The bike is new, and wanted to ride it a few time before cutting down the steerer tube. It definitely feels like I am riding an ATV because it’s so high, and I generally have much more drop between saddle and handlebar.

Aardwolf No problem. Note that the Corsas stay inflated for quite a while as well. I pump them up before each ride out of habit, but if I've been riding the bike it only takes a couple strokes of the floor pump.

Glad to hear. Be careful until then. What model Tommasini is it?

X-Fire
 

the X-Fire with Columbus XCr stainless steel tubing

I have been racing tubulars since the late eighties. There are few of us left that still use them. A note is I ride all the current tire versions of set ups out there but race tubies. The one thing I found out is everybody has a proper way to mount a tire. Mostly a waist of time. Take a new tubular tire out of the package and mount it with glue. If you can't roll it off with your hands the next day----------- ride it.

I don't race (well, not any more) but I still ride tubies. LBS crew told me last week I must be the ONLY tubie rider left in our county when I went back for another tube of Continental glue.... Stuff's hard to find! Shop 40 mile drive has one tube too, but that's too far to drive. Had some Tubasti arrive last week, high expectations only to see it's their Carbone formula, thick as snot. (My rims are aluminum; I'd primed one new Challenge Strada 27 before I went back to the tube to see why it was so dang thickish.) Vendor gave me a refund, told me they were caught unaware of the change from their supplier.

Use enuf glue too, eh?

Just want to post that Challenge Tires USA has a 30% Summer Sale on Strada and Elite tubulars right now. us.challengetires.com

Puffier tires as well.

My Elites flatted quickly compared to the G+ tires. Not as nice a ride with a lower thread count pushing the max pressure down to 110psi vs 170. I run 125/130 F/B on 23 and 25's.

Found a use for some bent bars:


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cc1b01fd9.jpeg

What are these, patients awaiting surgury?

Just a comment. I rode Jessica J, my avatar photo bike, to MADE today. Hadn't been riding it at all this summer; focusing on the bikes that I might use for the upcoming Cycle Oregon. Last time I rode it I'd just put on Veloflex Protours. Ambosio deep rear rim, currently a GP4 front. So not light but high quality rims and tires just a tad heavier and slower than my old race day Criterium Setas on ungodly light rims.

And wow! Put the right rubber on that bike and it is pure race, as good as it gets. (On that other planet where freewheels were never invented and the race folk still stop and flip wheels for the mountains.) This bike and these wheels take me back decades! Except I never saw that on a fix gear.

Those won't get ridden again for a while. CO is coming up fast and fix gear rides will be on the Mooney with its pretty darn reliable lightly latexed 28c Vittoria G+s. (Actually, just what I rode CO last year.) Just mounted a 23c (calipered to 22.4 at 110 psi brand new) G+ for the '83 Pro Miyata I picked up last summer.. I flatted a 23c Veloflex (an actual 23mm width) last ride on that bike and coming to a stop on that thin, thin sidewalled completely flat tire was excessively exciting. I'm betting the considerably thicker feeling Vittorias will be a real degree more boring flatted. We will see tomorrow how that skinny tire feels inflated. Very soon I have to decide whether I feel comfortable riding that bike with 25 front, 23 rear super nice tires on whatever CO is going to throw at us this year. GP4 rims. They can handle a hit or two.

I'm hoping those wonderful Vittorias with the ribber tread of that super graphene rubber will be the sweet ride under a pure race bike that takes me back the bike I loved so much 45 years ago. And I am looking forward to going downhill; Cycle Oregon always gives at least one. Now I'll be on a bike that is completely not impressed with speed. I've never taken it to any kind of limit but it just keeps saying "you could go much faster!"

The headset is an issue. Original was nice, light, all '80s race but knowing how much time it spent in the rain, I wasn't sure that's what I wanted to ride. Put in a Tange, High quality Japanese bike - should just drop on and be perfect. It's not. Wednesday Dave Levy of Ti Cycles is going to address it with the tools. I'll see.

But the tubbies? Having really nice ones on good bikes? Does life ever get better?

And another we'll see - I mounted that 23c on Jantex tape. I really like their instructions and mounting system.

The trouble with that is needing an engine thirty years younger.

It’s a mix. Some are functional spares, but most are needing repair. I’m saving up for a bulk order to try out Tire Alert. I have a nice Dugast tub with a huge blowout in the tube that’s beyond my repair skills. Tire Alert will replace both the tube and base tape.

I also keep a few crusty, old tubs that aren’t road-worthy—not just bc I’m a hoarder; I find them useful for storing spare unused wheels & rims (protects, keeps bed clean, and reduces wheels from sliding around)

Got a big pic? Avatar photos (at least yours) seemed tiny.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...474f0b2359.jpg

Photo does not show the current fork paint. New is a tiny bit darker and has in script on the right blade. Jessica J.

