Originally Posted by
sciencemonster
If you don't mind - it's traditional to 'yank' a chain, not 'pull' it.
Ah. Yes, okay. Got it. Will try to remember.
Originally Posted by
Wogsterca
I think it probably started out of someone getting tired of hunting for flat causing objects looking at the whole tire, then they noticed that the label was a point of reference, which made it easier, and they told others, who started doing it, until pretty much everyone was doing it. That is when it became tradition, not following the tradition makes people think some clueless idiot installed the tires.
A very cogent answer giving a reasonable evolution of the tradition. Thank you. Of course it didn't really answer the question of when... When I bought my first bike tires didn't have easily visible multi-color labels. Instead they had just a string of embossed lettering and such. T'warn't no label to line up with anything, as far as I remember. (Will have to check the old wheels hanging on the garage wall.) Some time between then and now we all became either experienced conformists or clueless idiots.