Originally Posted by
gaucho777
Jeff, I'm late to the party. A lot of great input in this thread, but first...your Alpina is gorgeous. All you bikes are special, and this is no exception. The drillium work is fantastic. I can see why you'd be reluctant to despoil such a beauty with usage but you have more willpower than I do!
As for the tubulars, another +1 to Veloflex tubulars. I've been riding tubulars since I was a teenager in the mid-80s, and have ridden lots of different options--new and vintage, high-end and entry-level tubulars. I was initially turned off by the large font graphics of the Veloflex tires, but after a few hundred miles on some 28mm Veloflex Vlaanderens, I'm sold.
+1 to Stans sealant: I haven't tried a lot of other sealants, but sealants in general are a game-changer. They used to be race-day only tires, because you never wanted to flat at the beginning of a ride and then worry about rolling a tire the rest of a ride. Being able to fix most flats with sealants, and not have to mount an unglued spare, makes a huge difference. Plus avoiding the obvious hassle of repairing and reglueing the tire after each flat/slow leak.
I'm still an glue over tape guy, but haven't tried any of the tape. If it ain't broke...
Thank you! Honestly, the only bit I'm concerned about putting visible wear on are the pristine sidewalls of both mint wheelsets. The drillium stuff is almost all de-anodized so if it got scratched up I'll just get out the files and polish to put the damage right. By the way, it weighed 20.1 lbs on a friend's fishing scale as he held it in front of him and I steadied the front wheel. For whatever that's worth; it's obviously lighter than anything else including the 53cm Colnago. The wheels make all the difference and I'm hoping that translates into F1 performance on the road
I hear such wonderful things about Veloflex - but I just can't get past that obnoxiously-huge logo. When trying to put together a low-key statement it's hard to accomplish with the half-circumference labeling of today. I remember when the Vittoria Open Corsa series labels seemed large; now they represent my new normal - but that's as big as I'll go. Petty? Of course
Once I get feedback on my couple questions I've decided I will glue up a pair of my existing tubulars onto the SSCs to serve as a ready-spare wheelset. I have plenty of those disposable blue gloves so hopefully the mess can be kept to a minimum. At least the tires have been pre-stretched for a long time and should go on easily. My only fear is the glue setting before I get the tire centered how I like - and just imagine how OCD I might be about that!
Anyway, like wheelbuilding (which I hope to do this year), I've gotta glue up and use at least one pair of tubulars, right? Right
DD