I don't know if this has been mentioned on the list before, but a friend of mine has told me of a company in Clearwater, Florida called Tire Alert(www.tirealert.com) that will replace entire tubes in tubular tires. Apparently they have purchased equipment used by manufacturers to stitch tires, and for $20 for one tire, or $15 each for more than one they will replace the tube with either latex or butyl,restitch,and put on a new base tape. I've seen some tires they've done, and while the base tape looks a little different, they seem to do a nice job. My friend Alan reports no problems; the base tape seems to stay put,etc. Their phone# is 800-735-5516. I'm going to send a couple soon. I don't have the time or patience to fix sewups anymore (not to mention my 60-70% success rate). In reference to a previous thread, I'm finding it harder to justify tubulars. I just got a pair of Vittoria Open CX's and boy, not only do they ride almost like a tubular, they "sing " on some pavement like one, and you need to look twice to tell them apart visually on a box rim. I'm also using Michelin Axial Pro's, and while they look a bit funky, they're sweet, too. On the glue thing, nobody mentioned the old Velox standby, Tubasti. I've probably used this as much as anything over the years, with good results. One more thing. Does anyone on the list have any experience with the more obscure makes of tubular? Makes like Dunlop (heard legends that they were wonderful-alas, extinct before my time), Freebairn, Constrictor, etc.? I've always been curious as to what they were all about. Was the Clement Del Mundo pretty unique (Vittoria Utmost aside) or were wider tubulars popular in the fairly recent past, say post WW2? How about the best tires listmembers have used? I've never had much luck with silks; the gods would see me glue them up and put awful invisible things in the road to destroy them (so it seemed). High quality handmade cottons served me better. Ones I remember fondly: D'Allesandro Giro D'Italias, orange D'Allesandro Criteriums, and Canetti Paris-Nice(sort of wide, ribbed tread, lasted forever). Also, the Clement Grifo 61's I've been using on my housebroken track bike for the past 2 or 3 years (I shouldn't say anything-bad luck and all that).
Regards,
Wes Gadd