flat
My rear tire flatted on the way to work yesterday. This was the first time I’ve had to change a tubular tire on the side of the road. I didn’t have much problems getting the tire off and putting the spare on but removing the valve extender from the flatted tire to the spare was a pain.
Buying extra valve extenders and pre-installing them on my spare tires would of saved me about 10 minutes. The whole process of changing the tires, adding Tufo tire sealant and inflating them would have taken less then 5 minutes if I already had the valve extenders installed.
Once I got to my office, I inspected the flatted tire and found a 5 millimeter cut in the middle of the tread. I once read somewhere on a forum that you could repair Tufo tubular tires with some superglue and Tufo tire sealant. Since the tire was relatively new, I decided to give it a try. I glued up the cut on the tire with superglue, put in some sealant and pump it up to about 120 psi and felt and listened for any leaks. A couple of hours later I checked the tire and found that it was still holding strong so I mounted the tire back onto the wheel and crossed my fingers while I rode home in the rain.
Well, I made it home without any problems and the tire was still roughly the same hardness as when I first inflated it so I left the tire on and rode in this morning with it. The cut on the tire is still sealed and the tire is still at the right pressure after 40 miles of riding so it looks like the repair with the superglue worked.