JeffOYB

I just got a set of secondhand awesome FMB cyclocross tubies. Good condition. They're stored on rims. They have old glue on them. It is flaky, powdery.

So I used a wire brush and scraped each tire for a few minutes. Got loose stuff off. Then I went over each tire by hand, wrinkling it and reversing it and flaking off more dry glue. Spent at least a half hour. Got off all the glue that would come off.

Then I recoated each tire w a thin layer of fresh glue. The old glue was gold colored. My glue is gold colored Vittoria in the big can. I also put a coat onto a set of wheels I also recently acquired. They have Belgian tape on them. After 5 minutes the glue was less tacky so I installed the tires and let em sit for a day pumped hard at 60psi.

A day later I tested the adhesion. Both tires rolled off leaving a lot of golden glue stuck to my Belgian rim tape. Rats.

All the old glue that didn't come off before just came off easily and was left on the rim tape. I was hoping some fresh glue might soak into it. There still seems to be dry powdery old glue on the tires. Ugh.

How do I get that stuff off the tires? I actually don't need it off, I just need to be able to BOND to the tire somehow.

Is my rim tape ruined? It has gold dry glue all over it.

I'm wondering if I can somehow dissolve the old glue with a solvent that will let it smear around and re-make a usable base for gluing again.

I've reglued many old tires before. No problem. As long as I have fresh glue they've held fine. My tire base tape is never perfectly clean.

Troul 

Soak the tire in some warm/mild water with dawn soap. Peeling and rolling the gunk off with your fingers is what will be more effective afterwards. Toss the old rim tape with new. Re-adhere the rubber to the wheel.

ExpertTools

I've been riding tubulars for 45 years, and I've never used rim tape at all, just a few applications of glue with each new tire mounted. If you get a small tube of rim glue, it comes with application instructions. It's a tedious process to get right, and takes a few coatings over a day and a half or so. I've always done this, and never had a tire roll off.


Once I get too much old glue on the rims, I scrape it off; usually with a screwdriver, (a bit less likely to scratch the rim than a knife.) Sometimes some acetone on a rag helps. But new glue WILL bond to old glue; so no need to get the rims perfectly clean. And I've never seen rim glue disintegrate like you described with the rim tape; it just gets rock hard with age.

JeffOYB

this is cyclocross and there's a trend to using this doublesided Belgian tape on the rims. i haven't used it before. it came on the wheels and is stuck on good so i won't worry about it. you're supposed to use it w glue. so that's what i'm doing.

the dry, dusty, crumbly glue was on the tires -- and it let the tires come easily off the rims even though well glued. remainder of the glue came off onto the white Belgian tape. a crumbly mess.

I washed the tires like the previous person said. it seemed to remove nearly all the crumby stuff. I rubbed the rims more, too. the tape was still stuck on good. i wasn't going to try to remove it all.

i've reglued the tires and am now waiting a day for it to set up. fingers crossed.

i never had to be too fussy with road tubies. the cross scene needs everything on there real tight.

woodcraft

Yuck.

Acetone?

ExpertTools

Not on the tires..just getting old glue off the rims. And I'd temper that suggestion if you have ceramic or carbon fiber rims.