Martin wrote (by the way your family would be perfect for a tubular
repairman:
>
> There are currently a couple of eBay sellers who insist that sewup
> tirescan be repaired (although noone in his right mind would ever
> want to do
> it).
>
> Description for Item #3615024551 (Tubular sew up Needle Kit) says
> "Thiswas used to repair your tubulars. Nowadays we buy new
> tubulars but they
> can be repaired."
>
> Description for Item #2180342500(Vittoria Sewup Tubular Tire
> Repair Kit)
> says in part "There's so much detail here, I mean, people used to
> repairtheir sewups !!! You can definitely use this kit, and your
> infinitepatience, to repair a nice classic sewup. You can also
> just put these on
> a shelf to commemorate classic "attention to detail". "
>
> Are these sellers nuts or is it true that, in the old days, people
> usedto repair their tubular tires? If so, I'm certainly going to
> regrettrashing all those punctured Italian hand-made silk sewups.
This is how I learned to sew. I used to use waxed dental floss as it threaded through silk sew-ups better than any other. To this day I have kept my propensity to use dental floss for all sewing repairs to the great consternation of my wife. She does however like the fact that I am better at sewing than she is, so I get to sew on all buttons, zippers, repair split seams....
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