i don't like tape

No, i'm not talking the awesome course tape that we have here instead of cones of suggestion. I'm talking about tape for tubulars.

with great respect to Sven and Bart, tape ain't good.

yucky nasty stuff...

sure it might hold well, and cover up for person inadequacies and lack of OCD when gluing... it can also potentially save your bacon if you roll on day one of a two day race, slap some tape on there and go (just hope ya don't have to take it off cleanly).

why use tape when you can put your tire on so well that you can't remove it? I dunno? Why add an extra step to a process? I dunno.

one of the better links for gluing, okay one of the best if found is here:
http://www.engr.ku.edu/~kuktl/bicycle/Cusa1.pdf

another good read on cyclocross tires, including tubulars and gluing method is here

i might even pull out my write up of the complete secret "Peanut" technique soon...

But I'm going to save it for when I'm really pressed for content.

RBR has a boat load of threads dealing with gluing cyclocross tires. Here's one of them. Just in case you happen NOT to be results boy who has that forum open on a second monitor and has his browser set on auto-refresh so he doesn't miss a juicy chance to slam some dimwitted newbie.

Down in this thread I made a 30 second photochop sketch to try and illustrate my point about using lower (race) pressures to cure the tires. I'm still not sure I made my point clear to everyone, but I understand what I'm trying to say. It all depends on the tubular, the profile. How well it matches the rim.

Too much air will tend to squish some of the more liquid glue out of the bond and could potentially compress a stiffer glue into a thinner depth. And in some cases it seems that you get a nice gap at the center of the rim where the glue could potentially pull away preventing a solid bond. This is however unlikely if you get enough Mastik One and you apply it properly to the basetape and the glue and if you install it with the peanut method, or just the Portland Broom stick trick.

It is the constant photos like this and this one that bother my OCD self. You've got a nice wet sticky (esp with Mastik One) rim surface and you are pressing it into something. Is that something completely clean? Is some of the glue residue being removed? Well if it is wet you are either removing it or contaminating it. Both create a weak spot opposite the valve hole. Oh so you think you are just pushing on the lip of the rim? [ sarcasm] Yeah you don't need glue there [ /sarcasm].

Now that's great if you are a triathlete and have to rip your tubular off your Zipp 909s mid race. You've got a nice spot where the bond is weak. Not so good if you are racing cross and you don't want that sumbitch to come off at all.

When I was taught how to glue tubulars (at least as i remember), way back in 1990 (sure, not that long ago in the memory of old farts like Solobreak) you put the valve in, set that on the ground and pulled the tire around. Always protecting the fresh wet glue on the rim from being touched. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER touch the dried glue, or the wet glue with anything other than the tire or the next layer of glue. And always start with a solvent washed rim (or old new glue if it is not dried and powdery and flaking off). You should have heard the fit Peanut went into when I touched the rim to see if the glue was dry with my bare finger. Oh she was NOT happy in the least (and that, THAT started the memories trickling back in).

Now how do you pull the tire around? You stick your toes through the spokes to hold the rim down. Yeah. Your toes. Usually I just use an old ratty pair of socks, ya know the ones destined to apply pledge to the frame in a week or two? Pull it around and you get the tire on easily, without any mess on the braking surface (or the tape you put on the braking surface).

Things like that were taught to me by old master crusty roadies who were eager and amazed to find a kid in the new dawn of clinchers who WANTED to learn how to glue tubulars. I never could afford them myself, but I did wind up gluing them for other people in the shop.

I treated it like an art. Like building wheels. Like cutting bits of 0.25x0.5mmx60 nm thick sections of epoxy. I get a rush out of it. I relish the chance to dissect the process, to solve the riddle: Why.

The truth of the matter is, you can screw the process up however you want. Use tape. Pump the tire up to 100 psi. No rolling, no broom stick. No pushing at the seam with your thumbs. You can just slap some glue on, push the rim against some cardboard and get the tire on there and you may never have a problem. But. Just the fact that you CAN get all fastidious about the process, THAT makes it wicked damn awesome.

Back to one of the first links to how to glue toobies. This one. There are two follow up parts to it. Curing Time. And adhesive performance at higher temps (not really part of cyclocross even with carbon rims that smell like burning plastic when ya hit the brakes). Fun stuff.

Oh and if you are looking for acid brushes, Harbor Freight's got em on sale right now (based on the flier I got in the mail last night).

-g