Glueing tubulars [the tubular thread]

[makoti]

Ordered a set of Bora One Dark Labels w/ Arenbergs.

When they came in the shop was shocked when I said I wanted to glue my tires myself. They were even more surprised when I told them I wanted to do it simply because I enjoy it.

The Dark Labels are very slick looking. Thinking hard about getting those...

[Anth73]

I read through all 190 or so pages of this thread and compiled about two pages of tips before commencing gluing up my first set of tubulars. So far it's going well and I can't see why all the fuss regarding gluing. It's been a very enjoyable process so far with two coats on the rims and a single coat of glue on the base tape of three tyres using not quite two 30g tubes of mastik one.

One more coat of glue on the rims to go and I'll mount the tyres, hopefully straight and without glue on the brake track.

[Geoff]

Congrats!

Our goal is to get rid of clinchers!

[CulBaire]

I read through all 190 or so pages of this thread and compiled about two pages of tips before commencing gluing up my first set of tubulars. So far it's going well and I can't see why all the fuss regarding gluing. It's been a very enjoyable process so far with two coats on the rims and a single coat of glue on the base tape of three tyres using not quite two 30g tubes of mastik one.

One more coat of glue on the rims to go and I'll mount the tyres, hopefully straight and without glue on the brake track.

Good stuff Anth, I dived into tubulars in November after scoring a cheap set of Cosmic Carbone SL's; even doing it the first time after only watching the Zipp how to video. Like yourself I wondered what all the fuss was.

I won't be going back to clinchers! Life is too short to ride shit tires!

[shimmeD]

Even in cycling circles there are lots of people around who are
- clumsy or just inept.
- daunted by simple things like tying shoe laces.

Therefore, tubulars are reward for people who are none of the above.

[Anth73]

Thought I'd provide an update on my first ever gluing attempt. I'm happy to say that the final coat on both rims and the mounting of the Vittoria Corsa Elite tyres went well. Putting electrical tape on the brake tracks helped keep them clean and the trying of the tyre was petty easy, I must have waited until the glue was just right. Finally I rolled each wheel whilst pushing down to ensure a good bond.

I left both wheels for 24 hours and then decided to ride them to work to test out their feel at 100psi front and back, remembering that the front is 23mm and the rear is 25mm, so that pressure should be ok.

At this point I went from cautiously optimistic to mildly disappointed. Whilst the ride quality was superb, the regular knock, knock, knock from the front wheel indicated something wasn't right. Looking closely I could see a small gap between the tyre and rim at the valve. The dreaded Vittoria base tape curse struck again and I was kicking myself for not trimming it down as many of you have mentioned. Deflating the tyre I could see a few small areas of starved joints on the edges but nothing worth worrying about in my view given this was my first glue job. However the valve area was a concern.

Tonight I decided to complete my tubular education by dismounting the front tyre by using a tyre lever to get under the base tape and then rocking it back and forth, which worked well. I'm not sure if the Vittoria Elites have a latex coating however the tyre mostly pulled away cleanly down the centre with glue residue mostly on the edges. The rim was pretty rough bowever i remember reading that was to be expected when dismounting a tyre. i thought the best approach was to trim down the base tape around the valve area, put a fresh coat of glue on the base tape and on the rim, wait until tacky and remount the tyre.

This time around it was really difficult to align the tyre, so the tread isn't as well aligned as the first time around but I can live with the result. Let's hope the valve area is better this time and this re-glue is ok. Was one coat of fresh glue on the rim and base tape the right thing to do?

[asdf123]

Yes, with one coat you should be ok.
The knocking is nothing to be overconcerned about. From what I can guess from your post one might think the valve hole has a bigger diameter than the valve itself and while riding the valve wiggles and makes that knocking sound. The easy fix is to just put a small strap of electrical tape over it. That should reduce the wiggling.

[asdf123]

double post.

[Anth73]

What I've done previously with a knocking valve on my race wheels was cut two lengths of a drinking straw to act as a sheath. Cut the two pieces on one side so you can open the straw and slide it over and down the valve, with the cut edge on opposing sides. This works really well and is almost undetectable.

Doing this reduced the knocking considerably, however the constant noise of the glue edges gripping and letting go around the valve was driving me nuts!

[Geoff]

For mounting a tire on a previously glued rim, the quality of the original glue job will determine what you will need to do. If everything was done really well the first time, you should have a nice, even glue layer left on the rim. If so, a fresh layer on the rim and on the basetape of the new tire should be good. If the glue is torn-off on the rim or all 'lumpy', then that suggests the original glue job was not perfect. If that is the case, I would recommend getting the old glue off, ensuring that the rim is really clean and restarting the gluing prices, focussing on getting thin, even layers, allowing them to cure properly between coats.

Rattling valve stems are annoying, but do not harm the glue job, rim or tire. If it bothers you, any number of the suggestions offered by other posters will work. Other solutions are a rubber 'O'-ring or shrink-wrap tubes.

Good luck and good riding. It is snowing outside here again this morning, so here's to hoping for spring someday...

[Anth73]

The glue on the rim seemed to have pulled the glue off the base tape in certain areas when I pulled the tyre off, rather than both areas cleanly separating. Thoughts as to why this occurred? Originally I put one thin layer of glue on the base tape and three on the rim, using less than three tubes of glue all up.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

The glue on the rim seemed to have pulled the glue off the base tape in certain areas when I pulled the tyre off, rather than both areas cleanly separating. Thoughts as to why this occurred?

This is absolutely normal. There's no way of telling the adhesion strength of the rim cement really. At some points the rim bed will win at others it will be the bias tape.
It will depend on a number of factors, the glue job being a manual job is one factor already. The removal of the tyre being the same is yet another...

Nothing to worry about.

Ciao,

[Geoff]

Absolutely. That is exactly what you should see. If you have the glue on the rim tearing away, that would tend to indicate that either the rim was not properly prepared to receive glue, or that the glue did not adequately cure either between the application of one or more of the layers or before the tire was installed. If the remaining glue on the rim looks nice and even you can probably just lay-down a fresh layer on the rim, glue-up a new tire and then install it.

[Anth73]

Thrilled to report the trimming down of the base tape and subsequent reglue has resulted in a very well glued down tyre around the valve stem area. Now for the three days of heavy rain to stop so I can go out and ride my new tubulars!

[Geoff]

Perfect!

We have snow predicted today. Again.