Reid
Well-Known Member
The concept adopted by today's Gaddi branded tube goes back to the first two years of pneumatic tire production.
https://archive.org/stream/bearings818931894cycl#page/n13/mode/1up
The imaged tube was of natural rubber and therefore much more elastic than the butyl rubber used today, which is strong and more airtight, but cannot stretch nearly so much as natural rubber.
Many early bicycle pneumatic tires were laced or glued-flap attached to the rim. It was a challenge to change a circular tube. Therefore, the butted tube was popular for a short while.
Today with many rear hub motor ebikes the butted tube makes good sense again.
Or just go tubeless.
The modern wire-beaded (today exemplified by folding tires with a kevlar cord bead instead of solid wire) tire was invented in England by a man unrelated to myself but same name, who sold his patent rights in 1890 to the Dunlop tire people. It took a few years to catch on, but the tires you use today are basically unchanged standard equipment of 1895, including their still-usual for ebikes, Schrader tire valve.
The fact that even my super Schwalbe G-One/Big One LiteSkin pebble-treaed tires are made today, but were also in essence (including the button tread pattern) made in the late 1890s in tube tire form, makes me think how perfected our modern bicycles really were by that time, at basis. A tire was flexible and fast and of 1.5 to 2 inches width most usually and by 1895, in the USA, were on a wooden rim, wood for relative-against-steel, lightness to make a faster wheel.
https://archive.org/stream/bearings818931894cycl#page/n13/mode/1up
The imaged tube was of natural rubber and therefore much more elastic than the butyl rubber used today, which is strong and more airtight, but cannot stretch nearly so much as natural rubber.
Many early bicycle pneumatic tires were laced or glued-flap attached to the rim. It was a challenge to change a circular tube. Therefore, the butted tube was popular for a short while.
Today with many rear hub motor ebikes the butted tube makes good sense again.
Or just go tubeless.
The modern wire-beaded (today exemplified by folding tires with a kevlar cord bead instead of solid wire) tire was invented in England by a man unrelated to myself but same name, who sold his patent rights in 1890 to the Dunlop tire people. It took a few years to catch on, but the tires you use today are basically unchanged standard equipment of 1895, including their still-usual for ebikes, Schrader tire valve.
The fact that even my super Schwalbe G-One/Big One LiteSkin pebble-treaed tires are made today, but were also in essence (including the button tread pattern) made in the late 1890s in tube tire form, makes me think how perfected our modern bicycles really were by that time, at basis. A tire was flexible and fast and of 1.5 to 2 inches width most usually and by 1895, in the USA, were on a wooden rim, wood for relative-against-steel, lightness to make a faster wheel.
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