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sandranian · Site Admin

So...this was a first for me, and now that I have tried it, I am kind of hooked!

I repaired a flat sew up last night. After initial problems with the actual sewing, it went rather well. The worst part was the actual patching of the tube, which I hate to do on regular tubes (and usually don't!).

But it felt like learning a "lost art" or something. I felt all craftsmanlike. Hilarious...relaxing in a strange way...and now I really like it. i have always loved riding sew ups, but hated "dealing" with them. Now, I have a whole new appreciation. Fun Fun Fun!

scozim

Interesting - I'm starting the sew up adventure on a couple of bikes and have wondered whether I should try this. You provide some hope that I could handle it - most of my problem is lack of patience. And, like you, I don't really like patching tubes from my clinchers when they go flat.

verktyg

Welcome to the world of REAL cycling... Wink

A couple of pointers:

The linen (flax) thread that used to come in Velox Tubular Repair Kits left a lot to be desired in strength and so on. We used to use some heavy duty nylon thread, the kind used for sewing canvas and leather.

Notice the X-ACTO knife blade with tape wrapped around the tang that I used as part of my sewup repair kit. The short length was very controllable for separating the base tape and cutting the "sutures" in the casing.

There were special very thin patches made for use with the thin sewup tubes. I don't know where you could find those today.

Here's a leather/canvas sewing awl that made quick work of re-sewing the casings. It's still available at crafts and hobby shops and should sell for ~$12-$15 USD.

http://awlforall.com/merchant2/index.html

Next thing, Tufo Tire Sealant! Cool

It comes to two types, yellow label that can be used before or after getting a flat and... orange label Extreme which is supposed to repair larger ??? holes ???

I've only used the yellow label stuff in both the bottles and tubes. The tubes may be a little easier to use.

The yellow label comes in 50ml plastic bottles and 2 sizes of plastic tubes. The orange Extreme only comes in 50ml bottles.

http://www.tufonorthamerica.com/accessories.php

Over the past few years, I acquired about 2 dozen+ old sewup tires on bike and wheels that I've collected.

I experimented with the Tufo Tire Sealant on a number of them to see how well it worked.

The sewup tires on one bike that I bought about 2 years ago from a seller in Southern Colorado wouldn't hold air. The front one would go flat in 2-3 minutes the rear couldn't even be inflated. I removed at lead a dozen "goat head" nubs from each tire.

Goat head thorns in a car tire

Goat head thorn in a bike tire

I put some Tufo Tire Sealant in both tires per the instructions and voilà... They are still holding air!

Tufo sealant doesn't work everywhere, for example sidewall cuts, snake bites (pinch flats) or larger glass cuts. It can also gum up some presta valves - it works best with removable presta valves.

I highly recommend the stuff.

Next thing, The Southwest US is the goathead capital of the world. What we found was that running our tires at 95 psi or less tire pressure resulted in less punctures. The other thing we used were "sticker flickers".

These were commercially available but one of our customers had a machine shop and built some wire bending jigs to make these for us. He used very soft wire and very flexible plastic tubing. Ours were easier to fit to the shape of the tire and could "float" over top without dragging.

I recall running over 6-7 goatheads once and looked down at my front tire to see the sticker flicker doing it's job. Frequently goatheads wouldn't penetrate on the first rotation!

Getting back to Tufo, they make some rim tape for mounting sewups. They have a yellow version which I haven't used and the Extreme version which I highly recommend. It's extremely easy to use.

The hardest part is removing the old rim cement off of your rims. I found that citrus based paint remover works quite well for this.

The extreme tape works SO well that you may need to used a metal clincher tire iron to get the separation from the rim started.

I carry a spare rim tape with my spare tubular just in case. I also carry the Tufo sealant.
There's instructions on how to use the Tufo products on their website:

http://www.tufonorthamerica.com/accessories.php

One last thing, there is a place in Florida, USA that does cheap, fast tubular tire repairs. They cut open the casing in a small area, remove the old tube and then feed in a new tube that's been cut in half. The glue the ends of the tube and sew it all back up.

http://www.tirealert.com

I had them replace the base tape on a dozen old but still usable tires tires last year. It cost me about $8.00 a tire including shipping.

They've increased their prices a little since then. Replacing a tube now costs $20 for one $18 each for 2 or more tires.

There is nothing like the feel of sewups, especially when sprinting or climbing. Very Happy

Gtane

I've never repaired a tub, Stephan. I've actually had very few punctures with tubs, far less than high pressures. I've thought about it but never actually done it, mind you if it was a freshly fitted [matured] tub then I could well be tempted to have a go. Thankfully they've either worn out or got too old when they have needed changing.

I've had a couple blow when riding, just because they were too old and the canvas had perished.

If you enjoyed repairing a tub, try your hand at building a set of wheels. It's very worthwhile.

I may try repairing a tub when the next one goes. Thanks for the idea again. Great info. Chas, Thanks too.

Tim