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Muscle bike tires, specifically, Colorline 16” fronts

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Grey Ghost

Wore out three sets of tires already!
Anybody recall seeing 16” colorline tires on 1969 Krates?

I could swear that I remember seeing some colorline 16”front tires on a couple of local Krates in my neighborhood around 1969-1970. I think us kids even talked about how Krates looked weird with only one tire being colored and the other being black wall.

I also think I remembered some front color lines in Schwinn ads in magazines like Boys Life at that time.

These memories are so ingrained that it seemed strange to me when I didn’t see any of these when I joined this forum.

Maybe they were a dealer option? Maybe an aftermarket product by Goodyear, Carlisle or Dunlop?

Redline tires were available on some bikes back then and were pretty cool. After all Jaguar XKE’s and Hot Wheels had redlines, right?
Redlines would have been easy to get since Murray, (Sears, JC Penney), had them on their bikes.

But I recall orange and yellow lines that matched the rear Slik colors pretty well. The tread pattern was the same as the Superiors.

I never saw a Pea with a colorline in front. But then, I don’t think I ever saw a 69 Pea Picker anyway.

I must not be the only one who thinks they remember these because one dealer, BicycleHeaven, had so many requests for them that they made a few batches. These were expensive and are long gone.

I can’t find any information about these tires at all, not even any ads. Schwinn ads are scarce anyway, wonder why?

I know I’m not thinking about the Goodyear, (I think), Grasshopper full color tires. Those were something altogether different. Wearing those on your bike could get you a punch in the nose, too sissy.

Any information on the 16” colorline tires would be appreciated.
 
Here is my original

1668087181895.jpeg
 
Yes , the tire came to me with a Stingray Slik. It is clearly an aftermarket I just noticed the made in Taiwan. Could it have been aftermarket in the '70s? Sorry I will not hijack this thread anymore.

View attachment 1729147

View attachment 1729148
Yes, made in Taiwan is a repro replacement tire unless you see any date coding, it'll not be an original period dated tire. Schwinn used Superior front tires for Krates and others in the 60's - 70's, Made In USA stamped and date coded
 
Ok, now that we’ve settled the front tire question, (yeah!), I have another inquiry.

1969 grip colors.

Seems to be a lot of insistence that they only installed orange sparkle grips that year, and Schwinn
probably did that early on in 1969.

However, I think I remember the Kool orange monochrome grips installed on 69 Krates as well. I say 69 Krates because they had colorline tires on them, not the white letter Sliks. (Which were also totally awesome when they came out)

This stood out to me because the sparkle grips had been around on bikes for a looong time at this point and were starting to look dated. The Kool Orange grips were really radical and added another layer of Kool to the package. The Kool orange brake lever covers also became a must have accessory at this time. Don’t know if Schwinn made these or just Hunt Wilde.

I don’t know, maybe kids just changed out their grips the moment the pastel colors came out. I must admit, I don’t recall seeing the other pastel colors on 1969’s, just the orange ones.
 
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