g-funk,
Super Corsa? Cinelli or Bianchi?
There are a lot of tubular tips if you search but my VERY short list would be.
- Pre-stretch the tire by standing inside tire and gently yet firmly pull up on it, rotate a bit and repeat until you have gone all the way around.
- Put on dry rims, inflate a tiny bit, straighten, inflate to 120 lbs or so. Leave on rims for a week or so.
- Clean the old crap off your rims, rough them up with sand paper or steel wool. Clean with Acetone.
- **BEST TIP EVER** , not mine but out of the archives, Mask off the side walls of your rims with masking tape!! I use strips about 10 inches long in a straight line and overlap them around the rims. Then take a sharp blade and run it around the rim and trim off the edge above the rim.
- File or sandpaper the base tape to knock off the latex gloss and rough it up.
- I use disposable flux brushes that you can buy at Home Depot/Lowes to spread the glue.
- One light even coat on the rims and let dry.
- Inflate the tires until they start to roll inside out and then carefully glue the base tape from edge to edge all around the tire.
- When the tires are completely dry put another coat of glue on ONE rim, deflate (I leave a little air in) the tire and mount it as straight as possible. Inflate till slightly firm and adjust the tire on rim so that the sidewalls are even on both sides and then inflate to 120 lbs or so and give them a spin. If they look wonky, deflate a little and straighten again.
- When straight, inflate to 120 lbs or so and leave them for at least 24 hrs.
Tubular tips are often controversial, in terms of what is absolutely essential versus what's a nice added touch. I think VIP's brief gluing instructions are superb and all of his points are necessary, with the possible exceptions of the importance of pre-stretching and of rim cleaning. Excessive stretching force can damage the cotton or nylon carcass of the tire. Rim tire seats do need to provide an even gluing surface, but it does not HAVE to be clean roughed metal. Once a layer of glue has established a good adhesion with the rim seat, why remove it? It does make sense to remove lumpy build-ups, just so the tire has the best chance of running true. Plus, acetone is not a particularly healthy solvent to be using. I use an old butter knife and pointy-nose pliers to push and pick off any particularly nasty glue blobs, then just go ahead and glue it.
I would limit stretching to putting the tire on a tubular rim and inflating to full pressure for a while. But I have installed unstretched tires without breaking any fingers or using any levers, so IMO stretching is not absolutely required.
Roughing up new or already cleaned surfaces is a great idea, as is the masking tape on the braking faces.
Road Fan