Danbianchi881

I have a very slow leak on my tubular tire. What should I use to repair it. Thank for your time

CliffordK

If your tubular tire is a sewup...
Layer of tape.
Stitches.
Tube.

Then you try to guess as close as you can where the hole is.

Pull back a bit of the tape.
Cut open the stitching.
Patch like any other tube.
Stitch back up.
Glue the tape back on.
And you're good to go.

If it doesn't have the tape and stitching, then I think the solution is some kind of internal sealant.

Homebrew01

You could start off with trying sealant. I have never used it, so not sure which is preferred.

Johnny Mullet

Tubes are cheap. Just sayin'

Homebrew01

OP has tubulars, not clinchers. The tube is sewn inside the outer tire, which is then glued to the rim.

Although fixing standard clincher tubes is cheaper than buying new ones.

bikepro

+1 Most likely this will stop the leak. Much quicker and easier than repairing a tubular. If you do try to repair it, get a tubular repair kit. It has everything needed.

tcarl

I'd recommend a sealant. Vittoria has something called Pit Stop which I've never used, but have heard of others who have used it and say it works. I have successfully used something called Flat Attack in both tubulars and clinchers - it's similar to Slime, but not nearly as messy. Speaking of Slime, I've used it successfully in clinchers, but it is messy (I don't remember if I've ever used it in tubulars.) I don't know what brand your tire is, but I've also successfully used Tufo's sealant in a Tufo tire. I no longer cut open and patch tubulars. I always use sealant. Much easier.

howeeee

I dont have tubulars anymore, but when I did
I carried a spare tire
It is tedious to repair on the road
But i used to repair them at home

cderalow

I've been using stan's sealant to pretty good success..

I ran over some glass recently with my veloflex's and i could hear (and feel) it lose air for a few seconds then it stopped. had a neat little white spray area on the tire where the stan's blew out and stopped it up.

air'ed to full pressure and carried on.

Matariki

I really, really, really hate slime; however having repaired sew-ups in the past, I would be tempted to go the sealant route.

fietsbob

Buy more tires , once you have a backlog of tires to unstitch, and re sew after patching the tube in the tires.

have a Day set aside patching a Bunch of them all at once.

Tufo has chosen to make a tire which really is not a separate tube in the tire casing ..

they have planned to use a tire sealant and will have a removable Presta valve ,

Sealants are as happy to clog valves as well as pinholes.




BTW if it's got a Latex tube, leaking is Normal .. they're thin and more porous than Butyl Rubber inner tubes.

caloso

Vittoria Pit Stop works really well for slow leaks like this, in my experience.

JohnDThompson 

True, but if the core is removable, you can take it out and soak it in ammonia to free it up again, or simply replace it with a different core.

Dave Mayer

Unwind the valve core. Inject 20cc's of Stan's. Reinstall valve core, pump up and forget. I now ride on the same tubular tires for months, during which I'm sure I've suffered 10 or more pinpricks. Never noticed any depressurization.

Now, when I go on long rides in the boonies, where you CANNOT get a flat: I reach for the tubular wheels. I pre-inject 20g of Stan's as a prophylactic measure. It now takes something extraordinary to cause a flat - something that would ordinarily kill a tire. Clincher or tubular.

rmfnla

Seems to me dumping a bunch of goop into a sew-up kind of defeats the whole lightness thing, no..?

Dave Mayer

20 grams of Stan's per tire. I only inject the rear tires; I hardly ever get front flats.

Tubular rims are 100g lighter - per rim. On tubular rims you don't need the 2 'hooks' that are required to hold the clincher tire bead on. This is where the weight savings are. And eliminating these 2 hooks results in you not getting pinch flats. Eliminating the hooks means that tubular rims are toughter, and survive bigger impacts. And when you get a sudden flat, the tubular rim profile and the glued tire makes it much easier and safer to ride it out.

rmfnla

Yeah, I know all that, although most modern rims are really hookless.

Sew-up rims are also lighter and stronger because they can be roll-formed rather than extruded...

Dave Mayer

? What do you mean by hookless? On clinchers, you need two outward-facing rim projections to hold the tire bead. This is unavoidable. Maybe semantics, but these are what I call 'hooks'. The tubular rim cross-section is simply different than any clincher profile - tubeless or otherwise. Tubulars do not need what I refer to as 'hooks'.

Blue Belly

I've not had good luck with sealants. It usually results in a temporary fix on a nice, supple tire. I ride a more puncture resistant tire & carry a spare. This works a thousand times better, for me.

JohnDThompson 

But they still have sidewalls that extend above the rim bed, which I think was the point Dave Mayer was trying to make.

rmfnla

Way back when before clincher tires got as good as they are now clincher rims had an additional bead along the inside of the rim flange to better engage the tire bead.

I get it.

I've been riding clinchers for maybe 30 years now and have never had a pinch flat or a blow-out from impact on a road bike so I don't really see that aspect of sew-ups as much of an advantage...