Gee, I'm bummed to hear all the negative reports about Tire Alert. The base tape issue is what initially concerned me, as this was one thing that I've always had trouble with when fixing sewups myself. I've tried both tire cement (as recommended by some sources) and latex solution, but the tape always seems to pull away in the area of the repair. SIGH. Wired-ons are looking better all the time. For example, I picked up a shred of glass today that punctured one of my brand new (less than 200 mile) Open CX's . Had this happened with a brand new, freshly glued Corsa CX, my day would have been ruined (well, maybe not ruined, but seriously compromised). Ten minutes on the side of the road, good as new. No spare to remove, no new tire to glue on. Maybe I'm getting old, but my time is stretched thin enough, between work, wife and young son, house etc., not to mention riding on a regular basis. I've been conflicted about this (tubular vs. wired-on) for some time; does it show? Regarding "open" tubulars- I seem to remember Ron Kitching marketing something under the Milremo brand about 30 years ago that was a foldable tire, with a flexible bead, and basically a tubular sort of casing-an early Open CX, sort of. About the same time, I remember seeing a folding, lightweight tire by a company called (I think) Cariding. Does anyone else remember these? Why didn't they catch on? Perhaps the idea was ahead of the bead materials available, or narrow wired-on rims weren't common enough. Anyone know?
Regards,
Wes Gadd