Originally Posted by
Drillium Dude
An argument against vintage tubulars:
...
Pretty sure a modern casing wouldn't have done this over a small piece of gravel.
When I removed the 40+year-old sew-ups from my two old sets of wheels, I just tossed them. I did put a couple hundred miles on my 35-year-old clinchers (Specialized Turbo R) with no incidents before retiring them for wider ones, but they have a Kevlar casing. All tubular wheels have new sew-ups now - Continental Giro 25mm and Vittoria Corsa Control in 28mm and 30mm. They only go to 115psi or so
I'd be pretty leery of decades-old cottons or silks. Glad you weren't damaged aside from the tire.