Originally Posted by
cny-bikeman
That was mentioned very early on, but we don't know if the OP has a hook bead rim, though it does appear to be aluminum. TO THE OP: Check your rim to verify if hook bead or not -
There's quite a lot of new info for me to assimilate all at once here; and a lot of new vocab, considering that English isn't my 1st language! As recently as yesterday, I never even suspected that bike wheels came in "straight" or "hooked" rims...
I did check the wheels and they are aluminum. The wheels are the original ones.
They are : Ukai 27 x 1-1/8 w/o LA (not sure what the last bit means)
The tires are : Cheng Shin 37-630 (27 x 1-1/8) C-979D-4
As Turtle Speed mentions, the tires might have gone completely flat before I acquired the bike : The previous owner did admit to letting it sit on his balcony since he last rode it, almost 10 years ago. (Before I had a tube explode, my biggest concern with this bike had been to blow-torch the rusted seat post out of the frame...) When I went to his place, the seller inflated the tires before I test-rode the bike; but I don't know if they were completely flat before.
I will read the thread that Turtle Speed posted. I just didn't have much time to spend on this today...