Originally Posted by
Salubrious
I finally picked up my Raleigh Twenty from a friend of mine who found it in Michigan. Its in decent shape! Only needed brake pads and tires plus a few drops of oil in the hubs. It seems to be all there right down to the shortened tire pump that resides behind the seat tube.
What do people use for tires on these things? The rear was bulging- the best I could find in a pinch (meaning - what can I find quick I want to ride this thing) was a Kenda 20" x 1.50" which can inflate to 100 pounds. It fits OK on the rim. I have it inflated to 60 pounds. Really thinking about alloy rims....
The tyres may be able to handle 100 psi but the stock rims are not designed for high psi tyres because they have no hooked rim... with a modern rim you can run higher pressure but wider tyres are not normally designed for high psi applications either.
60 psi sounds about right... any higher and you start to run the risk of blowing the tyres off the rim. The stock tyres on the Twenty were 1.75's with a 45 psi maximum... the bike is designed for lower speeds and a plusher ride and this set up serves them well.
My 1.5 Marathons are pretty stiff at 70 psi (on hooked rims)... it is a function of the wider tyre section and the wider rim where a lower psi becomes optimal rather than running them at their maximum which just makes the bike feel skippy on rough roads as the tyres fail to absorb shocks.