Hi Chas (and list),
I have heard of many failures for base tapes on tubulars that were made by companies other than Tufo. Tufo tubulars used with their proprietary base tape isn't an issue. But regular Tubulars that are made for gluing in the traditional way seem to come undone at the base tape when used with Tufo tape. I have a feeling that the base tapes aren't the issue but using tyres .... made for gluing ... with tape is the source of the problem. I know it's an attractive proposition, using tape to avoid gluing mistakes or mess, but gluing isn't that hard as others have recently pointed out. Using something in a way it wasn't designed for creates "other problems" and I'd rather sound like a naysayer and alarmist than hear of someone eating concrete because they wished to cut corners.
Tubulars are a beautiful thing, and worth doing right. As with everything, you get what you pay for and shortcuts are always shortcuts. In my experience Tufo Extreme tape is way too sticky for a 3rd party tubular designed for something mildly tacky (like Mastik1 or a thin coat of shellac). It's like using staples to hold in dentures (or so I'm told).
Ciao,
Ben Kamenjas Kensington, Australia
On 18/04/2009, at 5:53 PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
wrote:
> Ben,
>
> They were mounted with Tufo Extreme rim tape on new clean rims. At
> first I
> thought that there may have been a chemical reaction between the
> adhesive in
> the Tufo tape and the Panaracer tires. I asked the person at Tufo
> customer
> service and they said that they never had a problem with rim tape
> affecting
> the base tape.
>
> On both tires it's a clear case of adhesive failure between the base
> tape
> and the tire. I have some Italian made tires from the 70s and 80s
> and you
> still need to use an Exacto knife (scalpel) to separate the base
> tape from the
> tire casing.
>
> I have 20 some old sewups that came on bikes or wheels that I've
> acquired
> over the past few years. These tires are 5-15 years old and every
> one of them
> has base tape separation. They range from cheapos to fairly decent
> sewups.
>
> I picked 6 of the best ones and sent them to Tire Alert in Florida
> to have
> the base tape replaced.
>
> http://www.tirealert.com/
>
> They charged me $8.00 USD each for the new tape including return
> shipping.
> I got them back yesterday and they look very good.
>
> Chas. Colerich
> Oakland, CA