Ed.

Hey, that sock is my defense from marauding wopeople. It seems to work.

Oh, and how about 'svelte' or 'scintillating' Santana - much better than 'lonely'.

Ed.

If one's flats are predominately caused by large cuts, and seldom by something 'small', that might well serve as a 'qualified' 'quantifier'. Tiresavers certainly don't give one license to ride blithely over all matter of road debris, but with more than a modicum of attention, IMHO, they make a big difference. 'Don't leave home without them.'

jimmuller 

Hey, waitaminute. Our tandem's a Peugeot, not a Santana. On second thought, wasn't Santana that rock group that recorded Oy Vey or something?

jimmuller 

Oh, I'm not a dissatisfied customer at all. I have two sets from you, I think both brass. I had been thinking about the noise issue before I ever mounted them. I guess I like the tires to be quiet. There have been rides when a slight tailwind made the air around me silent and all I could hear was a gentle whisper of the tires on pavement, such a sweet sound. I haven't decided what to do with them. But let me get this straight, I'm supposed to bend them so that they really don't touch the tire and the force of wind between tire and wire is enough to blow any glass fragments off the tire? Ah, um, okay...

I wooden be two shure of that if I wuz you. (Thanks.)

One thing I've found about tubulars, in order to prep a spare you need an bare wheel to stretch it. That means pulling a good tire off a rim if all your wheels have tires mounted. So it helps to have a spare wheel laying around.

A truing stand is a great mount for applying glue to the rim, FWIW and in case it isn't obvious.

OldsCOOL

Wasnt obvious to me, a noob anxiously awaiting initiation to the sewup cult.

Thank you, I needed an excuse to rig up a truing stand. Then follows the logical conclusion of wheel building.

SJX426 

Or just touching the tire would work too. Your choice. I have done both depending on the tire tread design and how much noise they generate. I can't comment on wind force blowing glass fragments off the tire. If the space between the tire and the wire is small enough to allow the glass to stay on the tire, the glass might be too small to penetrate through the tread anyway.

DOT should commission a research study and award it to you! I would be happy to assist and don't forget your supplier!

jimmuller 

And the source of all the great ideas too.

Um, FWIW, the radius of curvature of the wire running over the tire is substantially greater than the cross-sectional radius of a 23mm tire. So it really comes into contact or near-contact only at the cernter of the tread, or slightly to the side of the center in the TS isn't bent or installed to ride exactly in the center. Which is to say much of the side of the tread is still unprotected. Which is one more reason I wasn't sold on the idea.

I had intended one set to go on the Masi, one on the Motobecane. As I say, I am undecided on what to do next. Still considering.

SJX426 

@jimmuller - I often change the radius of the wire to match the tire better. Sometimes that necessitates bending the wire mount as well, to line up the ends of the two pieces.

jimmuller 

Speaking of tubulars... I posted about this elsewhere but this thread seem appropriate too.

The comute home was eventful in an offbeat way. A few miles from home I came upon another cyclist standing beside his parked bike so I stopped and asked if he was okay. His rear tire had blown and he was trying to flag down a car (he said he was hoping for a truck but he wouldn't have seen many on that road) to carry him the 2 miles or so to Belmont Wheelworks in Waverley Square. I said I'd give hm a tube or patch his except that I was riding sew-ups. After a few moments of discussion I recalled that someone on BF had posted about someone putting a sew-up on a clincher rim in a pinch. So I pulled out one of the two spares I was carrying and put it on his rim, pumped it, and we rode away!



I suggested he might want to be careful, especially as the route involved one downhill where you can easily hit 35mph. A short while later we pulled into Belmont Wheelworks, I got my tire back, and he went to the counter to buy a tube.

One noteworthy thing about this incident is that when I went to pump up the tire I found the tip of the valve stem was gone. Just gone. I think it might have broken off. Or been eaten. Or vanished into thin air. Since the valve is held closed by the air pressure there was no problem pumping it up. But it makes me wonder if that tube has a removable core. The tube was put in by TireAlert and I have no idea what he used except that it doesn't appear to be the lightweight tube I requested.

Life is full of mysteries.

gaucho777 

^Jim, did you look down the valve? The end of the valve must have snapped off leaving the business part of the valve core still inside. When I wear out a tubular tire, I sometimes unscrew the valve core and toss it in my tubular repair kit as a back-up before disposing of the rest of the tire. At the bottom of the valve core is a washer/seal that is closed from the inside due to the tire's air pressure. Although the top of the valve was broken off, the tire wouldn't have held air without the rest of the valve.


Stan's sell replacement valve cores, or you can just keep using the tire as a spare. You'll just need to poke a wire/nail/etc. down the valve to let out the air.

Chombi

What I don't like about new tubs is they usually have needlessly (to most of us C&Vers) long valve stems meant to accommodate the deep section aero rims of today. So with no-so-tall C&V tubular rims, the stem sticks way out of the rims and mostly ends up as a irritating heavy spot on the wheel that sometimes rattle on bumps.
If the tire does not have a removable stem of some sort, I don't think there's a real solution to shorten the stem, but just in case anyone knows of one......
Can you just cut those buggers shorter and stick a shorter valve in them??

jimmuller 

Yes, and there was just a small shaft that didn't quite reach the end of the casing and which would fall down into shaft toward the tire with no pressure to hold it in place. When I got home I checked it out. The tip appears to have broken off (or something ate it - we've been having trouble with brass-eating monsters lately). The valve did unscrew nicely. I happened to have a clincher tube ready to be tossed, having been patched for the fourth time last week. I took the valve out of it and stuck it in the tubular. It seemed to fit nicely. Mystery solved, problem solved.

jimmuller 

Good question. How far down are they threaded inside?

pastorbobnlnh 

Time to experiment with an old tube and those extra long valve stems. Who knows, maybe the threads can be extended deeper with a tap.

