My old mountain FW! I rode Mt Washing on that 5-speed. Running 1X. Not kidding. 28 tooth front. Worked superbly. (Well the 1/4 mile from the toll gate to the beginning of the climb was a little ridiculous.) I bolted the 28 straight onto a cut down TA outer ring. Simply bypassed (underneath) the FD completely. That was when everyone else ran 52-42 and a 28 tooth FW. I had far superior gearing (but not legs).

Takes me back a few years! Thanks.

Please do, yes!

I'm a Continental fan as well, at least for their tires. No fan of their tire glue either.

I now have Vittoria Corsa 700 x 30mm on my Miele. They were scheduled for my Batavus but the rear rubbed against the brake so now they reside on the Miele. Mounted on an NOS set of Mavic GP4s.

At first they seemed to be really soft when i rode but that was because I was jumping from 25s. They retain pressure well while riding but do seem to loose air when sitting faster than Continental Competitions. I just have to remember to pump up every day before riding.

I got them on sale from Excel last August for half price. Very impressive ride. My only regret is not buying two sets or more!

Edit: I'll get a close up in daylight of the labelling
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1dbbd27120.jpg

[MENTION=466491]WGB[/MENTION] - They have latex tubes which is why they lose air. They are my go to tired and nearly all my rides have them.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7ba160672a.jpg
My first spare sew-up of the geezer era!

Removed my 23mm Rally from the front wheel and strapped it to my seat for a spare, then mounted a 21mm Rally to take its place. I bought the 21mm to have a smaller spare, but it needs to break in first.

I experienced my first tubular flat--- well actually a blow-out--- since deciding to run tubulars in 2015. I was rolling along at 15 mph on level ground--- and BANG! 90 PSI deflated in under a second and the Mariposa Caffe Latex didn't stand a chance.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...399dc1732a.png
BANG! Schwalbe One Tubular Blow-Out!
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...762cca03ae.png
After mounting my spare Rally for the ride back home.

I really have nothing to complain about.

Heaven!
 

Went for a magic 50 miles yesterday on my new to me and certified spiffy Pro Miyata. (A re-paint I bought from a forum member. The local framebuilder found a BB crack. (While facing, aligning, a little post-paint re-tapping ...) He stripped the BB area paint and slobbered plenty of braze on. (Knew exactly what he was looking at. In his shop/pre-framebuilding days, a local racer used to regularly crack his Pro BB exactly the same. Miyata ran the tubes a shade short so not enough mitering and fit. BB shell being asked to do too much. Dave Levy (Ti Cycles) has ridden with me a few times and knows I don't tear BBs apart so he's pretty sure I can get away with the slobber approach.)

So - everything below the ST and DT panels is new paint. Almost matches the rest of the bike. A little darker, less matte, but striking. (Went to a DIY auto body paint store. They almost got the color match right and everything else was A1-first class. I had the perfect 6 day dry, sunny window in March! Painted it outdoors in perfect light, temp, no wind. And being March, no going back, re-paints, etc. That weather window wasn't happening again.

Yesterday, first ride. On the rear wheel and tire I rode Cycle Oregon last Sept. Old shallow NOS GP4, 7-speed 13-26 FW hub. Vittoria 23C G+ tire pumped hard. Front, NOS GEL33O rim, new +Veloflex Protour 25c tire. I pumped to 119 psi rear, 102 front but I don't believe the gauge. My squeeze says 110, 97. The rest of the parts are a mish-mash, but a really good mish-mash! Superbe FD and those sexy DiaComp brakes made for the Pros. Cyclone DT rear to accommodate a later Chorus 52-42-30 triple. (I'm 30 years older than the bike and the best of the PNW isn't flat.) SunTour 2-bolt post. Ritchie -10 degree 140 quill stem, welded and gorgeous SS stem. Post and stem are light! Seat is a Specialized Body-Geo Comp. Hard as nails. Does nothing for me except- it works so well it disappears. Funky long reach bars with Cinelli 65-like semi-pista shoulders. Bars I absolutely love!

And the ride? The old magic carpet! Perfect bike, perfect wheels, perfect tires. Perfect race fit for this body. Yes, arms were tired. It's a race bike. Only sit-up is no-hands where the bike steers perfectly. Perhaps benefiting from a little Ti Cycles tweak. (With all this hype about fat cushy tires, blah, blah, blah, the best of those old skinny tired bikes with the first class sew-ups they were conceived around are as good as it gets. Well, yes, you do have to observe the road surface and steer accordingly. Parallel cracks are not your friend.)

Attaboy 79mooney! I'm with you in spirit if not in tandem.

(I'm 23 years older than my 52-year old Motobecane but we both still work well enough together to enjoy ourselves, weather-permitting!)

My first bike with tubular tires. Not sure if it was the idea that they would be different feeling. But it felt different. More “solid” around corners. And when leaning the bike side to side at speed on a straightaway. It was just a short 3 mile ride to check some derailleur adjustments.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...52130af97.jpeg

It depends a lot on the tire profile. Without knowing what you're used to, tubular tires often are more circular in Cross section, so there's not a dramatic of a change in how big a patch of rubber is on the road going from straight to a turn.

That said, that's just a general rule of thumb. I have some high quality clinchers which are very round in profile, and at least one set of tubulars (Maxxis) which are fairly unround.

Thanks for the warning. I will not buy this Maxxis; it is scratched.

By "unround" I meant in cross section. The pair I have mounted nice and true and seem to ride fine so far.

That's how I understood it. I expect a round cross section in a quality tire.

