Originally Posted by
jimmuller
Rampar was a name Raleigh used. They sold a tub of grease like that one, same baby-puke yellow, incredibly stringy and persistent. Probably the same stuff as Campy. I would guess it was synthetic but I'm no lubricant engineer and never even played one on TV. (I see that you did say it was Campy in the description of what was "in the bag".)
You going to stay with those Conti tires? I'm just wondering what it would look like with a tan sidewall ("gumwall") tire. My Tommasini has nice, skinny & light clincher rims with Veloflex Master tires, which are very tubular-like. I'd consider tubulars for it if I was string up new wheels. I have Veloflex Criteriums on three bikes and really like them. Some may disdgree but I figure if you're going to go with tubulars you might as well go with good ones.
Thanks for the suggestion. I, too, love the look of gumwalls. I'm thinking I'll stick with the Contis till they wear out or fail. These are never going to be subjected to high-speed descents or really hard cornering, so I don't think I'm playing with fire. This is the bike for me to dip my toes in the tubular pond.
This is the next subject for me to research. I realize I should have another set ready, and know how to mount them, for when the time comes. From the little reading I've done, it sounds like there's a fair amount of prep work to get a new tubular ready to mount. The bike came with a worn seatbag that contained a spare, but it looked pretty dried out. I have no idea if it's viable for me to learn this well enough from reading to actually replace a tubular on the side of the road.