I was riding modern this morning for my pre-breakfast 10 miles, however I took the one modern bike that I'm always running sew-ups. Vittoria Rallyes. Uh, very, very, very worn Vittoria Rallyes, at least on the rear.

I do my loop, get home and wheel the bike into the workshop, figuring I'll go out again after work today. I glance down and what do I see? The tube starting to work its way through a 1/16th inch hole in the casing, dead center of the tread (like I said, they're worn).

I start at it for about a minute, not believing my good fortune, and while I'm looking the tube pops. That's twice now that a fatally damaged Rallye has gotten me home before dying.

I don't ride tubs, but this summer has been the season of flat tires for me. I've had at least 10 this summer. I've gotten exceptionally good at quickly fixing flats on the side of the road.

The other interesting thing is that out of all of those flats, the majority of them happened a similar way: I get home and hear "shhhhhhh" and before you know it the tire has gone totally flat.

Glad you made it back in time, though I'm really surprised you managed to wear down all the thread on your Rallyes. I bought three Rallyes, and flatted two of them within 100 miles or so. I still have one mounted with only a couple hundred miles on it, but I'm expecting it to blow at any moment.

That's some good luck. I had a clincher tire bulge out on me during a 55 mile training ride this spring. I was still about 23 miles from home when I found it. I let some air out of the tube to reduce the size of the bulge and made it home ok.

I find that Rallyes have a very on/off reputation for reliability. I've been riding them almost exclusively since 2005, ride about 5500 miles a year, average one to two punctures a year, and have never had one wear out what I'd consider prematurely. Unfortunately, I don't keep mileage records as to when I change tyres, but I've never gotten less than a season out of a tyre. That mileage is divided between 11 bikes, by the way, so 500 miles per bike is a good average.

With the luck I've had, I can't see bothering to look for anything else, especially since they're available at reasonable prices at the local Performance Bike about two miles from my place of employment.

You are definitely right about the on/off reputation. I've read a lot of comments on this forum about Vittoria Rallyes, and people tend to love 'em or hate 'em. Who knows, maybe I'll wear my remaining tire down to the threads, too. Some will say it's not worth the risk (and, perhaps, rightfully so), but it's a good feeling when you can get every last mile out of a tire.

So these sew ups can't be sewn up again?



Looking at this illustration, I guess I can understand.

Oh, they can be repaired, and I'm not averse to repairing tubulars. I did repair one of the two Rallye which flatted on me (now a spare). The other had a flat at the valve stem. Now that I think about it, it may have been a valve stem failure and not a flat; I wasn't 100% sure once I got the casing open. It was late, and after fixing the first tire and not being certain if in fact air was coming from the base of the valve stem as it seemed, I decided to just scrap the 2nd.