Remove old glue when re-glueing tubulars?

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

I had to have my rear wheel rebuilt, so I will have to start over on that wheel. The tire has some glue on it. Would you try to remove the old glue before re-glueing?

My front wheel is sitting next to the bike, it looks like the glue has started to crack near the edges of the rim. I suppose I should remove the tire and re-glue it. Then same question as above: Should I remove glue from the rim and tire before re-glueing?

The tires in question are Challenge Limus. On an old wheelset I had a pair of Tufo Cubus, which I ran for two season without re-glueing (without problems).

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2tonGorilla
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by 2tonGorilla

I always re-glue my CX tub's every season. Just for safety's sake. Glue cracking off the rim isn't a real indicator off worn glue tho. A good check routine I do... 1)deflate them to hold good shape 2) try to roll them off a bit by grab a bunch and rolling your wrist.. If you can pull them off the rim... Time to re-glue. I do this even after new glue jobs have finished to check how well I did.


johnsaysthisnow
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by johnsaysthisnow

Depends - unless the glue is old, flaky, dried, or contaminated with dirt, you don't necessarily need to remove it. Pick off big globs and go to town with regluing.

If the glue is bad on the rim, google "remove tubular glue" or something like it and pick your favorite. It'll involve some kind of solvent, and lots of time/elbow grease.

If the glue on the tire is bad, there's way less info about it. I had to search for just that recently, and came up with very few resources. The one article I found suggested that if you think you need to re-use tires, you have to weigh your options: either the glue is good, and you and glue over top of it and it's no problem. If the glue is bad, you have to assess how bad. Either it's workable for a re-glue job, or you need a plan B. Apparently removal of glue is bad for the tire. So, you can either toss the tire, or send it off to tire-alert (Google it) and have them remove the old basetape and install anew.

In short, if you need to re-use a tire, it's probably good to just reglue it as is. Otherwise, it's likely to wear out before the glue on the tire itself goes bad.


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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

Thanks for the tips. I'll try to remove the bigger, flaky chunks of glue.

2tonGorilla
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by 2tonGorilla

Also be careful on the base tape. A tiny bit of it peeling off can be "glued" back on with out a problem. But if it's a big section you may have to find someone that can put in a new one for you. I have a batch waiting to send to some guy down in FL. Don't mix glue FYI and I always recommend mastik. Good testing and some tips on this site on why to use Vittoria mastik.

http://engr.ku.edu/~kuktl/

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

I have always used Vittoria's Mastik One. I don't think any of the base tape have peeled off :)

Crampandgoslo
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by Crampandgoslo

the_marsbar wrote:Thanks. And what about removing old glue?



I reglue every couple of years, but that's between three wheelsets that I use between 'Cross and Road

If you have "goo-gone" where you are, that will help get the gunk off. If you don't have that, Citrus Degreasers work well too.

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

I tried to scrape off as much of the old glue as I could. I have just mounted the tires, so we'll see how it goes. Tubular tires are great, until you have to glue them. Then they become a pain in the a**. This was my core exercise for the day :)

JBV
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by JBV

Assuming the old glue isn't horribly dirty, a heat gun combined with scraping down to a clean, uniform surface is generally fine before you prep for more glue and a new tire. If you start with solvents like Goo Gone, Goof Off, or acetone, then all bets are off as for the integrity of the old glue, and you probably have to remove everything. Removing everything to get down to a bare rim is very time consuming.

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the_marsbar
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by the_marsbar

Thanks for the advice. Luckily I didn't use any of that :)

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Geoff
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by Geoff

Whoa. Getting the best glue job on 'cross wheels is a very specialized process. The principal difference is the use of 'Belgian Tape' to 'fill-in' the rim profile vs the tire basetape profile (which also serves to provide some structure for the glue itself). If you need to remove the 'Belgian Tape', you need to get it all.

Once the glue cures well, use a layer of AquaSeal (or other uerathane-based sealant) to seal the gap between the tire basetape and the rim. That will help keep moisture and contaminants from affecting your glue job. That will protect your tire sidewalls, as well.

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