I've decided I like my method of gluing tires best. Picture it now: A nice pair of vintage Campionato del Mondos from the mid 1980s, made in Thailand, yes, but very nice tires nonetheless. In new condition. I apply my trusty Tubasti to the vintage Fiamme red labels laced to hf Record hubs. Let sit for about 20 minutes. The tires have been stretching for a month, so they're good to go...or are they? I apply a thin layer of glue to the tires, just for luck. I touch the glue on the rim, tacky enough! It's 11pm and I wanna go to bed. I put the valve stem in the rim hole, and carefully center the tire as I work my way around the wheel. But. One small detail forgotten...as Brian pointed out, stretching the tire around the rim as you go is crucial to avoiding a mess when you finally finish mounting the tire... I'm tired, it's late, and damned if I forget to do that. So. I get to the other side of the rim, and the tire is being very cranky. I think, what the hell? And just yank that sucker on. Ah. The lovely glue patterns on the opposite side-wall! And what's this? Glue all over my hands? No problem. True sew-up afficionados do not shrink at glue on the hands.
I worry a little that there's not enough glue under the tire opposite the valve stem...since it's now all over my hands and all over the sidewall. I rub despairingly at the sidewall, careful not to rub the latex away. I have some minor success. Minor is the word, however.
Now that the tire's been on the rim awhile, and the glue is nice and firm...why, I think it has a certain businesslike look. All that glue. On the sidewall. Perfectly clean sidewalls are effete, I say!
The other tire went on perfectly, btw. I stretched that one as I went. Worked like a charm. Looks effete though.
The glue comes off my hands quite nicely with one of those alkaline cleaners you can buy in any hardware store. Technically not toxic to your hands...but it is, I suppose, a little like putting lye on your skin, so best to wash it off as rapidly as possible. Beats hell out of acetone, which I used to use, in the bad old days before VOC laws...
Charles "I love the smell of Tubasti in the morning" Andrews SoCal
Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.
--Kenneth Boulding