Tubular question

[Clay]

I have never in my life run across this so I want to ask the masses here. I mounted two Continental Sprint tubulars recently. The rear ended up having a flat spot. Noticeably out of round. So I pulled it off sent it back to ProBikeKit for replacement. They made the determination that there was a bunch of mastic on the sidewall that caused the loss of elasticity in the sidewall, hence the flat spot. Now I have been mounting tubs for years and, yes, guilty of a little mastic on a sidewall once in a while, but I have never had mastic so rigid as to cause the sidewall to become rigid. Sounds like a cop out. Any opinions?

[R2D2]

Sounds like BS.
I try mounting dry to strech and look for defects.
Once there is glue on a tire most dealers won't touch it.

[Clay]

I believe that its BS too. I did dry mount just to stretch them. But never thought about looking for roundness. I will in the future.

[csm]

I've never had a noticeably bad tire. even with some of the really cheap and crappy tires I've used.

[LegendRider]

I've had Sprinters that bulged at the valve, but never a flat spot. Glue on the sidewall causing a flat spot sounds dubious...

[11.4]

Usually a flat spot comes from overstretching the tire at that point to get the last bit onto the rim. Conti has pretty good QC these days so if I see this happening, I tend to look at how it was mounted. If they saw a smear of rim cement on the sidewall there, it can be a sign that you had to push that section of the tire up onto the rim with difficulty, smearing the glue. They may not have been clear about their reasoning (and I've found they often aren't), but this could be what they felt. As pointed out above, once glued, you tend to be on your own. And I have to say that I've had superb customer service on three occasions when I've had something damaged or defective from them.

[Clay]

I pre-stretched the tire on a rim, so it wasn't too difficult to roll onto the rim. I could see a flat spot if you tried to stretch a tire pulling against your foot! I have put on a lot of tubs over the years for both road bikes and track bikes. This is a first. Interesting point about the valve stem bulge, the flat spot is right at the valve stem.

[fogrider]

I got tire just like that. mastic on the sidewalls will not cause this, it is a defect. you would not notice it unless you were looking for it or up to speed. the tire was actually narrower and a little mastic would not cause this. it wason my rear wheel and I was never so glad to get a flat.

[Clay]

Exactly what I experienced. I couldn't take the subtle bump at lower speeds, so I ripped the tire off and sent in for warranty. Like other here have said and the Continental warranty reads, once the tire is fitted you are on your own. Really the lesson to be learned here is, never trust the quality of any tire, always to a dry fit and check it closely before gluing it up. I would think that any reputable dealer would at least work with a customer on replacing a new tire at no cost or at least cost, instead of throwing out BS excuses like I got from PROBIKEKIT. Liv-n-Learn :butt: