Biker Pete 

I recently got FMB ‘Record’ tubulars, one pair 23mm the other pair 22mm mounted on two wheelsets, for my 70s Motobecane. I ride about 70 miles per week on good roads and I think these tires are absolutely fantastic.

Bianchigirll 

Does anyone have any idea how old this might be? I seem to have been carrying it as spare on the Cornelo but not sure when or where I aquired it. Looks like it's never even been on a rim.

Bianchigirll 

I do that occasionally and I've even ridden a tubular on a clincher im on occasion. There was a time I had to commute all winter from my home in Quincy, MA 10-11 miles to the base so I carried a decent tubular that had been removed for a spare. It was much faster in the cold than trying to wrestle with a new tube. I wouldn't recomend for normal riding but in this case it was expedianet

pastorbobnlnh 

Bianchigirll only you can get away with picturing a "HAMMERHEAD" tubular propped up with box of 9mm ammo.

Can't tell you a dang thing about the tubular.

79pmooney

The great secret. Tubulars are O-positive. Work with just about any 700c rim. Even 700c rims too destroyed to work with a bead. Those who sneer at tubulars might consider that those "lessor" tires could get them home when nothing in a modern shop would work.

And a story of an epic ride many years ago around Mt Diablo. Epic because we were so unprepared. I didn't do a check to see that everything was in order. My friend was physically unprepared. He knew the roads better than me but health issues had taken a deeper toll than he realized. We were in our 20s. We parked at the Athena School. (He was an alumni.) We rode clockwise. A few miles in, still on the suburban low ground, my spare innertube fell out of my saddlebag, jamming and skidding the rear tire down to the cord. (I was the clincher guy that day; my friend was on the sewups.) I had a patchkit so we continued. The climb up Morgan Territory was hard. Too much for my friend. I assisted the best I could by riding alongside, grabbing his seatpost and pushing. (I'd done this before with my riding partner but she was a very skilled rider and fully understood that she was steering both of us. OMG hard but it worked.) My friend didn't get that he was "our" pilot. Pushing him and managing my own bike was over the top. But my willingness to go that hard got him up the climb. Our day wasn't over. At the high point, the road changed from old Morgan Territory to perfect California pavement. He crashed on the sweeping hairpin. Road rash and bruises. We had nothing for bandages or cleanup and the day was getting late so we pushed on. And my rear tire blew. Took out that tube.

OK, about an hour of light left. Wounded warrior on a sound bike and a still able though tired rider with a useless rear wheel. I suggested the best course was probably for him to give me his rear wheel, me to ride to the school and return with his car and if he wanted, he could put his spare on my wheel. We did the swap. I did a totally focused near time trial - focused because any old flat was going to be a real issue! and the light was going fast. Also, I needed to pay attention shifting. His Campy standard hub and freewheel and my SunTour wheel required different limit screw settings. So a ride ending careless shift was entirely possible! About 2/3rds of the drive back to where I flatted, I met my friend, his tired and battered body riding slowly on my wheel and his spare. He was glad to see me but also glad he didn't have to just stand around and wait - that he could have made it back to school. (But not before dark. He was now on roads he knew so the dark part probably wouldn't have added to the epicness, but still ...)

We still joke about that adventure.

And Quincy, Mass! I grew up in Milton. Other side of and one stop up the Southeast Expressway. Close to Blue Hill, a climb I did many times. Commuted 12 miles year 'round from Milton to close to Fenway Park through Brookline and Goddard Ave on a fix geared and sewupped UO8.

cyclic_eric

Great story!

MooneyBloke

Sadly, I'm unlikely to find anyone else on them in my neck of the woods. I had a recent leaky rear, and found that my spare was defective. (Check your spare especially if it's an old Vitt CX! *) A nice guy offered me a tube, and while I was certainly grateful for the offer, it wouldn't have put me back on the road. Praise be to patient understanding friends who pick your sorry butt up when this stuff happens. I had started walking back after taking off my cycling shoes and socks, and I had gone about two miles when we met up about ten miles out of town, and I stuffed my bike into the back of her jeep.

* I've had several Early Thai Vitt CX sew-ups with the purple tubes have failures near the stem. No clue why,

gkamieneski

When replacing my clincher tires, I always rotate the front to the rear, discard the old rear tire and install a fresh new tire on the front wheel.

Seems with my sewups (almost exclusively using Conti Sprinters and Sprinter Gatorskins), it ti almost always the rear tire that requires replacing and because gluing is involved I leave the front wheel alone and just replace the sewup on the rear wheel. Not to say that at some point the front sewup just needs to be replaced, but when it looks almost new with great tread and no cuts or damage, I just leave it alone.

