Andrew R Stewart 

Glued my first sew up in 1974. For a number of years they were my only tire type on the various bike I had. I stopped running them on bikes about 15 years ago mainly due to the poor casing alignment and air retention right out of the box. I use to buy 5 sew ups at a time and in those later years found that, often, 1 would leak down overnight (and I would test inflate/stretch all the tires for as long as I could because once there's glue on a casing there's no returning them), 2 would be so lumpy/casing twisted I hated to ride them and the remaining 2 would be fine. 2 out of 5 was a poor value.

I have rolled 2 tires off the rear end and both times they were spares that I had mounted on the road earlier during the day. That's when I found Jantex tire tape. Much like the current Tuffo stuff Jantex lets you glue on a tire without mess or drying time. I still have a roll or two. If you ride an unglued tire the tire will creep along the rim, much like a wired on (clincher for those who don't know history) but with the valve held in the rim hole the casing will bunch up on one side of the valve and stretch out on the other side. While not good for the tire (we would reverse the tire and ride the lumps and low spot out) an unglued tire WILL roll off the rim if any aggressive handling is done, regardless of inflation pressures. (Back in the day well organized races would have a tire retention test before the rider was allowed to line up, if the safety checker could get the casing to lift off ot shift on the rim with their hands the tire was not safely bonded to the rim).

I would much more rather be riding a sew up if I were to get a flat at speed. Otherwise I'd rather get a flat on a wired on as it's so much easier to change out a tube. And I likely will never run sealant in either tire type. Andy