Got FMB tubulars now on both wheelsets for my 1975 Motobecane. One wheelset has large flange Campagnolo Record hubs with polished alloy Super Champion rims, the other wheelset has low flange Campagnolo Record hubs with dark anodized Mavic GP4 rims. Loving the ride!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5c36378f1.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...51030e379.jpeg

Clearly, superior "quality of ride" which, alas, so v. few who dare to understand and choose instead not to, eschewing classic geometry lugged steel for somethin' right outta China, right outta the box and down the road.

Don't eschew with your mouth open. It's not polite. ;-)

Riding sewups is like adopting like a religion; if someone has to convince you it's the way to go--it isn't.

I've been on the hunt for a Vittoria Terreno Dry tubular tire. I bought one, and like it, and figured I'd be able to find a matching one to make a pair, but they seem to be discontinued. I see lots of tubeless options, and Terreno Wet or Mixed tubulars, but I'm specifically looking for a Vittoria Terreno Dry tubular in 33mm with tan sidewall. A store named Smoke House has them in stock, but I'm hoping to avoid having to pay $99 + shipping (I only paid $40 for the other one). Anybody got one to sell or know when I might find one?

Fwiw, this is something for my vintage Motobecane Grand Jubilee. I'm a fan of fat gravel cross tubulars intended for gravel/hard-pack on my vintage road tourers and sports tourers. The "dry" terrain treads are fine on the road, and give a really plush ride, as well as the option for some trail riding.

On my commute home today, I had a bit of an issue with my Dugast tubular. My ride home is about 4 miles mostly downhill. The tire felt fine on the way to work, but on the way home it didn’t feel right, kind of squishy and unstable like when you go around a corner on a slow leak. After about a half a mile, I stopped to check the tire and felt fine. Another half mile and I noticed a bit of wobble so I checked for a broken spoke. Nope, not that. Another half mile and I spotted a bit of a bulge where the sidewall was starting to open. I took a bit of pressure out of the tire and kept going. Another half mile and things were getting worse with a new, bigger bulge. What the heck is going on?! I stopped again to find this:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...afc494fc6.jpeg

OK, time to put on the spare. It was a hot day today, but I wasn’t riding the brakes hard enough to overheat the rim all that much so I was surprised when the tire was practically melting off the base tape.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a27cfc64.jpeg

I’m glad I stopped to change the tire before I reached the next sharp turn.

Fwiw, this is an old tire I’ve had hanging in my garage for a couple years, but it still has plenty of tread left. I only glued it on this wheel a few weeks ago. Ridden it about a half dozen times and maybe 80 miles since re-mounting it, and no indication of any problem until this afternoon.

Yikes. Glad you noticed the problem before something really serious happened.

FWIW I'm riding on a decade+ old Giro tubular still. Sidewalls look better – by a wide margin – than what your pics show. But it's been in a coolish basement for the first nine years we lived where we do now, I didn't get back on it until mid-summer last year. Your post reminds me I should get on with gluing tires onto a pair of wheels I built this spring:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4fa21f1d5c.jpg
Tires & spokes new, everything else newish enough to work well...

- simply 'cause the MAVIC wheels that came with my MBGR deserve to retire gracefully before they give up & send me askew.

(Yeah I know I should have gone back & re-laced 'em to leave more headroom at nipples... maybe over next winter I'll get that done! Running butyl-tubes Continentals they don't need air as often as the latex I've been trying out.)

That tire had long since passed its expiration date. Sidewalls that dry indicate that the base tape glue is likely equally dry and useless.

once had a tire that was pretty dried out---not as badly as yours, but not far from it---that exploded (while I was walking the bike, luckily) because the stitching had given way. That was back in the late '60's or early '70's, so the thread used was cotton. Gotta love the move to nylon thread.

Pumped up the tires yesterday for a ride on my long neglected Motobecane. Before I could get out the door there was a loud hiss and the tire was flat. I opened it up today and found this. Repairable? Too close to the stem? These tires are over 10 years old but look good and have very low miles.
(edit) What worries me is that, given the age and the location of the punctures, it seems more like a case of random material failure than a traumatic incident. So even if I manage to patch it, what’s next?
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d1187a0f.jpeg

Tube failure in a place that shouldn't even have any contact with road nasties? I'd say the latex in the tube is pretty cooked.

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I am thinking. Maybe still worth sending out for new tubes though. The casings look great and the tread is barely worn. I should have ridden this bike more!

Looks like insufficient meat in the thread area to be re-stitchable.

Sewed up my first tubular repair yesterday. Needle and thread from an ancient Jantex kit. 'Was a rite of passage for me!

Dean

For anybody in the UK Condor Cycles have a half decent selection of tubular tyres: https://www.condorcycles.com/collections/tubular-tyres
And they've currently got Vittoria Corsa and Corsa Control on 'sale' (ie. the same price as BikeInn) £60 each.

I've got a couple of Corsa Control 28mm in the post :)

You must be looking forward to receiving them!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...680ec6d54b.jpg

I've been using Vittoria Rubino Pro Graphene 2.0 so far.
They're damn fine tyres, but

• they only come in black / black
• they have butyl tubes
• Vittoria seems to be phasing them out.

So this will be my first latex para/black tyre.

Unfortunately I think Vittoria are also phasing out Corsa Control tubulars.
The only Corsa Control on the Vittoria site I can find are tubeless-ready.
Somebody please tell me I'm wrong.

Edit: Did a thorough search of the Vittoria site

So now I've got some spare Vittoria Rubino Graphene 2.0 with 900 miles on them.
Obviously they've got quite a few more miles in them.
So how do I store them given.
Currently I've put about 10psi in them to stop any remaining Orange Seal from sticking.
I'd really like to fold them as in under the seat storage but what about the sealant ?