How to Glue Tubular Tyres on Aluminium Rims

Few Instructional Videos For Vintage Bikes

 

If you have a vintage bike and need to replace your older tubular tyre, it’s not so easy to find a video about how to glue tubular tyres of aluminium rims. Why? Well, it’s because most videos and instructional guides are made for carbon fibre wheels, which are obviously more common and relevant to the needs of the modern cyclist. It also reflects the dominance of clincher rims when it comes to bicycle tyres these days and the fact that vintage tubulars are very much now a specialised interest, mostly limited to collectors of high-end vintage bikes. You have to track down Continental’s aluminium rim mounting video by going here on their website.

 

 

 

Why I Made the Video

 

I was actually unsure of the instructions provided by Continental applied to my old vintage rims and tyres. The reason is because when I read the instructions that came with the glue this time, they were quite different to the ones that were provided a few years back. The new instructions were this: apply the glue three times to the rim and tyre; wait 24 hours for curing, then do one more round of gluing before mounting the tyre. So why the changes? I made a video a few years ago which followed different instructions by them, basically by advising the user to glue the tyre to the rim after waiting for just 20 MINUTES. What’s happened in the few years between these videos? Why has Continental changed their gluing instructions?

 

I Reached Out..

 

I wrote to Continental to see if they would give me information and collaborate with me with this issue, but they never replied to my email. That, my friends, is bad policy, poor customer service and to me, a lack of interest in the needs of its clients. I like their products and I think the tubular tyre glue they make is good quality, but come on, at least reply to someone with a specific need and a proposition to discuss their product. I’m disappointed, but I hope my video will help those who have older rims or an older tyre to replace. If you have an old tubular in storage, you still may be able to use it.

 

The Older Video

Replacing tubular tyres is a messy business, and installing a brand new tyre can be a difficult challenge as they can be difficult to fit on the rim. Continental tubulars are notoriously hard to install, and if you are in a battle of pushing and pulling the tyre into place you’re sure to get glue on your hands and on the tyre itself. Doing it cleanly and without much of a struggle just isn’t realistic, and I also think that tubulars are the least practical and most likely tyres to cause complications when fitting. You can also have complications with the side walls of old tubular tyres. As for my older video now that Continental have changed their instructions, I see it as rather defunct, now all other instructional videos advise curing the glue for 24 hours, instead of 20 minutes!