GravelMN

I got my granddaughter a women's Bridgestone CB1 cruiser which was all original. Unfortunately, even though the original tires are uncracked and have a lot of tread left, the cord sidewall is failing on one and is questionable on the other. There are no markings inside or outside of the tires but the rims say Araya 26 x 1.5. The only tires I had around in 26" were some 1.5" Bontrager road slicks. These mounted extremely easily but one blew off the rim well below the rated pressure and on the other the bead seems to have not seated properly, so I deflated it. Is it just that the tires are too close to the rim width or is there something different about Bridgestone/Araya rims? I have heard that there are 26" tires that come in fractional increments that come on some old bikes that are not interchangable with modern decimal increment tires. Could this be the problem? I really wish that there was some kind of marking on the old tires but I went over every inch of them inside and out and nada.

What would be a good source for appropriate tires, for this vintage bike?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

3alarmer 

If the rims are stamped 26 X 1.5, then they are what i would expect to find on a Bridgestone bike of your description.

And they are recent enough that they should be hook bead rims, with a little groove for the tire bead to seat.
Fractional 26" tires and rims predfate yours by some years, and were most commonly found on 3 speeds of the 60's
and 70's, but were pretty ubiquitous at that time on a lot of bikes .......again, this predates yours.

I don't know why your tire blew off, but the most likely culprit is that the bead of the tire was not seated evenly
as the tube was inflated. That, or some defect in the tire or damage to the rim itself. I can't tell you without
looking at it myself. Any 26" decimal tire ought to work on that rim, so long as you don't go extremely narrow
or extremely wide. 26 X 1.5 ought to work.

...you can try a different brand with tighter beads. All the more recent tires rated for higher pressures seem
to have tighter bead tolerances in my experience.

nfmisso

26 x 1.5 is a bit narrow a tire for these rims. They work well with tires in the 2.0 inch range (50-559). I have them on my Cycle Pro Ram, it came fitted with 2.125" wide Panaracers - which appear to be original. I also used these rims on a couple of project bikes (Specialized Hardrock and Motive Rock Point II) for friends with 2.35" wide beach cruiser white walls. I would suggest that you look for wider tires, even the ones at Wal-mart will do in a pinch, and I recommend staying below 60 psi. I think 1.75" (47-559) is about the narrowest tire I'd try.