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New Red Rubber to tire your high wheel bicycle.

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Price
$4.00 to $6.50 per foot
Payment Terms
money order
Location
dc
Zipcode
20015
Sorry to have to report a difference in experience. We usually have a 4 inch overlap for the big wheel, plus a minus just a little bit for sizes more or less than a 52 inch wheel, which was the most popular size in the 1880s. If you have 10 inches of overlap, I would think is would be impossible to compress that much rubber; however, if you are using some of the plastic tubing, it might work. Gook luck and let me know how it works, especially the kind of hard rubber you are using. Check the Wheelmen Bulletin No. 4.
 
I personally have used the formula of 1" overlap per every 10" of wheel diameter and have not had the tire butted ends separation problems due to heat build up from friction in the rubber during riding. Separation of butted ends is also caused by the tiring "snagging" on something in the rim cavity like a spoke nipple that has the spoke threads exposed beyond the nipple head or a headed spoke that is sharp or not seated down in the counter sunk spoke hole in the rim. Always grind down exposed threaded spokes extending beyond the nipple head and sharp headed spokes. I usually use a cloth rag and run it around the inside of the rim to check if it snags on anything. Sometimes the inner surfaces of the metal rim will have sharp places as well that need attention. Rim and spoke preparation is critical before installing a tire because in reality the tire actually migrates around the rim over time from riding the bike no matter how tight tire is on the rim due to the calendaring process of the rubber being compressed while supporting the rider's and bicycle's weight at the pressure point on the road surface. The tensioned wire inside the tire also migrates from riding the bike as I have seen this when removing old tiring and the wire joint can sometimes be half the way around the rim from the butted tiring joint. Smoothing rough edges at the solder joint of the wire (or twisted joint wire ends if done that way) will stop the wire from snagging in the soft rubber which can also be a problem.
After cutting your tiring to a rough slightly oversized length, my favorite tip is to grab each end of the rubber tiring and tightly hold them together so the ends are matched up like a double barreled shotgun and dress sand the ends simultaneously on a disc sander that has a work table. The logic for this is by holding the ends this way while sanding, even if you are not quite square to the sanding disc, it is not a problem as the ends that were sanded simultaneously now become the complementary angles to each other when the tiring is placed on the rim and will butt up dead flat and is visually neater once compressed on the rim via the wire tension. A 60 grit sanding disc works great and don't use too fine of a grit as it will load up and burn the rubber instead of cutting the rubber.
Hope this helps you solid rubber tire bike riders.
Mike Cates, CA.
 
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Is the rubber like we used in the Ole days, similar to Dick Hammel tiring ? Thanks Russell
Our rubber is made using an analysis of some of Dick Hammel's tiring by our factory, so you can be reassured that our product is made, as closely as possible, as the rubber which we have been using over the many years, Dick supplied us with rubber. From my experience since last year, the new rubber is as durable as the rubber made by Dick Hammel many years ago. Some of my bikes still have the original rubber we purchased from Dick back in the 1970s. For these reasons, I would check out other sources which offer buggy rubber or lab tubing and ask for their data on their product.
 
An answer to the Freqman 1 Shawn's question:
Gray rubber was used for Victor bicycles for one or two years both on their high wheel and hard tire safeties around (but don't hold me to it) 1887-1889.
Other brands of bicycles using gray rubber may have used gray rubber but I do not know enough about it to pass it along to fellow Caber's.
If, and only "if", you can find an old business or independent guy that went back to the 1970's and even earlier that put tires on wheelchairs of the time, some of these shops (or retired independent guys) may have some left. It is possible.
History: Originally wheelchair rubber was black back to the beginning of when wheelchairs began using rubber tires.
Gray rubber was introduced in the 1950's due to the black tires leaving marks on hospital and home floors.
At this time, gray rubber began being supplied to dealers in full long footage rolls.
In the late 1970's it started coming to the shops in precut lengths with the wire already installed as well so the shops wouldn't have to stock wire, cut it and fish the wire through the tire which, for some shops, was a problem I guess so I'm thinking this was the reason for the change. Not to mention having a lot of tiring on hand if you only re tired a few chairs a month.
Everest & Jennings was the dominant company who made wheel chairs and oversaw the gray rubber tiring as well so if you can find and old Everest & Jennings dealer it is possible to find gray rubber. Maybe you'll turn up a tire installation machine as well!
The sizes of the tires back then varied from 7/8"-1" diameters for rear wheels and 3/4" - 7/8" for the small front caster type wheels.
I would also exhaust finding people who collect and restore pedal cars as gray may have been used in that circle of development.
Even if you found Everest & Jennings gray rubber today, I am sure it would be just as pliable and strong as it was produced back then since it was being used on medical equipment (wheelchairs) that were governed and approved by the Medical field and Health Insurance Companies.
Of course the rest of the history is that the gray rubber gave way to one piece stretch-on Cushion Tires (or molded - glued on tires, then went to pneumatic tires later on molded plastic spoked wheels so no more steel spoke and nipple wheels.
Funny how the wheelchair tire progression aligns itself nearly exactly with the progression of the development and use of bicycle tires !
Hope this helps.

I second bikebozo's (Walter Branche's RIP) comment about Russell. Honest, upfront and a truly dedicated antique bicycle collector and enthusiast.

Mike Cates, CA.
 
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Sorry to have to report a difference in experience. We usually have a 4 inch overlap for the big wheel, plus a minus just a little bit for sizes more or less than a 52 inch wheel, which was the most popular size in the 1880s. If you have 10 inches of overlap, I would think is would be impossible to compress that much rubber; however, if you are using some of the plastic tubing, it might work. Gook luck and let me know how it works, especially the kind of hard rubber you are using. Check the Wheelmen Bulletin No. 4.
I have done it with Spillane, Hammel, Miller and probably other's rubber. I have done it with old machines, Weidman machines, Kennedy machines. I have never mounted any kind of tubing. I have been doing it for decades with 2" for every 10" of wheel diameter. Not saying I am right or wrong, but it works for me. You do you, I'll do me!
 
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From Wheelmen bulletin #4

Cut your tire a little long. A calculation used by the Spillane family, Madison, Connecticut, to determine the length of tiring required is:

  1. Determine the diameter of the wheel.
  2. Divide the diameter by 10.
  3. Multiply the quotient by 2. The resulting number is the number of inches extra that should be added to the circumference.
  4. The circumference may be determined by simply wrapping the tiring material around the wheel.
(NOTE: This calculation results in an additional 2 inches for every 10 inches of the wheel’s diameter. If harder rubber is used, add 2 inches for every 6 to 8 inches of the wheel’s diameter.)

 
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