mtb-timeline

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Tires

mountain bike, noun : An all-terrain bicycle with wide knobby tires, straight handlebars, and typically 18 to 21 gears. Webster's Dictionary, mirriam-webster.com

Fat, knobby tires define a mountain bike. They are perhaps the most important single component to a mountain bike's handling yet are often neglected, maybe because of their non-durable nature or low relative expense. So much print is spent reviewing expensive frames and components - but where are the articles or books devoted to bike tires? ¹⁾

Schwinn was the first to promote “balloon tires” on bikes in 1933 and they proved so successful that within two years, a full 97% of all bicycles sold used Schwinn Balloon tires ²⁾.

1933 Schwinn Balloon Tire, 26” x 2 1/8“

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Bicycle Quarterly recently produced an excellent analysis of touring tires, with the counter intuitive conclusion that fatter is better, even for the road. As long as the tire is light and supple, such as tires which the parent company of Bicycle Quarterly sells.

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The greatest innovation of the 1933 Schwinn Balloon Tire was the introduction of an inner tube, while all previous bike tires used sew ups. Frank Schwinn called sew-ups: “basically a glorified piece of continuous garden hose with a valve” thecabe