When a 26 is not a 26....

Scott Gordo said:

To support my bicycle and motorcycle habits, I garbage pick old bikes,
fix them up, and sell them.

One of these days I plan to emulate that. Instead of fixing them up and
selling them to friends for part cost...

Quoted message said:

FINALLY, I took another look at the chunks of gumwall still attached
to the threads. Something about "S-5 or S-6". Did some googling and,
lo and behold, Schwinn did their own tire sizing.

Evvvvil. I knew about the 26x1.375 vs 26x1-3/8 distinction. I wasn't
aware there were two 26x1-3/8 at 590mm and 597mm. Evil, I say.

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
Secure, Usable, Microsoft. Pick any two.

Dane Buson said:

Scott Gordo said:

To support my bicycle and motorcycle habits, I garbage pick old bikes,
fix them up, and sell them.

One of these days I plan to emulate that. Instead of fixing them up and
selling them to friends for part cost...

Quoted message said:

FINALLY, I took another look at the chunks of gumwall still attached
to the threads. Something about "S-5 or S-6". Did some googling and,
lo and behold, Schwinn did their own tire sizing.

Evvvvil. I knew about the 26x1.375 vs 26x1-3/8 distinction. I wasn't
aware there were two 26x1-3/8 at 590mm and 597mm. Evil, I say.

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
Secure, Usable, Microsoft. Pick any two.

I give away a lot of little kids bikes I find in the NJ suburbs.
They're virtually unused, and kids in my nabe in Brooklyn are wide-
eyed reverent towards them. One kid in particular was a huge Power
Rangers fan. I gave him a Power Rangers bike I found and his mom says
he wants to sleep to the thing. She gave me a dozen photos of him
riding, admiring, and posing (as the proud owner) with the bike. Good
stuff.

I often give friends who want to try out a fixie a bike that will fit
them but has bum wheels (which is pretty common). Pull all the
shifting stuff, let them buy the rear wheel and cog, cut the chain and
they're pretty much ready to roll.

Most other stuff that I just don't want to mess with gets donated to
www.recycleabicycle.com, which is a program for city high school
students. They learn how to do repairs, work a register, stock parts
and such, and generally run a business. It's all good. I get a real
kick out of running into people on bikes I donated.

I do this out of love, and despite Chicago Schwinn's diabolical
conventions 😉

/s

Dane Buson said:

Evvvvil. I knew about the 26x1.375 vs 26x1-3/8 distinction. I wasn't
aware there were two 26x1-3/8 at 590mm and 597mm. Evil, I say.

That's why ERTRO sizing (BSD x Width or vice versa) is your friend,
and a lot of folks these parts will only refer to tire or rim sizing
that way. I'm getting to be one of them.

Scott Gordo said:

To support my bicycle and motorcycle habits, I garbage pick old bikes,
fix them up, and sell them.

For the most part they don't need much more than a squirt of oil and a
patched tube. Lots of them have tire-rot as well.

I picked up a Schwinn Collegiate coaster brake bike that was in decent
condition. There was literally around 1/4" of mung growing off the
chain.There's a bit of rust on the rims, stem and bars, nothing a
quick brushing couldn't handle. The tires were totally shot, with
large chunks of the gumwall cracking off onto the floor. I was able to
make out some basic info: Made in USA, 26 x 1 3/8, Schwinn.

I looked through my supply of decent-condition tires and found a pair
of 26 x 1 3/8 that came off of a Raliegh 3-speed that had been crushed
by a car. (Don't worry, I live in NYC and the bike was locked to a
pole but had fallen over and into the path of a parking car.)

I popped off what was left of the old 26" tires from the Schwinn
(which were the originals and with good tread, btw), and proceeded to
install the Raliegh's 26s.

20 minutes later, I'd broken two plastic tire levers. I tried the
other tire, thinking that maybe this happened to be an unusually tight
bead. I looked at the rim but found no info. Then I found another 26 x
1 3/8 gumwall from a different bike, some dept store Spalding or
something. This tire seemed more promising.

30 minutes later, I did something I've considered close to a cardinal
sin ever since I was a teenager working on my BMX bike. I commissioned
a flathead screwdriver to the purpose of installing the tire. "The
right tool for the right job" only holds up for so long.

After enough grunting, groaning, and cursing to make my GF stop asking
me if I was okay, I got one side of that sucker on. It didn't look
healthy, though. The other side...HAH! No dice.

Tried an mtb tire that I knew sat loosely on my Mavic 121 rims. Again,
no dice.

FINALLY, I took another look at the chunks of gumwall still attached
to the threads. Something about "S-5 or S-6". Did some googling and,
lo and behold, Schwinn did their own tire sizing.

A quick trip to the LBS for a S-6 tire and $10 later I all was in
working order.

Yeah, I'm sure this is something a lot of you guys have known about
for a long time, but there's always something new for me.

Your Collegiate has '26-inch' 597mm rims. Standard British tires are
'26-inch' 590mm which not the same as mountain bike '26-inch' 559mm nor
the once-dead-but-perhaps-breathing-again 650B '26-inch' 584mm nor
triathlete's choice, the '26-inch' 571mm size nor the truly obsolete
American 1.375 or '26-inch' 611mm hook-bead tires.

You were right with a 597mm or "EA-1" 26 x 1-3/8 x 1-1/4 tire, about $10
at any LBS which commonly services bicycles.

p.s. "S6" is a rim section, not a size. The "S6" design also existed as
a 24-inch rim.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

FINALLY, I took another look at the chunks of gumwall still attached
to the threads. Something about "S-5 or S-6". Did some googling and,
lo and behold, Schwinn did their own tire sizing.

Ah yes...the 'ol "Schwinn sized" tires :-). Another reason to dislike
those gawd awful often proprietary tanks. Can't say their limitations
have limited their current resale value though.