Fred,
The tires for the car would actually be state-of-the-art modern production. The original tires from 1953 are still on the rims. They are probably worth a lot in a "show" situation, since they are now quite rare. They are also not very good tires and they are probably not even good to drive on because they are mis-shapen from sitting for years. I'll keep the old ones aside and use the new radials, which didn't exist when this car was built. It will drive much nicer than when original, which is a plus.
I didn't quite understand that the high priced tubulars being discussed were Olympic type stuff. There are a number of good tubulars with orange tread over the years. The orange tread doesn't necessarily mean the tire is some super special lightweight special purpose tire. Even 250gm standard tires have been made with orange tread. The orange Contis I have on my 650c wheel track bike are just standard road/track type tires. I didn't realize there are these modern orange tread high priced units. I know I'll never have any; unless they happen to fit my car. Or maybe I'll tint the whitewalls on the car to the orange color?
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Not likely to be riding in the Olympics any time soon, so I guess I don't need the fancy orange tires.
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 4:21 PM, brianbaylis@juno.com <brianbaylis@juno.com> wrote:
Oucho McGoucho! Too rich for my blood. Since they're making them, someone must be able to afford them. The cost of one of those tyres is about double what a nice radial white wall tyre for my Bentley will cost. I can justify the car tyres, but not the bike tyres. Seems a little out of line; but that's just me. Sounds about even to me -- one luxury bike's worth costs as much as one luxury car's worth...Plus these bike tires are 2010's *ne plus ultra*, used by Olympic medalists, whereas the Bentley tires might have been the best of 1930, you'd get laughed out of Le Mans today :) I've thought about getting some "Vittoria Crono Evo CS" tubulars for a new build, they're available under $70 in street pricing and are only 165g for the 22mm wide version, and have one of the lowest rolling resistances tested. There's a Pista version for around $80 that comes with gum sidewalls and is 160 g for the 22mm section and just 140 g for the 19mm one. Those are all claimed weights, but they
could easily be lighter than the Conti Olympics at 164g actual, although the Contis may indeed have lower rolling resistances and higher pressure capacity. The lower price of the Vittorias makes them a lot more ridable -- as in, that I could actually bring myself to ride them :) -- Fred Blasdel in Seattle, WA