Originally Posted by
dddd
It's hard for me to imagine such a narrow rim's designer even thinking about blowing that big of a hole through both walls of such a rim, so I'm thinking that it was a concession made to those who were marketing these rims to, shall I say, "stubborn and/or pragmatic Yanks", likely as a marketing-pushed "manufacturing variance" issued some time after these rims were designed.
The discussion probably centered on the pragmatic view that "the consumer is going to drill them anyway".
To be sure though, the Gentleman was just a bit wider and stronger than comparable narrow rims made by Mavic and other competitors.
Beginning in the 1980s, I owned Super Champion Gentleman and even narrower Rigida rims with Schrader drilling and valves. Although the valve hole occupies a substantial portion of the rim face and the thickened part of the tube can overlap the sidewalls, I never encountered a problem with the valve or valve area, and got good service from the wheels. I think I still own one of the wheels with the Rigida rims.