Anyone else share my procedure? Have I been doing something wrong for all these years?

Homebrew01

I don't bother swapping tires front to back. Just replace whatever's worn.

Back in the day I did complete overhauls all the time. Now I only do what's absolutely necessary. Too much other stuff going on. I don't mind gluing tires though.

WGB 

I have a couple of "tubulars marked "Training". Assuming they are for use on a bike trainer.

If not for that, what are they for? Road training but not racing???

79pmooney

As I understand it, Vittoria went through a "teething" process when they took their manufacturing to Asia. Their approach as I understand it was to create a tire factory from scratch and train locals to do the work. Not work with an existing company to make their tires. So ultimately, Vittoria got an outfit where they had full oversight over QC but while their crew was learning how to make high quality bicycle tires with I'm assuming zero related previous experience, it was at times a wild ride for Vittoria. Their green treaded clinchers that made super wet city tires went through a period of beads and sidewalls failing often (mid '00s as I recall).

79pmooney

BITD training meant non-racing riding. Long miles, fast club rides. My week day 45 miles before breakfast. Wheels that get tossed in the wheel van for races. My training and race wheels were identical except rims were a step heavier (Arc en Ciel @ 333gm vs Ergals @ 290) and rubber was 300gm Vittoria cottons, not silk Clement Criteriums.

Now, that was mid '70s. "Trainers" did not exist yet. We rode rollers. And they were never caller trainers.

Edit: And yes, tires got demoted from racing to training when they became suspect. You really didn't want to be "that guy" who took out half a dozen when that tire blew on a corner. So that innocent "training" might really be "for gawd's sake, don't put this on a race wheel!!!" in two sylables

bertinjim 

WGB-
"Training " tubulars were a heavier weight tire used in typical road training. Lighter, latex tubed cottons or silks would be on the lighter race wheels.

WGB 

Jim
I might just mount that Vittoria set I have, just to use them up.

CroMo Mike 

Impress your friends. Write training on all your tires.

due ruote 

Anyone know if Tire Alert is still in business? I sent a couple tires to the address on their (still active) site. Tracking shows they were delivered 3 weeks ago but I have heard nothing. No answer on the phone that’s listed, and their email interface isn’t working. So…doesn’t feel real promising.

SJX426 

keep us up to date. I have 3 or 4 needing repair.
Does he have some unique equipment for processing them? I would not expect he does them by hand.
I see he only replaces Butyl and does not patch.

due ruote 

UPDATE: I called again this morning and this time I got through. Owner was super friendly, said they are just really backed up, but he went into the shop and confirmed they have my stuff, so all good.
Btw he did confirm that he has a machine for doing the stitching.

This is the first time I have sent them anything. I don't know what their method is, but I agree - if they are doing them by hand, they can't be making much.
I tried again last night to reach out. The phone rang a few times, then I got the message about voice mail not being set up.
I tried the email interface again, and this time it did act like it was sending my message. Whether there is anyone at the other end, I can't say.
I am still holding out hope that it's just a busy spell for a small business, but this experience doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
At the very least, I would suggest to others that it would be smart to establish contact before sending anything.
I will report back if I get any intel.

gaucho777 

Anybody recognize this tire? It’s old and the label is no longer legible, but the tread has a lot of miles left and still feels supple.

seagrade 

The blue label is unfamiliar to me although Clement produced many tubulars with that tread pattern including Paris Roubaix, Campionato del Mondo and Criterium variants, all of which were common back in the day.

79pmooney

There were also thousands of ribbed tread Vittorias made in the '70s and early '80s. Cotton casings. Not expensive and used by a lot of us as training tires. Palo Alto Bikes always had them. Each time I ordered them, the labels and details were different and they rarely said Vittoria.

I love that Vittoria has brought back that tread, the ribs. I completely took it for granted until the mid-80s when it disappeared for 30 years. It's back on the Corsas. I think it it is the best tread ever for climbing out of cracks and back onto the pavement.

JohnDThompson 

Agreed. And it might be some rebadged shop brand, like Cycle Pro.

tcpasley

Big ol’ green stripe 700x30 Vittoria Pave CG III tubs on sale until midnight tonight 7/25/2024. Half price!

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...d-tire-320-tpi

tcpasley

billytwosheds 

Merlin has tubies on a good sale: https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/r...e_type=tubular

67% off, but the shipping isn't cheap.

Aardwolf

Condor Cycles also has some decent tubular prices: https://www.condorcycles.com/collections/tubular-tyres

Vittoria Corsa G2.0 28mm for £59.99

I got some Corsa Control 2 months back from them for that price on the theory that Vittoria had just stopped making them.
I think I was probably right.