Tire size?

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Well I started messing around with my old schwinn today. The tires are toasted! They are 26X1 3/4 and all i have are 26X1.75 tires laying around. They will not go on no matter how much i stretch, pull or twist.

What tires will fit these wheels? Do i need some 26X2.25s or what? I never come across this issue before. And tubes i assume i need 26X1 3/4 as well?

Thanks.
 
JJP27 said:
Well I started messing around with my old schwinn today. The tires are toasted! They are 26X1 3/4 and all i have are 26X1.75 tires laying around. They will not go on no matter how much i stretch, pull or twist.

What tires will fit these wheels? Do i need some 26X2.25s or what? I never come across this issue before. And tubes i assume i need 26X1 3/4 as well?

Thanks.
You have S-7 rims on that. Duro makes some for it.
 
So i need a 26x1 3/4 tire and tube? I couldnt get something like 26x2.25 or etc?
 
I think the tubes are available as well. I added on an Ebay auction that has tires and tubes for $50.I'm still looking for more deals for you. I might even have some I could send with the tank if you want it.
JJP27 said:
So i need a 26x1 3/4 tire and tube? I couldnt get something like 26x2.25 or etc?
 
JJP27 said:
Well I started messing around with my old schwinn today. The tires are toasted! They are 26X1 3/4 and all i have are 26X1.75 tires laying around. They will not go on no matter how much i stretch, pull or twist.
Yup, someone with a sense of humor at Schwinn took everything Sister Mary Elephant taught us in math, that 1 3/4 = 1.75, and made sure we'd soon learn that there's an exception for every rule!
 
Back in the day, that was so you had to buy Schwinn tires. I use one of those 1 3/4 S-7s on my 2 speed, but I use regular 26 x 1.75 inner tubes no problem.
 
Yep, I was thinking the tubes would be loose enough or stretch ok.

Wildcat said:
Back in the day, that was so you had to buy Schwinn tires. I use one of those 1 3/4 S-7s on my 2 speed, but I use regular 26 x 1.75 inner tubes no problem.

http://www.amazon.com/CST-Cruiser-241-T ... B003ZMH6N4
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 9466&tc=US
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/product/ ... 3-4-47-571
http://www.bicycletires.com/pkes7t/kend ... 34_(47-571)/pp.htm
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028N17E0/ref ... B0028N17E0
 
Yeah i used a 1.75 tube.. But the tires wouldnt make it so i slapped on a pair of crusty 1.3/4 tires.
 
The Schwinn wheel is about a 1/2" larger in diameter than a standard balloon or MTB wheel, so there's no way that the tire could be made to fit. They're simply not interchangeable. This gets a lot of people, but there are probably 5 or 6 different sized wheel standards that could be defined as "26 inch" in some way or another. It just happens that the MTB community adopted the old balloon tire size with 559 mm rim and that has become the modern standard. But the Schwinn middleweight rim is 571 mm.

Bike tire sizing is absurd, generally speaking. If you come into it with assumptions based on how car tires are sized, like I did initially, it'll be confusing as all get out. But the naming convention is based on the outside diameter of the inflated tire, rather than the wheel diameter. Or rather, the perceived outside diameter, because once you put a wider or narrower tire on than what the size was based on (say, a 26 x 2.125), the tire's outside diameter no longer matches the named size. Case in point - a 26 x 1.5, like what's on my touring bike, actually measures out to slightly under 25" overall, even though its called a "26". Now, if the industry is going to standarize based on a wheel size and put different diameter or width tires on it, fine, but they should name it based on the wheel size too. But that isn't what happened.

Enter into this situation Schwinn and the middleweight. What they did, essentially, was to adopt a larger diameter wheel so that when they used a narrower tire, it still inflated up to be approximately 26". Since the tire was narrower, it was also lower profile, so to maintain the OD, the rim had to be larger to make up the difference. It's like plus-1 sizing of car tires, for bikes. Quite logical really, but the naming convention screws it up. OTOH, most other manufacturers retained the old 559 wheel size when they moved into middleweight production, and just put narrower tires on them. So a Schwinn middleweight actually has tires that are 26" in diameter, but a Ross or a Columbia, for example, had basically 25.5" tires. Of course, part of Schwinn's motivation was to make money on the back end by having customers come back to them to buy replacements that fit the proprietary size as well.

Is there a way I can post a spreadsheet? I wrote one a while back that breaks down most of the more common sizes and tell you what the actually tire diameters are.
 
This is the widest tire you can get for an S-7. 26 x 2 x 1 3/4. Not wide enough for that fat tire look. This is on a 55 Columbia frame.

15i6uts.jpg


23iv4p1.jpg
 
Looks like I am off to get a set of rims then. No way I can be ok with that tire size. Thanks everyone for the help.. Especially the detailed post above!
 
I think you made the right decision. Balloons seem to fit in the majority of middleweight frames, especially if you're not going to run fenders. Gives a lot more options for tires
 
Yeah I am not into the whole fenders and smaller tires. I do like the rear rack though.. I am trying to figure out what is the largest tire I could run using this older frame. I am def liking the tan 26x2.35 tires on the huffy nel lusso bike. Not sure if those would fit? But also the tan brick pattern 2.125s I like alot.
 
JJP27 said:
Yeah I am not into the whole fenders and smaller tires. I do like the rear rack though.. I am trying to figure out what is the largest tire I could run using this older frame. I am def liking the tan 26x2.35 tires on the huffy nel lusso bike. Not sure if those would fit? But also the tan brick pattern 2.125s I like alot.


Bust out the tape measure, and see how much space you have between the chainstays and seatstays at about 11.5" from where the axle will sit. Allow a little wiggle room, and go from there. I'd be completely stunned if you couldn't fit 2.125" tires; a lot of middleweights can swallow 2.35" Fat Franks if the wheels are trued up, but it's always safest to measure before you buy.

hth
-rob

ps- The same set of tires will be either wider or taller depending on the width of the rim. Something to keep in mind.
 

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