I have always used wire bead tires on my vintage bikes, unless, of course, I had sew-ups fitted. Anyway, it is harder to find wire bead tires, these days, and was wondering if my vintage road bikes can safely run folding tires without wire beads? I could sure use some advice, on this cause what I buy will be going on my got for free Trek 2200SL...


...fitted with a lovely set or Rolf wheels...

First question - are your rims hooked or hookless? Deflate the tire, squeeze in and see if you can feel a bump at the inside top of the rim flange. No bump, I'd be very careful. A tire coming off and leaving you riding on an aluminum rim isn't fun. Like riding on ice. And the tire jamming in the fork or stays can be even more memorable. I lost a tire 10 years ago that way. I went back to sewups just to have peace of mind anytime I hit that speed or faster.

Those are most probably hooked rims, although it's worth confirming, as 79pmooney notes.

I've ridden hooked 700c wheels since the early 1990's (tubulars before then), and I've always used tires with folding beads.

There are obviously more choices with folding tires than clinchers with wire beads but I find that they're typically easier getting on and off the rim than folding tires.

On the other hand, some people on Bike Forums have said they prefer wire beads because Kevlar beads stretch too easily.

In my years working in bike shops, I never observed a consistent pattern either way, and I installed and removed many hundreds of tires back then. Maybe supposed patterns just represent differences in tolerances over production runs.

I've installed my share of tires over the years as well. My observations are anecdotal and rather obviously not based on any sort of scientific test. It has been my observation that wired on tires are easier getting on and off a rim than kevlar beaded ones. That said, there is a lot of variability in terms of rim and tire combos. I like both kinds of tires and don't have a super strong preference.

Pretty unlikely to be hookless. Folding tires are fine.

Agree, as long as the rims are "hooked" folding tires work great without any issues. I probably have 5 or 6 vintage wheel sets for clinchers, with all of them having vintage rims and all of them run folding tires. When I had a hookless wheel set, I did run wired tires.

Try folding. They are better in almost every way. When they're new, they can be hard to mount, but they are built knowing that they stretch a little.

My general observation: each rim-tire pairing is unique. Some are harmonious and the tire mounts easily, but not too easily to be loose. Others are monstrous and gorilla hands and about five levers are needed to get the beads onto the rim, without pinching a hole in the tube or snapping levers. I am hopeless to predict this relationship beforehand. And have stories.

Wire beads stretch a bit with time and become easier to dismount/mount. Foldable beads don't appreciably stretch and once difficult/always difficult. This sounds prosaic until you're fixing a flat in 108 degrees or pouring rain.

In sum: depends!

Does anybody know about when hooked rims took over, at least for quality road bikes? It seems to me they were pretty ubiquitous by the late 80s, but that's just an observation from bikes I see at the co-op, I wasn't very involved with bikes in the late 80s and 90s. Were there industry holdovers that kept using hookless rims for some reason?

Edit: I realize that cheap 26" BSOs still use hookless steel rims today, I'm talking about decent road bikes that would be expected to run high pressure tires.

IMHO mid 70's.

People who have trouble mounting Kevlar folding tires just haven't done it enough, or maybe just don't know how to mount tires. [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] is right--folding tires are better in pretty much every way. There is just no downside to them.

Velobase has the Magic Mod-E hooked clincher coming out in '75 thus supporting your estimation.

Those Rolf Vectors are hooked rims.

I typically go with folding tires unless the wire bead version of the same tire is at least 70% cheaper, then I might cheap out.

Price is generally higher, but I'm willing to pay the difference.

I used to feel the same way but I'm largely indifferent to it know. I'll still run folding tires on a racing bike but other than that I'm largely indifferent to which tire to get.

That early-2000s Trek with Rolf Vector wheels is going to be just fine with kevlar/folding bead clinchers. If that was my bike, I would use a high-performance tire like a Continental GP5000, or something similar. Getting that bike for free is a very nice score.

Hell, is early 2000's even vintage?

All of my vintage bikes - the oldest is from 1981 - have hooked rims and no problem with foldable tires. I run mostly 25mm tires, even though BITD they'd have been narrower. Hell, my '89 Schwinn Circuit originally came with 19s!!

Foldable tires:
lighter
more supple (according to some)
easier to mount after some time

Wire-bead tires:
cost less
can fit on old rims without blowing off
ease of mounting does not change over time (which can be good or bad)

It won't be long now before rim brakes = vintage

My experience here is far less extensive than many who've posted already. But FWIW: of the two worst tires I've ever had the "pleasure" of mounting/dismounting, the absolute worst was a folder - and the next worst had a wire bead. Same size, same manufacturer (but different models), and mounting/dismounting on a different rim didn't seem to make much difference for either.

Zipp is making high end hookless rims, but you need tires specifically designed to be used with them. Everything old is new again.

My 01 Lemond has Rolf wheels I rum folding GP5000s on

I have a wheel set I built decades ago with Mavic hookless 700C rims. I have always used wire bead tires. Are folding tires really more likely to present a greater hazard in case of a sudden deflation? (That seems to be the supposition in this discussion.)