching the valve to ensure it stayed straight.

When I got to the bottom, I rolled the tire on to avoid getting the glue into contact with the side of the rim. Then I'd pump it up a bit and begin aligning the tire to the rim. Finally, I'd pump it up all the way so the glue came under full pressure. Ideally, a little bead of glue would peek out from between the tire and rim. Because the freshest glue is on the rim, not the tire, it's a bit less prone to getting where you don't want it.

I used nitrile gloves for this, sure saves a lot of stickiness :) and usually came away with some cleanup to do regardless, both to me and the wheel. As you probably know, it's a good idea to wait ~24 hours before taking the wheels out on the road, to let the cement cure.

Thanks for the info. It seems I will have to do my own tire changes since very few mechs around here will change a tubular and the ones that will charge way to much. The tire will get used tomorrow but I did the work this morning so it should be set by then. Again, thanks for the info.
Slainte:beer:
Matt

Do the tires have removable valve cores? If so, I can recommend this stuff for sealing small punctures: http://www.trisports.com/tufosealant.html

If you use it, it can also gum up your valve core. A dose of Gripshift grease on the valve's sealing area would help. I would go with 1/2 tube per wheel although TUFO claims you don't need that much. An ounce of prevention... yep. :) It will seal small holes on-the-fly, so if you find a fine thread of latex sticking to your frame or fork, that's probably what happened.

edit: I see they have two sizes now. I'm thinking the bigger 70ml size is the one that I was used to, which we used to treat two tires.

TUFO sealant does work well, but only use 14ml in each tyre. The tyre must have a removable core. What tyres are you riding on?

Letting the glue get tacky before mounting will reduce the amount you get on the sidewalls. Also, only use good amber or claer glue. That nasty white crap (tubasti, gutta, etc) ain't worth squat!

To get glue off the sidewalls, a cotton ball with a bit of acetone works wonders. Just don't use too much!

I almost mistakenly bought sew ups yesterday. I knew I didn't want/need them, but I'm not sure why sew ups even exist. Can someone emlighten me as to the value of sew ups? TIA.

A couple of reasons that I thought of:

They can be made lighter than a clincher setup, partly because the tire has no beads and partly because the rim doesn't need hooked edges to hold the beads.
More of the tire casing can deflect, possibly allowing for a smoother ride and lower risk of pinch flats.
Tradition... clinchers weren't always such strong competition for tubulars in performance or weight.
Alternate materials in rims... take Zipp's all-carbon tubular rims for example. Making this type of rim without metal pretty-much eliminates the possibility of using clinchers.

http://www.zipp.com/rims/images/280_245_sm.jpg

On long rides I will still use my clinchers for the ease of fixing a flat. For the shorter rides I will put my tubulars on. They do seem to have a smoother ride and with the higher psi they roll much better. The tires I usually run are Continental sport250. Right now I am running Conti. Gyros. I plan on trying differant tires to find out which I like best. Any suggestions would be great. The rides I use the tubulars for are any where from 60 to 90km and the roads have a lot of tight hair pin turns and a few long decents that get your speeds up to 70kph+.
Slainte:beer:
Matt

Well, I tried Giros once, and I still carry one as a spare. The only problem with them (other than the fact they puncture extremely easily) is that they are never round. Vittoria Rally's are worse, but only by a little.

If you are going to ride on tubulars, buy some decent ones. If you want to continue with Continental, get a set of Sprinters and perfect your repair techniques. If you can't afford better tyres, then try switching to Tufo S22's. For about the same price as a junky thai-built Giro, you will get a tyre that is well-made, puncture resistant, and most of all, it's round!! Also, with Tufo. you will never need to do the needle-and-thread thing. If the sealant isn't enough to fix a puncture (it usually is, BTW), then just toss it.

I am not stuck on using Conti. They are what most shops around here cary. Money is not a prob. so if you could let me know what makes and model tires are good I would appreciate it.
Slainte :beer:

DirtbikeDude,

I've been using Conti Sprinters and have
been really happy with them. I do carry some
cheap tubulars for spares, if only to get me home.
I think they are well worth the hassle of gluing
given the ride.
One word of advice don't ride cheap tubulars
I've heard that Veloflex are pretty good but don't
have any experience with them.
Consistently hear that Tufo's are great.

Marty

I was all set to glue on a new tubular this weekend and found that I was out of my usual glue (Panasonic Panacement) so I used a tube of Vittoria mastic. Yecch. Glue all over the place.

I recommend Panacement but I�fm not sure if they sell it in the USA. I put a liberal coating on the rim, and none on the tire. Let it dry for a full half-hour. It will feel only the slightest bit tacky. Mount the tire and no glue will get on the sidewalls or on your hands but the tire will bond to the rim so hard that it can�ft be removed without a tire lever.

For removing the tire I use a single round aluminum lever and roll it under the tire, breaking the bond a few centimeters at a time.