A gloved hand has always worked well for me.

Like smantanaro, I find the hand brush works well except on fendered bikes. That rear wheel, already prone to more flats just being a rear wheel, never gets brushed. Tiresavers are a real plus there, (They always went on my fendered and tubular bikes. Front was not required but I did on my rain bikes to keep my gloves cleaner.

Trick to reducing the noise - ride rib tread tires, those tires with longitudinal parallel ribs. Those were common on training level tubulars 45 years ago and Vittoria has brought it back with their G+ and G2,0 tires. (Aside - also my favorite tread pattern ever, Thank you Vittoria for bringing it back! Best tread ever if you have to leave the paved road surface and climb back on.)

Ben

My second most popular tutorial - tire wiping.

I prefer a fine file tread, those straight grooved things just don't do it for me.

Nicely done video.

Emphasis on wipe inside the triangle, not outside. Your hand could conceivably be "sucked" into the brake bridge wiping outside the triangle. That would hurt.

I have a couple sets of ancient tire wipers up on the board. The roads I normally ride don't require their use. Once I put tubulars on, however, with significantly more to lose, they will return to service.

Huh. I've never done the rear by reaching between the legs- seems easier to have the hand pulled down into the seat tube,

and hanging the fingers down alongside the spokes seems to add unecessary risk- like feeding a carrot to a horse by holding in the fingers.

I wish I had a closeup picture of the tire wipers on my 406mm wheeled Dahon folding bike. It wears high performance Comet clincher tires which are thin and supple. I rode it 750 miles during the first six weeks of the pandemic while sheltering in place. I had no problems with either "noise" or punctures.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c29518e2e9.jpg


The wipers certainly proved their effectiveness. I found shards of glass and crushed seashells slivers stuck to them every day. But never once had to stop for a flat.

P.S. Hand wiping a 20" tire, front of rear, would be suicidal, IMO. YMMV. :eek:

I ordered three tires from ProBikeKit ahile ago. They sent one and back ordered the othr two. Now they tell me they can't get those other two. Challenge
Elite Pro.
So I'm looking for low priced suggestions.
Thanks

Sorry dude....since I suggested those tires and source

No worries. There is always Yellow Jersey to fall back on. The direction I was heading before you stepped in. This way I could do a real comparison.

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.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...266f6948_c.jpgP1030573, 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:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b1f2eefd_c.jpgP1030574 , on Flickr

Here is the pile of pulled glue:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...445cea8e_c.jpgP1030578 , on Flickr

The after pic
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...26d493cf_c.jpgP1030576 , on Flickr

Hardest part was getting around in in the spoke holes.

Glued then all up and installed.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8e9b7e30_c.jpgP1030581, on Flickr

I use a plastic Park the lever. Also, if it's not too thick, I will just add another this coat.

smontanaro Have a set of those but they are too flexible. I don't like them because it is hard to get under the bead. I used the Spin Doctor because of the steel reinforcement. I had to use two to pry up on either side until enough of the tire was off the rim so I could pull directly up. That was a slow process too.. I think they thought they had to fill up the valley with glue! Looked like one layer.

Bringing it back on topic, I was referring to using the lever to scrape tubular glue. ;)

Are you sure that's glue? Looks more like tape.

Wileyone Yes, the spoke holes had excess glue in them. Tape would have gone right over them. It was thick! Maybe thicker than tape.

The pattern seen in the first photo is the pattern of the base tape of the tire. Leads you to believe it is tape but tape would not look like the resulting pile.

Heat gun. Melt the glue and wipe with a disposable rag.

~ l0 min per rim.

D0000! Forgot I had one! I was thinking tourch for only a microsecond! Getting old is a disadvantage in so many ways!

+1 Looks like tape.

I've been meaning to install better tires on my Redcay. I had been running 25mm Vittoria Rally tubulars, but had 27mm Veloflex Vlaanderen on my Frejus Tour de France (which I am contemplating selling at some point and which is currently down, loaning its derailleur to an evil project). So I gave that a whirl yesterday. Pulled tires, cleaned rims, glued tires and rims, then installed the Vlaanderen. Whew! Talk about tight clearance. This is with 80psi while the glue cures. I will probably run with a bit less than that. I think parallax makes the tire seem more off-center than it really is, but will need to check things out at some point.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...80631b1f_c.jpg

I'm currently getting my tubular wheels out of the closet to try for the first time. I have tires on order (Challenge Strada Pro's) and glue in my cart. Sorry if this has already been covered in the thread, but it's a bit long to read through the entire thing. What was the so-called "old fashioned" way of gluing tires? I know that modern tubular users use mastic adhesives to attach the tire pretty much permanently, but I don't want to do that. I'm looking for the ol' slap the tires on pro mechanic way in case I get a flat. How many layers and how much time between them? BTW, the glue I have in mind is Tubasti. Continental is also available. Should I go with that instead? Sealant?

old school but as a newbie has been my go to invaluble help....Tubular Tire Mounting Cement Gluing Adhesion by Yellow Jersey; Thoughts on a Front Wheel

How do you ride your bike? Fast & racy or More sedate & generally careful.

Where do you ride? Mountains or any hilly areas where speed and turns may be very fast.

As a minimum - one coat (not too thick but covering) on each of the rim and tire. Cure overnight. Thin coat on tire, wait an hour or so. Mount tire.

For hard mountain riding - I add a 2nd coat to each the rim and tire with a 2nd overnight cure (emphasis on edge to edge with coverage) , then the 3rd light coat on tire with an hour wait before mounting tire.

edit: This process has worked for me many years, and I've never rolled a tire.. Several times a year I'm descending Cascade Mt. roads, with hairpins. Most of my bikes are not ridden in the mountains, given vintage gearing. But I have 3 tubular bikes for pass hunting, and 2 clincher equipped triples.

I'm a pretty aggressive rider, so I want some margin of safety. At the same time, I know how to ride carefully and wish to be able to remove the tire without damaging it (fixing flats). I also live in a pretty flat area with only a few short but steep hills. Basically old school racer dude.

Was planning on trying to set up tubulars this week.

Problem, I can't find anyone with Tubular glue locally. Was going to try grabbing one of the large cans I see which are the equivalent of 10 small tubes. Can order from Amazon or what have you but won't have this week. If I'm going to order I was thinking of trying the tape method. I found a listing for "CX Tape 10-wheel Shop Roll for Tubular Tires"

https://www.amazon.ca/CX-Tape-10-Whe.../dp/B008OVAMZU

(Sorry for the over sized font) Does anyone have any experience with this brand?