Here's an update. I've been riding this thing around today and yesterday, and I really am in love with it. A new chain took care of the grumbling in the drivetrain. The old one was significantly stretched. I took it on a quick 5 mile loop including pavement and a dirt road, and it performed beautifully. I wanted to take it on a real ride, but I don't trust the tires. Maybe I'm over reacting, but they seem like a couple of ticking time bombs on an otherwise very solid bike.

SO I think I've determined to simply replace the tires. Currently it's got a Clement Futrox on the front, and A Gommitallia Champion on the rear. The one on the front has significantly cracked rubber, and the sidewalls look dry, and the backing cloth is fraying, but it's probably fairly sound for now. THe rear is more worrisome the rubber looke fine, but it has visible lumps under the rubber and the sidewalls look about ready to fray. I think it's pretty clear the casing fabric is about ready to start coming apart on me.

My inclination is to spend $30-$40 to replace the tires with new tires that are similar to the ones on there, but a lot of people on this forum seem to warn against buying inexpensive tubulars. So I wonder how much improvement I would have from spending $80 on Gomittalia Espressos. The bike is a very nice well abused race bike, and I love the way it rides, but I am never going to race it, so what are the real benefits I will see from spending $80 on tires. I've never spent anywhere near $80 on a pair of tires, and doing so on a bike which is essentially a very lovely beater seems counter intuitive. Maybe I should be posting the question in my tubulars thread, but over there people seemed to be saying I should be spending $60 a tire for tubulars, and I wonder if they really understood the question.

My other option of course is to re-lace the rear hub to a clincher rim and run clinchers, but I think I'm inclined to run it just like it is for now. Maybe down the road I'll start upgrading to more modern components, but for now I think I'm better off just riding it as it is, and getting a feel for what I like about it and what I don't before I get to excited about changing things. So whatcha think. Should I invest in good tubies, or spend $30 on Clement Futrox, or Gomitallia Champions?