Ya. I’m hoping I can re shape it a bit. I’m really trying to keep the weight down, but may be best with out.
Thank you, much appreciated. The tires are not ideal off road, but for the most of the riding, they serve the purpose. Curious what you guys ran back in the day for rubber.
For the races I ran 26"x1.75" smaller knobbies. I ran the tires at 75psi and they were mounted on Araya MTB rims. Those rims were quite wide and very durable. I believe they might have been the first aluminum MTB rims readily available. I bought my first pair in 1978 and mounted them to my klunker. Lots of racers ran bigger rubber but there were plenty using my size also. You would see everything from drop bars to vise grips clamped typically on the seat post clamp bolt. Everyone was trying out ideas to see what worked best.
I have an answer, via Alan Bond. He's got a ton of examples of the real thing. This one is exactly as it was:
I rode out of Reno Nevada during the early 70's with the Reno Wheelmen. This was a race oriented group mentored by Jack Harman. Jack was an American Olympian bicyclist from the 60's. We had a guy in 1973-4 or so that went on an old American balloon bicycle hunting expedition in Southern Oregon and Northern California. He brought back a raft of one speed old American Iron. He liked to transport the bikes and a bunch of friends up to the top of Geiger Grade just south of Reno in trucks and ride down. Geiger Grade is a 7% grade or more dirt road from the days when Virginia City, NV needed mining supplies. It's about 10 miles long. I never tried it but a lot of Reno Wheelmen of the time did. I cannot remember his name. The bikes were pretty stock. I remember he looked for bikes with front drum brakes of the era for better stopping power. A lot of them were ridden with their fenders and chain guards still on. That was the first time I saw people offroading in the mountains on old American Iron.
