When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Origin of the balloon tire (research)

#eBayPartner    Most Recent BUY IT NOW Items Listed on eBay
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture
eBay Auction Picture

Cooper S.

I live for the CABE
So I’ve been doing a little digging into the origin of the 26” balloon tire we all know and love, and I think I’m close to the original source of it.
As we all know, schwinn introduced the balloon tire to the American market after having taken a trip to Germany in the early 1930s. (Here’s a link to a primer if you haven’t heard that story before https://vintageamericanbicycles.com/index.php/the-first-american-balloon-tire-bicycles/ )
But, I was writing a paper about the German bicycle company Diamant for one of my classes while I’m studying for the semester in Berlin, and noticed that they hadn’t introduced a balloon tire equipped model until 4 years after the Schwinns had discovered the 26” tire. Then I started to look and I couldn’t find any standard model of German bike with those tires from before schwinn introduced them, which seemed rather odd to me. While the bikes in Germany had been using separate inner tubes and tires, they hadn’t really been using the tires that revolutionized bikes in the US, but had kept the 28 x1 1/2” size that was and still is the standard.
Until I found a Katalog from continental tires from 1930, which seems to imply that the ancestors of the 26x2.125 balloon tire was created by them in 1929.
( https://www.strewi-fahrradwerke.de/Fahrraddokumente/1930-continental-reifen-und-zubehoer.pdf )

what do you all think? If anyone has any primary sources from schwinn about where they got the idea from I’d love to see them as I might use this as a part of a larger paper for my German minor’s capstone paper next semester.
1736413


1736414


1736415
 
The tire that Frank W. Schwinn saw in Germany, may have been a prototype, and not something that was actually in production.
I’ve read, that he had a hard time finding an American company that would produce that size bicycle tire.
It’s my understanding that Fisk was the first company to produce the 26”x2.125 size clincher type balloon tire.
 
I'm pretty sure the new Balloon tire term used by Schwinn has more to do with the new nylon? corded tires that were double tube clinchers, not just the Balloon tire name alone that was around many years prior. Do some research on the evolution of a tire and when the cord was invented and then used on the balloon bike tires after Mr. Schwinn returned from Europe. His tire was the new double tube straight side Corded Balloon tire that was a clincher on the new drop center rims, not the sew up or the glue on garden hose tubeless balloon tires used on the wood rims and pictured above in that German literature. Schwinn was supposedly the first to design/build a bike specifically for these new 2-1/4 " balloon tires.

Sears Fall-Winter catalogue introduced the Allstate balloon tire bicycle. This was a 28 X 2 inch tubeless tire – similar to the construction of many auto and motorcycle tires. Sears advertised that it was a balloon tire that represented the first bike innovation in 50 years.


Note the print in orange.

I hope all my rambling helps a little with any of the tire confusion and all the Schwinn Balloon Tire hype.
1669018994149.png





 
I'm pretty sure the new Balloon tire term used by Schwinn has more to do with the new nylon? corded tires that were double tube clinchers, not just the Balloon tire name alone that was around many years prior. Do some research on the evolution of a tire and when the cord was invented and then used on the balloon bike tires after Mr. Schwinn returned from Europe. His tire was the new double tube straight side Corded Balloon tire that was a clincher on the new drop center rims, not the sew up or the glue on garden hose tubeless balloon tires used on the wood rims and pictured above in that German literature. Schwinn was supposedly the first to design/build a bike specifically for these new 2-1/4 " balloon tires.

Sears Fall-Winter catalogue introduced the Allstate balloon tire bicycle. This was a 28 X 2 inch tubeless tire – similar to the construction of many auto and motorcycle tires. Sears advertised that it was a balloon tire that represented the first bike innovation in 50 years.


Note the print in orange.

I hope all my rambling helps a little with any of the tire confusion and all the Schwinn Balloon Tire hype.
View attachment 1736711
That is a good point, it would be important the define exactly what makes a balloon tire. Is it the 2” width, the inner tube, or the compound of the tire? Is it just a borrowed marketing term? I kinda think all three components are necessary, but maybe not. If only we could ask them.
 
Also, a key word in the A&S ad is the adjective, “super”.
The adjective may have been used to distinguish theirs from other balloon tires.