@jimmuller, when you looked down the inside of the stem for the remnants of the valve, did you look through or over your spectacles?

My own tubular update:

I've been moving very slowly, cautiously, and with great timidity into the "Tubular Experience."

• Cleaned the rims of old cement in February.
• 
  
• Ordered new tires and stretched them in March.
• 
  
• Watched the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires.
• 
  
• Ordered tire savers from @rootboy sometime this Spring.
• 
  
• Repaired three old and leaking tubulars in April (just so I can say I did a few, and I was successful on two).
• 
  
• Re-watched the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires.
• 
  
• Did nothing in May except to re-watch the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires
• 
  
• Applied Vittoria Mastik to rims and tires over the weekend. Got absolutely no glue on me, the braking surface of the rims, or the tire side walls.
• 
  
• Re-watched the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires.
• 
  
• If it rains this afternoon, I might become brave enough to apply the final wet layer of glue to the rims and mount the tires.
• 
  
• Or, I might just re-watch the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires.

jimmuller 

Great idea. Get some metal shavings inside the tube so you'll never know where your next flat came from!

My eyes aren't as goof as they usef to ve.


You need a video of some Italian guy gluing tires.

Ed.

ROTFL. I have projects like that. When I get to the 'watch the video' part, I just sit down with a cup of tea... (I dunno if the project continues any faster, but the tea is good.)

ppg677

I've got about 350 miles on Vittoria Corsa Elite tubular tires. The front flatted after 150 miles. The rear just flatted on me last weekend.

Previously with Continental GP4000s, I would typically go 1000 miles between flats.

CV-6 

Ribble has the Vittoria Corsa SC back in stock at $53.99. There is a 10% coupon also good through today. I am interested to see how they compare with FMB, Dugast, and Veloflex.

Blue Belly

If you're building up such a beautiful classic bike, don't build it with donor rims unless they are the right ones for you. It will make all the difference. What is your weight? Generally I ride mavic rims, GP4 in the Back, GL330 up front. Both on low flange hubs. I'm almost always between 170-180lbs. Depending on your weight, you could use some combination of those, or even go down to GL280, if you are a lighter rider. A great set of wheels aren't that expensive, for classic bikes. More than worth every penny.

Concerning tires, you'll get a lot of debate. Higher end Vittoria's are really nice for a lower mileage tire. Tough to beat. Personally, I ride sewups full time & prize durability, most. So I m forced to make compromises on tires.
Enjoy the beautiful bike!

pastorbobnlnh 

UPDATE:

With fear and trembling I glued my first set on Sunday. But first (to @jimmuller and @Ed. delight) I watched yet again "the video of the English Track Chap gluing tires."

The Good news:

I was successful and I did not get a stray lick of glue on the tire sidewall, rim braking surface, or myself!

The Bad news:

First, it appears that the front tire has a "hump" in it about 4-6" away from the valve stem. When I spin the tire this hump actually comes close to touching the bottom of the brake caliper (Shimano 105 SC). Any guidance or suggestions? FWIIW, the tires are 25mm Continental Gatorskins.

Second, I tried to make @rootboy 's tire savers work with the recessed nuts on the 105 SC calipers. So far they are a no-go. I could easily bend the brass wire to fit the nut and it could still grab the caliper bolt, but there was not enough room for the plastic tubing to clear the underside of the brake caliper and the tires. This was especially the case where the front tire's "hump" kept hitting the plastic tubing.

Third, even though the hub (low flange Campagnolo Record) is spaced at 126mm for my '83 Paramount, the 7 speed Sachs freewheel is too wide. I've been running a 7 speed Sachs with the 7 speed indexed Shimano 105 down tube shifters flawlessly for several years. I guess I will need to run a 6 speed freewheel in friction mode.

Ex Pres 

Challenge brand tire delamination update:

I know some have had experience with Challenge tubulars delaminating. You can add me to the list. Hit a terrible train track Saturday, and developed a slow leak. Upon inspecting the tire, I noticed that the tread was peeling off as well. These were some I had picked up cheap - Challenge Triathlons, too narrow for me, but I was going to ride them till the tread wore out. Well, the rear is gone early. They did ride nice, however, as I could tell a difference riding home after mounting the spare (Rally 23's).

OldsCOOL

What do you think caused the hump?

Ed.

Hmmm. Interesting. No idea. I presume there was no hump when you first mounted it (unglued) to a rim... If that was the case (and perhaps it was, but remained unnoticed), I'd try removing and redoing. You could try pumping it up to riding pressure (unmounted) and then checking that area of the tire to see if there's some sort of deformation in the tire itself.

dtpga

SJX426, I would be interested in hearing more about your journey to go all tubulars. I am considering my first tubular wheelset but have read so much about tape vs. glue, high dollar tire vs. low. I think most respond because that's the traditional way and not necessarily todays best. If you pick up some nugget of truth along the way, please share!
DT

ppg677

I'm giving them a fair shot. So far I've had my share of frustrations around gluing, re-gluing, ripped base tape, and 2 flats in 400 miles. But I sure like being able to run narrow tires at a low PSI without worrying about pinch flats. Then again maybe that's why I've seen 2 flats in 400 miles?!