Ok, so I need to remove the glue from my rim and reapply.

Had my second ever punture yesterday and had to switch to a spare mid-ride, took about 10mins this time from stop to start so I'm improving !!!

I know I could trawl through 2,500 posts to find the ideal solvent to use but I am UK based and most of the reocmmendations on here are for US based people.

So, what's the best stuff to use that won't kill me with fumes or harm my precious Enve rims ?

Gonna order a gallon of the stuff anyway so I was wondering, is white spirit or acetone the stuff to use ?

Cheers in advance Tubular Gurus

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Enigma Echo

white spirit - acetone flashes off much too fast (and is nasty stuff compared to white spirit) - white gas/coleman fuel will also do it, but flashes off faster than white spirit, whichever you go for, do it in a well ventilated area away from ignition sources

use a rag or brush to apply to an area of glue, let it soften, use another rag to wipe off, repeat until rim clean

don't be too lavish with the solvent or you'll get dissolved glue running over the sides/spokes

leave the used rags out in the open and let the solvent evaporate fully before binning them

Hi,



Different rim cements responds differently to various chemicals but here's what I use:
Use an acid brush and plain household petrol/diesel oil to wet all the tubular tyre cement and let it soak in overnight.
Repeat the next day on the rim section you want to remove the cement from. I find it easier and faster to work one small area at the time. One section could then be a strip of rim inbetween spoke holes.
Rub with an old piece of cotton cloth to remove the cement. Do not waste time on small recalcitrant dots of cement, move on to the next section.

Once all sections are covered we'll now remove the remaining small amounts of cement by reapeting the step as described above using another cotton cloth soaked locally (finger tip area) with White spirit (aka Stoddard solvent) until the rim section is totally devoid of cement.
Repeat until the rim is clean. Wipe the entire rim clean as you'll have solvent on spokes, rim and so forth. Make sure to clean the spoke hole and nipples.
You don't want to waste time here should the wheel need truing some day.
Watch out not to damage wheelstickers. If you're in doubt cover the inner side with some old cloth, it will soak up the spilled solvents.
Wipe the rim bed and brake track with acetone, you want these aeras the be particularly grease free. The remainder of the rim and spokes can be cleaned with a dry cloth.


1/ Vittoria Mastik One: Diesel oil, White Spirit.

2/ Continental (both alloy and carbon specific): Same as above but responds best to White spirit.

3/ Tubasti: does not respond well to diesel oil but solves quickly in White spirit.

4/ Tufo tape: all of the above plus tons of elbow grease. Do not use it in the first place.
I only mention it since sooner or later you'll buy a set of secondhand wheels from someone and it will have this nice surprise on them....

Ideally modern formulated cements should dissolve quickest by using n-hexane but this is not available in useful quantities.
What turns out to work well but isn't cheap to use is Schwalbe's rim cement remover which you just brush on and it will have dissolve 95 % of the cement when left to work for a couple of hours.
Not sure what it contains but it seems (and I say this with some caution) less aggressive to the skin than the other chemicals.

Either way always use these chemicals either outdoors or in a well ventilated room. Use nitrile gloves to protect yourself.

Ciao,

P.S. Incidentally, I'll be stripping a Hyperon rear wheel this afternoon. I hate that .......

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Being a snob is an expensive hobby.

Sungod and FDEGrove,

Thanks very much, I am saving this to my favourites !!!

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Enigma Echo

i have a set of planet-x 50mm carbon tubulars with tufo tubs on them. I used Conti glue to stick them September last year (3 layers rim, 2 on tub). I have used them a handfull of times, my question is should I re-glue the tubs over this winter ? They seem to still be stuck nicely, but does glue deteriorate ?

Thanks
Tim

Hi,

You can just leave them as they are.

Ciao,

_________________
Being a snob is an expensive hobby.

Fdegrove,
The experience you described was a case when Tufo had a tape in those long skinny packages. Since they moved to new package (where tape is on the roll) the tape also got changed.
New tape is much easier to peel off in one piece, you just need to slowly pull one end and it will go off in a single piece without leaving almost any adhesive residue on the rim. I don't find adhesive on a new tape any weaker than in previous Extreme version but it's now so easy to clean your wheels and it doesn't require any chemicals.

I've been using Tufo tape for a few years and I remember the pain of removing the old tape you've mentioned in your reply.
New tape is so much better that it makes me cringe now when I have to replace a tire which was glued with traditional glues/cement.

I am not in any way associated with Tufo, just a happy customer.
Most of my riding is climbing/descending. Some of these descends are quite technical and some are done at +70km/h.

I have complete confidence in the way my tubulars are glued to the rims but my experience is limited to Continental tires only.
So I am not sure if tape will work this good with other tire brands. Continental tubulars have a fabric (cotton I guess ?) layer at the contact point with rim which makes a perfect match with adhesive on the tape.

Hi,

Thanks for letting me know, I had no idea they changed it.

Most tubular tyres come with a cotton base tape so that would not be a problem. A possible problem could occur whenever the adhesive strength of the Tufo tape exceeds that of the base tape to casing bond.
Which is one reason why I steer people away from it.
Another one is that Tufo now presents there products (accesories mostly) as being specifically developped to be mated to their own brand of tyres. IOW whatever goes wrong it will be of your doing should you not ride their tyres....
At least it has been like this for years even though these products were never marketed as such.

I take it this is the one you refer to:



Would you have any idea about how much a roll of this tape actually weighs? Or anyone else for that matter....

Thanks again,

_________________
Being a snob is an expensive hobby.

fdegrove,
yes, that is the tape...

To be honest I think that tape could be slightly heavier than glue... but that is just a guess.
Not sure what is the actual weight once the release tape is removed (both sides).

I think that Tufo's advertising this tape as being specifically developed for their tires is just marketing thing.
If tubular tire has the same base material as Tufo tubular tire than I don't see a reason why this tape would not work with other tire brands.
From personal experience I know it works really well with Continental tubulars.

Tufo specifying their tires is probably just a CYA situation, as in Cover Your A$$. What if some tire company changed their base tape and put some coating on it, and when mated to Tufo tape, it would adhere for a week before converting to OIL? Unlikely, but they can't test their tape with every possible scenario of tire, so they just say it's been tested and proven on their tires specifically.

In my expirience the tufo tape is very easy to aply but extremaly messy whem removed,and it melts whem heated.

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cycling,a great individual sport,were you can't reach anything,whithout group effort.

Forget about whether it 'cleans-up' ok, the question is: 'does it perform as well as conventional glue'? I think the answer is 'no'.

Hi,

One thing is for certain, it does not even begin to comply to the basic engineering principles of what a rim cement should be able to do.

Ciao,

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Being a snob is an expensive hobby.

Why bother with this tape? Glue is fun, even for the beginner. Glue is so PRO.

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"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride"
Scale 30
Schenk 007
My blog

I have a bad case of tubular thumb.

The tires previous to this came off the rims really easily when it was time to replace, which was a frightening considering I had been riding them down mountain descents.

I definitely overdid the glue this time.

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Riding the Catskills