Originally Posted by
Fox Farm
I ride tubulars and do not race on them. These wheels are my regular every day training and do every thing wheels. I have gotten much fewer flats than with my clinchers. I also use the Tufo tire sealant which will plug a hole up to 2mm. If you can get these wheels for a good price and can shop around to find a good set of tubular tires, why the heck not********** I have used Conti Sprinters, Victoria, and Tufo and like the Czech Tufos the best. They can range from high 40s to high 80s in price. Shop around.
There are also some really good buys in lower-price sew-ups. Vittoria Rallyes have a Kevlar belt and list for $30 and can be on Ebay as low as $30/pair. Yellow Jersey sells a house brand Servizio Corse, three for $50 if I recall, and these go on straight but have no Kevlar. Continental Giros are very similar to these two and list for $30 each or so, and I don't see them discounted very often. You'll get a lot of argument about these tires, but some of us use them regularly.
If you bought a trio of the Servizios, you'd have a ready supply of spares. Repair (do it at home, not on the road shoulder) takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on if I'm in practice. If you want to defer your patching for the winter, having a brace of spares is a good idea. In the old days Panasonic sold tire for around $8.00 each, and this was often used as a disposable.