The translated text seems to compare the aspects of high and low pressures, due to the amount of surface area contact of the narrow and wide tires. Perhaps similar observations may be made today, exclusively with clincher tires.
 
It's quite late and I just stumbled on this thread. I haven't read it thoroughly and may miss some points already made. But I feel compelled to chime in. First, the term "balloon tire" was an automotive concept from the 1920's. The idea was to use larger tires at lower pressure, for a number of purported advantages--traction, comfort, style, etc. So the answer to the above question is that it was the size (and low pressure) that made a balloon tire. The other, perhaps most significant feature of the Schwinn B10-E's new tire, its double-tube, wired-on construction (which cyclists now call "clinchers," not to be confused with actual G&J or other true clinchers), did not give the balloon tire its name. Frank Schwinn wrote in his unpublished notes from 1942 (made available from the Bicycle Museum of America's archives in 1993) that the German tire his father saw in Germany in 1932 "...had been in use for a number of years and was very practical, particularly on rough or cobbled pavements." My understanding was it was a size used for work or delivery bicycles, not general roadsters, so perhaps one could look in that direction.
Paul Rubenson
 
Most of what is being expressed here about Schwinn and "balloon tires" and the invention of same... and introduction of same... is a huge, never-ending myth. But this myth is firmly believed and even exaggerated by Schwinn worshippers down on their knees giving praise. And by this crazy hobby in general. No matter how much evidence to the contrary has been presented over the many years and is obvious... if one only does proper and full research.

I have said this many times over the years. I have written this many times over the years. I have advised people making speeches before audiences NOT to say such stuff. But nobody reads or listens.

Open your minds to new horizons. The reasons why balloon tires were wonderful are not all what people today seem to imagine.

• Bicycle companies didn't invent balloon tires. Europeans didn't invent balloon tires even though they generally adopted them on certain bicycles earlier than North American bicycle companies. American car tire companies and car companies did. Many years prior to the 1930s and well prior to what people in this hobby believe– or want to believe.

• The term, "balloon tire" is almost certainly American in origin. It was probably coined by Good Year Tire & Rubber, but was also used by others like Musselman and more. European companies in the early times of this tire design used other descriptions for them. One bicycle company in England referred to them as "...oversize tyres..." and suggested they were best for use on rough pavement... and (most of all) off of paved roads (uh-oh... this gets into off-road riding far away from where people today think this stuff was born– and we don't wanna go there, do we?).

• Sears Elgin bicycles had balloon tires on their bicycles well before Arnold, Schwinn & Company. Anyone could buy them. Don't take my word for it... look it up. Yes, of course I have ALL of the Elgin catalogues.

• Montgomery Ward Hawthorne bicycles had balloon tires well before Arnold, Schwinn & Company. Anyone could buy them. Don't take my word for it... look it up. Yes, of course I have ALL of the Hawthorne catalogues.

• Arnold, Schwinn & Co.'s promo sales ads and literature did NOT say the company invented balloon tires. It merely said that ASC was "introducing" balloon tires. Huge difference.

• There are NO valid arguments for whether a balloon tire was 26-inch or 28-inch in circumference. What made a balloon tire a balloon tire was the fact that it had a fatter cross section and lower pressure... whether on a bicycle or a car.

This is a huge subject and I alone can't undo myths and resolve it here any more than I have. However, the facts can indeed be found... if anyone decides to simply look.

Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)
 
Yep, Schwinn built their first US made bikes for the old balloon tires. I've never come across a Schwinn ad that said they were the first to use the balloon tires.
 
Last edited:
Myth. Schwinn did not build the first U.S.-made bicycles for balloon tires. Even if this is believed today. Just not true. Again... look up Elgin and Hawthorne bicycles from 1932 (in the real literature and not in catalogue-copy "books")... not 1933. And there were other balloon tire brands in the USA prior to Schwinn. USA, not originated from Europe and certainly not from Germany.
 
Last edited:
In order to add to the confusion😄, i have this swedish 28 tire made by Trelleborg, clearly marked ballong (balloon in swedish). Must be really old because of the spelling of the word "fälg" as "fälj" wich means rim. The only 28 inch ballon i have ever seen or heard of in over 25 years of bicycle collecting. I guess its at least from the 20''ies.

Screenshot_20230212_074724_Chrome.jpg


img_1_1676184410860.jpg
 
Back
Top