Ok here's an update. I got some tubular wheels and went out and got some fancy tubulars - FMB Paris Roubaix 27s. I mounted them according to the instructions of the shop owner and consulted with my Zinn repair manual and an online tutorial. Mounting them wasn't particularly difficult, but I did end up with some lateral wobbles I was able to mostly correct, however there are some vertical wobbles - hops - that I wasn't able to correct and I'm not happy about that. I haven't put them in a truing stand (I borrow a friend's) but I'd say the hops are at least 3mm. I've only done a short test ride, but I can feel it and I don't want to be riding these around a downhill corner at 40mph with hops like that. This just does not seem like something I should have to tolerate from $170 tires. My cheap clincher trainers spin much rounder than this.

Some info:

- the wheels are true. I had them checked in a stand before mounting the tires. Campagnolo Nucleons.
- the tires were aged and prestretched on rims at the shop I bought them from.
- the rims had been glued before, but it didn't seem lumpy or excessive. The shop agreed.
- The tires where fairly easy to get on the rims, I didn't have a problem dry mounting them to test the fit.
- I followed the typical mounting method of stretching the tire horizontally and inserting the valve and then pushing down around the rim hard. I didn't lift myself off the ground like some recommend, b/c I didn't figure these tires were that tight. The last bit of tire took some effort to get on, but not a lot, it wasn't particularly difficult.
- afterwards I had some wobbles I had to lift and reset the tire to deal with - maybe this created high spots?
- I installed the tire pretty much right after finishing the final glue layer on the rim, but it seemed really sticky and was hard to reset the tire to fix wobbles. I used Vittoria Mastik.


Any comments? These are high end tires, I'm hoping not to hear "oh well tubulars have variances that's just the way it goes". Anybody have experience with FMB? BTW I thought they were handmade in France but these were "Made in Thailand". Since it's my first time mounting tubulars I can certainly believe I didn't do the most expert job, but I took my time and followed instructions as best I could. I don't know what I'd do differently in a remount. I seems to me that it would be better if the glue was a little wetter and took more time to set so you could wiggle the tire around more easily on the rim to get it aligned.

Do hops result from the tire being bunched up in some areas and stretched out in others? It doesn't seem like it would be very easy to correct for that after you've mounted the tire, so you have to get it perfect from the get go. I tried to apply even stretching pressure as I put the tire on, but you're bent over and you have to move your hands around so that seems difficult to get perfect. On the front tire the highest spot is 1/4 the way around from the valve stem, or half way on one side from the valve to the bottom, so maybe I stopped stretching there to reset my hands and the tire stuck there unstretched?

If I take the tires off and redo them, do I have to start over applying layers of glue to the tire tape and rim or can I just put another layer on the rim? Seems like every remount is going to add a lot of glue if you have to redo 2-3 layers each time. Should I go to the trouble if stripping off all the glue from the rims?

Call me frustrated but not willing to give up. Not with what I spent!