Hi all,

I just bought a schwinn suburban from the late 70s off craigslist. It's in pretty good shape mechanically, but the tires are in pretty bad shape. You can see through the rubber on the sidewall in one spot on the front tire, the sidewalls of both tires are pretty cracked. I have a couple questions--

-do I need to replace the rear tire if it's just cracked? Most of what I'm finding is saying not necessarily, but since the front tire is in such bad shape and I think they're probably the original (30 year old) tires, it seems like probably I do in this case?

-assuming they are also 30 years old, should I replace the tubes as well, or are they okay if they hold air?

-am I taking my life into my hands if I ride it around the neighborhood this afternoon before I replace that front tire at the very least?

Would you drive a car with 30 year old tires? And replacement tires, depending on your car, might cost $100 each, probably more (my last set of tires on my pickup cost me $700). Well, on a bicycle, a decent tire might cost $15 each, and you only need two, for a $30 investment.

Myself, I don't try to squeeze the last bit of life out of a tire, whether it is my pickup, one of my bicycles, or one of my motorcycles. Its up to you.

Realize a tire failure on a two wheel vehicle can be a lot more serious than a tire failure on a four wheel vehicle (don't need to balance a four wheel vehicle). And a failure of a front tire can be the most serious.

Be sure to replace the rim strips and tubes to.

Replace the tires, inner tubes and rim liners. Use modern rim liners, not those soft rubber ones common on old Ten Speeds.

You just might get lots of miles out of an old set of hoop huggers, but then again, you might not. My Peugeot PX10, on its test ride, created a small mushroom cloud when the rear tire blew, and I do mean blew!

In fact, if I would have been clenching a piece of coal between my two gluteus maximus muscles, that piece of coal would have instantly turned into a diamond, at the loud kapow I heard just before my bicycle started to dance a little bit...



If that had happened on the front wheel, I might have crashed the bicycle.

Get the tires or learn how to carry pieces of coal. Best advice I can offer.

If your going pretty fast, a Front tire pop can result in a fall. I don't worry much about my rear tire too much, but the front is a different story.

You can try a jaunt around the block with the old tires but if you are going to keep this bike and be riding this bike in traffic, I would get new tires as soon as possible.

The old tires could give out and leave you having to walk several miles home, or spit you off in any number of traffic situations.

+1 what Mort says.

change the tires and tubes. dont buy them used off craigs list.

Glad to see some posts sticking up for the right thing to do.

If the bike was some sort of museum piece and needed to be original and NEVER ridden then those old tires would stay on. Since this isnt the case, do it right so you can ride reliably and safely.

-SP

Old tires with cracks are a failure waiting to happen. As for old tubes, I've used a few. They continue to hold up, but they leak air much faster than new tubes resulting in the need to pump up the tires more often. If it's your regular rider, I'd replace the tubes too. As for rim strips, well, I've had good luck with old rim strips that were in good condition and bad luck trying to make damaged rim strips work. If you have any doubt, replace them. Performance has some really nice cloth rim strips at about half the price of Velox.
One comment about replacing tubes. I tried some cheapo tubes from a big box bicycle store, they flatted faster than the 30 year old tubes. If you replace your tubes, use good tubes from an LBS, stay away from bargain basement tubes.

1-Try to locate that one person you've always wanted to get even with.

2-Restore the bike, keep the tires and tubes (they hold air, right?)

3-Give the bike to him/her.

Wait for the phone call.


Otherwise, put new tubes and tires on the bike.
I "second" roccobike's advice: get good tubes, the extra $2 apiece is worth it if one fails.
The failure rate is lower, and they'll often back it up if it does.

(actualy, I pay more for Conti tubes because they have cool yellow caps)

Some Schwinns came with an unusual 597 mm tire size.

I hope you regrease the thing before you ride it. It is possible for old grease to be dried up in the hubs. Actually, the oil creeps out of the thickener and makes dusty stains around the hubs. At a minimum, carefully oil the hubs and bottom bracket, or learn to disassemble and correctly reassemble bicycle hubs and put in some fresh grease.

This can be an issue when trying to buy new tires for old Schwinns.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

You may need something like this
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/produ...-8x11-4-37-597

If it's like the 1970s Schwinn Suburbans I've had in my hands thanks to my girlfriend's budding interest in bikes , they have 27" wheels. Still quite a few decent options for them.

+1 to those who say it's worth replacing the tires if you'll be riding it a lot.

Another thing that's relevant this time of year: if you're going to keep the old tires/tubes, keep in mind that changes in temperature can affect pressure fairly dramatically. I've seen old tires that seemed just fine, when fully inflated in a cool basement, literally explode when the bike was parked after a ride on hot summer asphalt.