I took my newly built up De Rosa out for a 15 miler last Saturday. Pumped up for another ride on Monday and found a hole in the front tire. Since the tires came with the wheels, not a big loss for me. Rear tire will be a spare.
Thought this wold be an easy change. Nope! took me over 45min to remove the tires from the rims. Looks like the PO used contact cement. Rear was worse than the front.
P1030573, on Flickr
Thought I could use a brass wire wheel. It gummed up with glue and melted the glue on the rim. Tried Acetone. Hardly touched it. Tried Mineral Spirits. Slightly better but I did not want to spend the next several day trying to remove it. Picked up a small screw driver about 1/8"wide that was well used, Scraped a little and it worked without scratching the rim. Must have spent two hours scaping it off. Example of what I was peeling off:
P1030574 , on Flickr
Here is the pile of pulled glue:
P1030578 , on Flickr
The after pic
P1030576 , on Flickr
Hardest part was getting around in in the spoke holes.
Glued then all up and installed.
P1030581, on Flickr