I've done more research into the history of the single tube tyre in the USA market over the past couple of winters. The story of the 1890s tyre wars could constitute a chapter in a book but I'll present a C&V Reader's Digest condensed version.

The single tube tyre was invented in 1890 by I.W. Boothroyd of England, who offered it royalty free to all manufacturers. It was the first major pneumatic opposition to Dunlop's original pneumatic bicycle tyre. It got a big boost for the 1892 season when industry leader Albert Pope selected it for his popular Columbia brand on the belief that it was non-patentable and he would not have to pay royalties. Other manufacturers followed Pope's lead, believing that it would become the industry standard based on Pope's endorsement.

By the time that the mid-1890s bicycle boom arrived, all four major tyre types were on the market (single tube, double tube (sew-up), clincher and wired-on). However, Gormully & Jeffery's clincher design was proprietary to their Rambler brand, so new manufacturers attracted by the boom had to select from three major designs. The less expensive single tube was almost invariably the choice of the new companies trying to gain a foothold in the market.

Consequently, the single tube tyre had more market share than all the others combined, when the boom went bust in 1897 as a result of the market saturation form the influx of new manufacturers. Prices and profits spiraled downwards as manufacturers tried to remain solvent in a rapidly shrinking market. Pope and Spalding thought that by amalgamating several bicycle companies, they could control the market and fix profit margins. To this end, they created the American Bicycle Company in 1899, initially absorbing 42 bicycle companies and eventually growing to overtake 75.

This monopolist approach was not lost on the tyre industry. The Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. was created to buy up tyre companies and patent rights from owners who were all too willing to divest themselves of assets in the evaporating market. By July 1899 they had acquired the manufacturing rights to the wired-on, double tube (sew-up) and even the single tube, which turned out to be patentable. This left the Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. in a position to control the vast majority of the USA bicycle tyre market. The weakened industry was looking for an inexpensive tyre and Rubber Goods Mfg. Co, was happy to supply the single tube at discount prices, knowing that there would be big profits in aftermarket sales of the relatively fragile design. In the long run, single tube tyres would be more profitable for the company and they were more than happy to let the double tube (sew-up) and wired-on tyres pass away quietly.

While I wasn't able to find an exact date, even the clincher found it way into the Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. product family by at least 1911. That was the year they created a subsidiary specifically to reduce competition between the four tyre types, officially ending the tyre war, even though the single tube had been dominant almost since its inception. It would not face significant opposition again until Schwinn introduced their balloon tyre in 1933.

However, the most interesting discovery of my research was how and why the Canadian industry evolved differently. News of the pending American Bicycle Company had worried Canadian manufacturers. Many of the larger American bicycle companies had established Canadian manufacturing subsidiaries to circumvent the prohibitive tariffs and there was concern that the American Bicycle Company would move into Canada (which it eventually did as the National Cycle & Automobile Co.). To counter this, Walter Massey of Massey-Harris proposed a similar amalgamation of Canadian manufacturers, a move which would lead to the formation of Canada Cycle & Motor (CCM). The money to buy the five Canadian companies that would form CCM would come from a syndicate of fellow Methodists.

However, prior to forming CCM, the investors went after a tyre, realizing that controlling the rights to a tyre was critical to a successful bicycle company. Massey-Harris' previous experience with Dunlop's wired-on tyre probably influenced their decision and in January 1899 the investment syndicate purchased the Dunlop Tire Co. which held the rights to the Dunlop tyre patents in Canada and the USA. They immediately separated the operation into Canadian and USA companies, subsequently selling the USA rights to the Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. for $750,000.

The timing and people involved in the two companies suggests that the capital obtained from the Rubber Goods Mfg Co. may have be used to partially fund Canada Cycle & Motor. The two events were separated by little over a month and Warren Soper, one the major investors, would become both president of Dunlop Canada and a director in Canada Cycle and Motor.

Regardless, by the end of 1899, Canada had a new bicycle company that controlled 80% of the domestic market and equipped their bicycles with the Dunlop wired-on tyre. Unlike south of the border, Canada's cycling future would be irrevocably tied to the wired-on tyre, courtesy of the CCM-Dunlop alliance. It can even be argued that CCM's creation fostered the dominance of the single tube tyre in the USA, as it allowed the Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. to buy out a major competitor in the USA tyre war.

So, while the double tube (sew-up), clincher and wired-on tyres were available in the USA, they appear to have lagged behind the single tube almost since it's inception. By the turn of the 20th century a monopoly effectively controlled the vast majority of bicycle tyre sales in the USA market, promoting the more profitable single tube tyre over other designs. The single tube appears to have been the dominant tyre in the USA market for over 40 years and had very minor competition for about 3 decades.