InternetDisease

taping tubulars.. pheh!

acoldspoon

Me too, no problems at all with Contis and extreme tapes.

acoldspoon

Have you tried it? What tape/s have you tired?

frymaster

nitrile gloves? i just use baggies: much cheaper and almost as good.

the tires i've been using for a while now are veloflexes


they don't hold air worth a damn. i've been through three now and they all needed to be pumped up every second day. 10 bar, though. and they ride beautifully! (at least on the road bike. i don't run them on the fg)

as for tape, i wouldn't bother. cement will hold better and isn't really all that much more work once you have a good base coat on the rim. i use the vittoria mastik one

piwonka

yeah, nitrile gloves. i have htem around because i use them sometimes when i'm working on the car.

yeah, gluing isn't that big of a deal once you get a basecoat on the rim.

the veloflex's are supposed to be a super super nice tire. they lose air because they have a really nice tube in them.

i use mastik one or continental glue.

the conti podium i have on a bike rides pretty nice. it probably has a latex tube because it loses air pretty quick, it's a 19mm tire and it doesn't really fit the ambrosio montreal very well. i'm gonna order a few 21mm vitorria evo somethings(probably cx) pretty soon here and put the 19's on the saavedra turbos i have because that is a narrower.

acoldspoon

Have you actually the Tufo Extreme Tape? The only glue I've ever used that came close to this holding power was 3M Fastack. You have to be careful not to rip the base tape off when unmounting a tire, just like with Fastack. And it saves a whole lot of prep work, as no base coat or wait time is needed. You can argue that this stuff is expensive, but I'd be hard pressed to agree that it isn't otherwise better. I just don't see a reason to use glue anymore with these tape options coming to market. Nope, don't miss glue at all.

frymaster

well, this study here shows that 3m fastack is way down the list for adhesion quality and vittoria mastik one is up at the top. as for tape: i've never used the tufo 'extreme' but the last time i looked at the tufo tape (when only 'regular' was available. the yellow stuff) i was told that the max temperature for it was 73 degrees. that's only 22 celsius!

andre nickatina

The Extreme tape can handle much higher temperatures. From what I hear, the regular tape is crap anyway and the Extreme is the only stuff to mess with.

piwonka

mastik one is plenty strong enough for me. i've torn the basetape on many a tire not being very careful pulling them off. it's so strong that i go light on the glue for a short section on the tire opposite the valvestem so that i can actually get a tire lever in between the rim and the basetape without making my fingers feel like they are about to bleed.

frymaster

that sounds like it makes more sense. the whole "tire bond fails at room temperature" line just didn't seem like a real selling point, ya know?

so: some questions about tape:

1. can you put this stuff over your existing glue base or do you need to (shudder) take it down to a clean rim?
2. how does it work for roadside changes? can you just pop a tire on the old tape or do you need to bring some of that tufo with you?
3. how easy is it to slide the tire around to get it straight when you're mounting on tape. with cement there's a magic period of time before the bond sets when you can make last minute re-alignments

westokyo

1. can you put this stuff over your existing glue base or do you need to (shudder) take it down to a clean rim?
   -I have done both cleaned and gunk left. Never had a problem either way but I try to clean a glued rim just to keep things clean. Why not?
2. how does it work for roadside changes? can you just pop a tire on the old tape or do you need to bring some of that tufo with you?
   -When you pull the tire off, the tape is usually stuck to the tire not the rim. You need to have a new roll of tape.
3. how easy is it to slide the tire around to get it straight when you're mounting on tape. with cement there's a magic period of time before the bond sets when you can make last minute re-alignments. 1) clean rim 2)put tape on rim starting at valve hole and ending there so you have the valve hole open/untaped 3)peel the clear plastic off (since it is double sided tape) where the tapes starts/ends at the valve hole for about 3 inches or so for a "lead" 4) mount the tire onto the rim and leave these leads hanging out. At this point you only have the sticky side of the tape on the rim and not on the bottom of the tire. Pump the tire up to about 2 bar and slide it around/adjust. You have not peeled the leads off at this point so the tire will slide around easily to align. 5)peel off the leads gently while making sure the tire isn't getting pulled out of alignment. 6)pump up to whatever tire pressure you ride and you are done.

Sorry for the long/messy reply (the spacing gets lost when I post) and I might have missed a few pointers but I hope you get the idea

Boss Moniker

Well I just spent about five hours over the last week cleaning off old Tufo Tape residue from my carbon tubular rims. The tape leaves most of its adhesive on both the tires and rim, but the plastic section between the adhesive can come off intact. This thin layer of adhesive would be fine to either tape or glue over, but I'm anal and wanted to start with clean rims, plus I dry-mounted my (coincidence) Vittoria Corsa Evo CX (Green sidewall, 700x24) tires to stretch them and I didn't want them to stick in the meantime. Anyway, the Tufo tape is unquestionably stronger than any glue, and easier to apply.

