Wood rims and tires?

[New Mexico Brant]

Welcome to the CABE!

Wheels and tires for these bikes may seem intimating at first but are not such a big deal. You just need to chose what works best for the amount of riding you will be doing.

Another solution would be to buy a set a wood rims with hidden aluminum inserts from Noah Stutzman from Ohio. He is an Amish fellow so do a search on here to find out the best way to contact him. These rims will accept modern clincher tires and people love them for riding.

The cheapest entry level wheels would be a set of painted or nickel plated vintage English roadster wheels as Bloo said above. In California I would think you could find a set fairly easily. Or you may locate a beaten down Raleigh, Hercules, or other English bike on the cheap to get these wheels.

Good luck

 

[The Carolina Rambler]

I reckon I'll give a little advice. Below is a picture of a bicycle I restored a year ago, and I have ridden about 100 miles so far. The rims are original, 100+ year old wooden rimmed wheels that I rebuilt, with new genuine tubular tires. Being as how I am on a limited budget, the tires cost me about $150 for the pair, so $75 each. I got lucky and was able to buy a used pair, from a bicycle racer on ebay who was upgrading equiptment. If your bicycle that you ultimately buy, requires 28 inch tubular tires, you should search on ebay for the following "700c tubular tire, and there will be many compatible options available at various prices, both new and used. "700x32" is the dimensions of the tire, as they are now sold in the modern day, in millimeters. This equates to approximately 28x1.5 inches, maybe slightly less than 1.5 inches, which is the dimensions of the tires that an 1890s bike is designed for. You never want to buy a tire that is for example "700x23", because then it will be too narrow for your rims. You should buy a tire that is no less than "700x32", and it will be good on any standard 28 inch tubular wood, or steel-clad wood rim. It can be a little confusing at first, so here are some links that you might should check out as examples:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175180959196?campid=5335809022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125213700921?campid=5335809022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223817785877?campid=5335809022

One further note, you will have to shop around a bit. Try and find either an all white rubber tire, a colored tire, or a white wall tire. This will be the most authentic original look , and steer away from black tires, which are more modern. Depending on the condition of your rims, this is the least expensive and most original option for you to use, from what I can tell. Or Robern Dean. It is important to remember though, tubular tires have to be glued on to the rim, and require regular repumping every few days if you're going to ride, and are more prone to failure than modern tires. And 100 year old wheels usually require a full restoration to be safely and reliably usable, but it is well worth the money saved, and the effort. Below is my 1917 bicycle with new tires. To restore the wheelset cost me under $300, that is the cost to buy the rims, spokes, hubs, tires, and materials to do the restoration. Good luck in you search for your next ride!

 

[NikeAjax]

Excellent, thank you for your responses--really! As a fine artist, aesthetics are everything to me:

JB

 

[dnc1]

Aside from the excellent rims available from Noah Stutzman as mentioned by Brant above, new wood rims are also available from 'Cerchio Ghisallo' and 'CB italia' in Italy. The clincher style ones (for conventional type tyres) from 'CG' also come with a carbon fibre liner that allows modern high pressure tyres to be fitted.
The 'CB Italia' rims are only available in the sprint style, for 'tubular' (singletube) tyres.
If you were to go down the English style steel wheels route and wanted to build (or have built) a new set I would source rims from The Netherlands, here's a link to an excellent source.....

Buy Cordo Rodi Westwood Rim 28 x 1/2" 36H SP13 - Black

Order the Cordo Rodi Westwood Rim 28 x 1/2" 36H SP13 - Black

hollandbikeshop.com

The Westwood style rims from "Cordo" are fantastic quality.
They are available in 700c (modern 28" or 622mm) and 700B (traditional English 28", slightly larger at 635mm). They are also available in aluminium ( powder coated black) and are therefore much lighter and roll/accelerate very well.
These rims are available in 32 hole front and 40 hole rear drillings, or crucially for you guys across the pond in 36 hole drillings.
I use these rims myself and they have not required re-truing in the 5 years since I built them up; unlike all of my antique wood rims (tubular type) which are very sensitive to changes in air temperature and atmospheric humidity and require regular fettling in the frequently damp British climate!
I guess that's not a problem for you @New Mexico Brant, lol.

 

[dnc1]

I always use "tub tape", tubular tyre speciific double sided tape on the wood rims I have.
I use the type specifically for aluminium rims but it works very well with the antique wood rims.
I've never had any issues with tyres rolling off of the rims and they are regularly subjected to cornering at speed.
You could use traditional glues for such tyres but in reality it's a little messy, and time consuming to do so; however if you're venturing out on the boards they will insist that your tyres are glued on and not held on with tape.

 

[NikeAjax]

I'm thinking I'd like to go with the "roadster wheels" if I can, sorta like having radial tires on my Buick:

But we'll see though

So what is fixing a flat like with clinchers? How many of y'all use inserts?

Again, thank you all for your very kind responses--REALLY!

Jaybird

 

[NikeAjax]

How many of you TOC-people use toes-clips? I really hate riding without them: is there any way to attach them to rubber pedals? Bear/rat-trap are simple, but, any idea of a vintage method?

Jaybird

 

[KevinsBikes]

Here is a reference of what I have done, I did my best to offer something cool and middle of the road budget wise. As always you can spend less if you do all the work yourself, and you'll have fun and learn a lot in the process. It was a fun project for me to build a handful of these but these will likely be my last few I sell anytime soon. It's getting tough to break even on parts, let alone the labor that goes into cleaning, repairing the hubs and lacing/truing.

Sold - 28” Faux Wood Clincher Wheels | Archive (sold or withdrawn)

These are the matte finish style I usually sell, no pinstripe. ND S.M. Front hub is very nice shape, rear has a blemish on the brake arm but a NOS driver and NOS 11T cog will make these last forever basically. tires and tubes not included - these are drilled for Schrader valve but I only had...

thecabe.com

 

[locomotion]

well if you want to ride an old TOC bike, but don't want to pay for rideable wood rims, and instead put steel rims, then don't waste your $$$ on a TOC bike
buy and ride a bike from the 50's with steel rims!
you are already riding a 50's car ..... stick with that era

 

[C M Gerlach]

Naaaah man,
Get wood wheels.
almost all of my wood 28 wheels run on cheap modern cyclocross tires.....they are fine.....like 40 bucks per tire....good enough if yer gonna ride it.