I'm trying to replace the tires on an old Nitto Japanese postal bike, and I'm having difficulty sourcing tires. No luck on Google or Amazon. I took the bike to a shop that said they could replace them with conventional tires, but they gave up - put the old tires back on and just sold me inter tubes.
On the bike currently are 26 x 1-3/8 tires that fold over each other separating the inter tube from the spoke ends (Type BE??).

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks,
Ken

I'm trying to replace the tires on an old Nitto Japanese postal bike, and I'm having difficulty finding a source. No luck on Google or Amazon. I took the bike to a shop that said they could replace them with conventional tires, but they gave up - put the old tires back on and just sold me inter tubes.

On the bike currently are 26 x 1-3/8 tires that fold over each other separating the inter tube from the spoke ends (Type "BE" ??).

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks,
Ken

Try niagaracycle.com or Harriscyclery.com

Pic of the tire sidewall showing all tire markings would help a bunch...

Threads merged.

use some chalk to highlight the marking on the tire and we need some good closeup pictures.
They look like westwood rims so could be a 622 tire.

B/E stands for beaded-edge tyre. This type uses a heavy rubber bead . There is no internal wire, which distinguishes it from a wired-on (W/O) tyre. The heavy bead tucks into a indention on the inside of the rim's sidwall, caused by a rolled lip. They are also known as clincher tyres but that term is often used for both B/E and W/O, to distinguish them from tubulars.

The B/E survived for a surprisingly long time after the introduction of the W/O, in some portions of the world. Asia appears to have been one of these areas. The Japanese seemed to favour a version with flaps extending inwards from the beads. The flaps overlapped each other, completing encasing the tube.

Aftermarket replacement B/E rims and B/E tyres continued to be offered into the 1980s. Araya offered a B/E rim as late as 1984. I imagine that some tyre manufacturers, such IRC, continued to offer B/E tyres at least this long. There may be some specialty manufacturer that continues to offer them, but I'm not aware of any.

For those not familiar with B/E tyres, here's a diagram from a mid-1960s, Japanese catalogue.

Thanks all. The bike is currently out of reach, and at a bike shop. I'll get some sidewall marking pics tomorrow.
Ken

P.S. I've been doing a lot of research lately and came across a site with some amazing pictures of some very ornate classic Japanese bikes. Towards the bottom of this rather long page are some good pictures and descriptions of BE tires.
**********?Vintage?Japanese Bicycles

Here's the link mentioned...

**********?Vintage?Japanese Bicycles

Sorry. Not sure why the web link is not pasting properly.

Anyways - today is a good day! I have new tires installed and I can provide a source for anyone in Bangkok looking for BE tires.
First I'll attach to source info (in Thai) and the new tire info, then the old tires pics...

Well that sort of worked out.
The guy in Bangkok is Montri and his phone # is 085-442-6867. He only speaks Thai, so maybe have your favorite Thai restaurant waitress help you out if needed.
The new tires are "Lion Head" brand and apparently made in Thailand. They are marked 26 x 1-1/2 but did replace the old "Shinko Golden Boy" Chinese brand which are marked 26 x 1-3/8.

Thanks for everybody's help,
Ken