And, if you're curious: Goo-Gone is the only way I found to really get the stuff off of carbon rims (you could probably lightly sand aluminum ones).. I got blisters on the pads of my right and left index and middle fingers from trying to rub it off by hand. Acetone just made a mess, and heating with a hair-dryer helped a little. So use several applications of Goo-Gone, letting it settle for 5-15 min. then rubbing off the top dissolved layer with your finger before applying again, and use acetone for the last one.

I have mixed thoughts about tubulars on the road.. over the last month I got a tubular because I needed it for the wheel that came with my pursuit frame, then I got a carbon tubular wheelset to replace my ****ty deep-vs, and I'll probably be using them to commute. I'm selling the deep-vs and my road bike with clinchers. So I went from 4 clinchers to 3 tubulars and a clincher (the rear for my pursuit bike is clincher). Pretty much everyone agrees that tubulars ride better than most clinchers, and the weight savings at the rim is great, but they're not exactly economical unless you're really lucky. Because of demand, many tubulars are very lightweight and don't have much flat-protection, even the cheap ones. Of course, one can get tough ones like Corsa Evo or Gatorskins or whatever, but they're typically more expensive than comparable clinchers. To deal with flats, you need to carry an extra, and once you do flat you have to either trash it, patch it, or send it to get re-tubed.. all of which is more expensive/time intensive than just getting a new clincher tube. To whomever asked whether it was possible to skid on tubulars: it's kind of a bad idea, because instead of paying $35 for a durable clincher, you'll pay $80 for a durable tubular and the differences for the type of riding you're doing would probably be negligible. But whatever.. just random unorganized thoughts.

sfcrossrider

^ Good points about road tubular use. ^

frymaster

goo-gone is just xylene, right? powerful stuff, but ooooh... very bad for you. on metal rims for cement i've traditionally used 'organic' (ie citrus) furniture stripper and a variety of scrapy instruments finished off with some steel wool. very labour intensive, though. five hours sounds about right.

as for stretching, i've found that putting the tire over one shoulder, sticking my knee in the other end and giving it a mighty heave for ten seconds and then rotating the tire and repeating until i've gone around twice does as good a job as dry mounting and only takes a couple of minutes.

Boss Moniker

Well if it is, I just soaked my hands in it for over an hour. Woo-hoo. It's not like my hands haven't seen their fair share of acetone, mineral spirits, paint thinner, etc.. and my lungs have seen their share of aluminum powder (hint: when belt-sanding AL, wear a mask or respirator).

Metal rims went easier for me.. I just used something metal to chip off the glue (maybe it was because the previous glue was really old and hard), then got the rest with sandpaper and steel wool, then acetone.

letsthrowfries

I used to ride tubulars last year, got lazy though- the tire changing prep (stretching them when they're new so they actually fit, then the glue layers on the rim and waiting for it to dry) and price for nice ones got to me.

I also hated patching them when I got flats, undoing the tube without f'in it up and putting the tire back one again.


Maybe with the tape it'd be a better/more convenient experience... but the places I mostly stay don't have the best roads (LA, CA and Blacksburg,VA).

frymaster

okay, i went and looked it up. goo-gone is actually citrus-based (like the furniture stripper i use). the xylene stuff is called "goof off". anyway, stay away from the xylene for future reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene#Health_effects

MIN 

You can use a blow dryer to weaken the residue's adhesion to help removal.

GeraldChan

You don't need to remove ALL the glue before mounting a new tire as the new glue will soften and bond to the old glue.

You don't want any material other than glue on the rims as this WILL weaken your bond.

Someone mentioned Fast-Tack. I used it for awhile. It forms a tenacious bond but since it dries completely hard you would need to carry it with you as there would be no residual cement left on the rim to hold your spare. That stuff evaporates quickly once opened so the tube you carried would have to be unopened. Not the optimum set-up IMHO.

acoldspoon

Well, I did always carry a small tube of Fastack while training. The glue tubes are multi use, I'd use them for over a year. No problem with it drying out in the multi times opened glue tubes. It wouldn't have been very popular in auto shops as an auto tack adhesive it it was a one time only use product. The only reason I'm not using it right now, is there are questions as to if it will work well with the new Contis. I'm not too keen on being that test pilot, I take enough risks in life. Back in the 1980's, I didn't know of any racers in New England who weren't using it.

paulv

Anyone else has strong feelings for or against Vittoria Evo Corsa CX tires?

GeraldChan

The old ones which were handmade in Italy back in the 80-90's were wonderful.
I have never tried the new one which are machine-made in Thailand.

Ex Pres 

I love mine. run 'em @ 150psi on my road bike, an old Gitane. I also used them on a single speed I had and they just ride so smooth. Better than the Hutchinson Basic Reflex I had on my Trek, and I really didn't like the cheap Gommi's I bought new off eBay.

Just don't expect a long tread life.

vobopl

No, 3 of my bikes wearing tubulars are brakeless.

acoldspoon

Guess you are either wealthy or using crappy sew-ups.