I like that photo just as a trophy case.:thumb:

Decades of riding and more in a former life, before the Magna Carta was drafted....... Today, I just ride. Have NEVER been on anything other than sew ups.....Will NEVER change.

Speaking of "glue"........ I miss beyond words the nearly unparalleled CLEMENT "RED". I will most objectively and critically state that while I run Continentals, their "glue" is a joke. Utterly worthless. However....... Vittoria Mastik One is very, very good!!! You have to typically send away for it. Alas, cycling HAS gone to the dogs. Everyone - save for myself it appears - is riding plastic (carbon) with THAT fishing tackle "gruppo", ALL Made In China and running clinchers. No one, save for about a dozen souls remotely know how to mount, make that properly mount a sew up.

:50:
Come now! We don't need to sound like the bunch of old f*rts that we are. Speaking like this is certainly the way to alienate millennial and post-boomer C&V enthusiasts.

In fact, since I only mount my tubulars with Effetto Mariposa tape, your assumption is I don't "...know how to... properly mount..." my tubular tires. Yet, I have mounted with glue in the past and now mount with tape and I'm perfectly happy with the results. Have I evolved? Or have I gone to your "dogs"?

BTW, I really like most dogs, so that's offensive as well.

I looked up the price of that stuff, and it seems to me an dubiously expensive solution to the problem. That tape costs more than the twelve tubes of Conti Aluminum cement I purchased not that long ago, and I get a fresh glue when I use those. I'm not sure how much I'd trust rebonded tape. Gluing tires is basic mechanics stuff, and it's really not messy with some fairly minor tools.

Just wow! I think this needs more than a little explanation. I've have decades of good experience with Conti for aluminum rims. Clement red hardens into a varnish, and I don't remember any residual tack if you needed a mid-ride change. Tubasti on the other hand...

Well--- I suppose you didn't realize that Effetto Mariposa tubular gluing tape is also equipped with an invisible force field which protects your tires from all punctures. So--- the added cost is well worth the expense.

The amazing thing about this force field is that it does not impact rolling resistance. In fact, recent tests, while not yet finalized nor conclusive, have indicated there is a slight performance enhancement to tubulars mounted with Effetto Mariposa tape. It has been theorized that the atoms and molecules within the force field all move in the same direction--- which is clockwise (from the driveside perspective), thus creating momentum in the direction of travel.

For this reason alone, several professional teams are abandoning the recent switch to tubeless clinchers and reverting back to tubulars mounted with Effetto Mariposa. Rumors are swirling that the UCI will launch an investigation into allegations of "Molecular Doping."

I am new to tubular tire set-ups, but have been running this Continental glue all summer, with no problem at all. I use 130psi on Nisi Corsa Stretto. As a matter-of-fact, when and if I ever pop a flat, I will probably need to pay a gorilla to get the tires off.

My answer is usually to struggle to get a section tire between two spokes of the rim, and then I stick a tool (a screwdriver or maybe a quick release skewer when on the road) into that space and use that to lift the rest of the tire off. Removing the whole tire with just my fingers? I'm just not that into physical abuse.

I've been using Continental glue for many years with great satisfaction; it holds up in heat, cold, and rain. It remains tacky enough to mount a pre-glued spare. It's performed without problems for up to two years on the same tire. The perfect glue job is one in which the tire is damned hard to get off, but not damned near impossible. If you need the gorilla, you know you can safely back off some on the mounting procedure next time.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1237f85bb7.jpg

Hello, just looking to get a few tubular tires(700x25-28)with removable valve cores. Wanting the longest lasting for the buck, don’t mind paying more if the quality is there. Not racing, just for long solo rides. Was disappointed with the last yellow tubulars, had bumps and twists, presently using gatorskins, and they work.

Any recommendations? Thanks very much!

I'm using the Bontrager R4. (Hard-Case Lite) 320 tpi, 190psi max. 700x25 They stopped making them a few years ago. They seem great, but I've been rolling with Bontrager (clinchers) for a long time. Very consistent quality.

Excel Sports still has some Vittoria tubulars on sale:

https://www.excelsports.com/category...sort=&instock=

I have some Corsa Control Graphene 28s at bat on one bike with some 30s in the on deck circle.

You guys like the Vittorias. I didn’t like the ribs catching and holding little sharp things. They sure are much easier to mount than Sprinters or Competitions.

Another vote for Continental aluminium rim tubular glue. Extremely reliable and consistent for many years.

I can’t speak for Conti carbon rim tubular glue and do not expect to ever be able to…