Restoring bike with sewn-up tires?

Question

My dad used to be an avid racer and he has a beautiful 62' Schwinn Paramount track bike. It has reynolds 531 tubing. He is giving it to me and I want to restore it to riding condition. It's important that I keep everything original. My main concern is the tires. They are sewn-up tires and I don't know how to fix the cracked rubber or if it is even feasible. Where could I find sewn-up tires?

Answer 1

Nice project.

But you can't fix deteriorated tires (even if you could I wouldn't want to ride them!). You will have to replace them ... rubber starts to deteriorate after about 5 years or so.

You should have no trouble getting sew-ups through any good bike store, or online at places like Colorado Cyclist (see link).

You should do some reading about sew-ups (tubulars) before trying to work with them .... or get your Dad to help (he's love to share what he knows I suspect).

Answer 2

ditto previous and would add there's a reason we don't read sewups.  Restoring's one thing. Riding's another.

Clinchers, tubed tires became the way to go because tubulars became less and less worth the extra effort.

I wonder and ask knowing that a tubular wheel can be lighter, better!  Who's still using tubulars and why?

Answer 3

Yep, decades old tires need to be tossed. If your dad did any amount of riding they wouldn't be original anyhoo. Sew-ups or tubulars are still widely available just not as common on high end bikes anymore.

Try on-line at:

nashbar

performance

biketiresdirect

EBay

There are plenty of other places to buy as well. A high end bike shop may have 'em in stock, if not they could order them.