Araya 27x 1 1/4 Rim Questions
05-26-22, 08:26 PM
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Thanks ThermionicScott for the prompt reply. I think I will give them a try. Recommended PSI is 116 so maybe if I stick to 100 I should be ok? I'm not racing or anything, just out cruising.
05-26-22, 09:10 PM
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What pressures have you used in the past with these wheels? I never use more than 80 psi in 28mm tires anyway, but make sure you're wearing earplugs if you want to test how much you can put in 'em. 
05-27-22, 07:33 AM
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....I can't tell from looking at your photos, but there were some generational differences over the years with ARAYA 27" rims.
The condensed version of this history is that the earliest examples had little or no bead hook on the rims...so it's nearly impossible to fully inflate a more modern high pressure 27" tyre on one and not have it blow off the rim. Later on they got more of a bead hook, so they become less problematic as you progress in time. Once again, I can't see yours well enough to determine if there is or is not an adequate bead hook. If you have them in person, reach down in there and run your fingernail up from the bead seat to see if there's a hook or overhang. Some of these early bead hook adaptations are not really all that secure either.
Otherwise, they are serviceable rims, if a bit on the heavy side.
....I can't tell from looking at your photos, but there were some generational differences over the years with ARAYA 27" rims.
The condensed version of this history is that the earliest examples had little or no bead hook on the rims...so it's nearly impossible to fully inflate a more modern high pressure 27" tyre on one and not have it blow off the rim. Later on they got more of a bead hook, so they become less problematic as you progress in time. Once again, I can't see yours well enough to determine if there is or is not an adequate bead hook. If you have them in person, reach down in there and run your fingernail up from the bead seat to see if there's a hook or overhang. Some of these early bead hook adaptations are not really all that secure either.
Otherwise, they are serviceable rims, if a bit on the heavy side.
05-27-22, 08:25 AM
#29
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Love those Araya rims! If you want to sell them, I am a willing and enthusiastic buyer!
As a bike mechanic throughout the 70's and 80's I can say with certainty that the best rims at that time were the Araya and the Weinmann concave rims. Neither was the lightest available, but both were moderately low weight and tough as nails. Never, ever, had any problems with tires blowing off the rims. Not in the shop and not on the road.
Interesting to note that the euro rims at the time were crap. In fact, I rarely find a vintage Euro bike with two decent rims intact. Currently I am doing some full restorations on some euro bikes and it is nearly impossible to find period correct rims. Why? Because they were crap and few survived.
As a bike mechanic throughout the 70's and 80's I can say with certainty that the best rims at that time were the Araya and the Weinmann concave rims. Neither was the lightest available, but both were moderately low weight and tough as nails. Never, ever, had any problems with tires blowing off the rims. Not in the shop and not on the road.
Interesting to note that the euro rims at the time were crap. In fact, I rarely find a vintage Euro bike with two decent rims intact. Currently I am doing some full restorations on some euro bikes and it is nearly impossible to find period correct rims. Why? Because they were crap and few survived.
05-30-22, 09:12 AM
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Continental-brand wire-bead tires seem to be among the tightest-fitting (and thus safest) tires available for use on non-hooked clincher rims!
As well, the Araya brand of rims was one of the more-consistent with respect to bead-seating diameter, such that in the late 1970's, nearly a majority of mid-range "road" and "sport-touring" bikes came with this brand of hookless rims (in both alloy and steel versions) and which came fitted with 90psi or even 100psi rated tires.
I had nor saw no problems with them, and I worked in a shop (that sold Japanese Fuji bicycles).
It was the euro brand Weinmann (Belgian(?)-produced in the early 1970's) who seemed to occasionally have quality-control issues with respect to the bead-seating diameter of their non-hooked-bead rims. Early-1970's Schwinns sometimes had one of their two Weinmann rims mis-sized, such that a 27" wired tire could blow off at pressures above 70-75psi(!).
Typically it was the OEM versions of these rims where such problems surfaced, likely due to heavy price discounting and accelerated delivery timetables that bike makers such as Schwinn negotiated on their huge purchases of rims.
Even the Japanese OEM rims thus were not entirely immune to having machining defects adjacent to their welded rim joints (single-walled rims typically had welded rim joints, and poor machining often left this spot along the rim with a reduced width between the brake pads, causing heavy pulsation while braking).
Tire inflation pressure depends heavily on the weight that the tires carry, and on the ACTUAL width of the inflated tire. A "1-1/4"-wide" 27" tire can usually get by with only 70psi in it for riders up to 190 pounds or so, but it's the actual width of the inflated tire that is what counts, not so much the printed width on the tire, as some brands of 27x1-1/4" tires (and the rims that they're mounted on) are considerably wider than others! At lower pressure, a bike tire's tread wears longer, and the tire is less likely to blow out as the tire's casing ages! Having the tire blow off of the rim seems like perhaps much less of an issue to worry about, especially when the rims were made by Araya or Ukai.
It was actually the early hook-beaded narrow rims from the Japanese makers that were less tolerant of high pressure than with their earlier non-hooked-bead rims, and I have twice had such rims let go of an aged front tire's bead after heat from heavy, sustained braking actually caused the tire bead to creep over the edge of the rim.
Those aged tires (one was wire-beaded, the other was folding) had completely lost the rubbery grip around their bead edges, and had thus become quite slippery against the mere "half-rounded" bead "hooks" of these early "hooked-bead" Araya narrow rims!
As well, the Araya brand of rims was one of the more-consistent with respect to bead-seating diameter, such that in the late 1970's, nearly a majority of mid-range "road" and "sport-touring" bikes came with this brand of hookless rims (in both alloy and steel versions) and which came fitted with 90psi or even 100psi rated tires.
I had nor saw no problems with them, and I worked in a shop (that sold Japanese Fuji bicycles).
It was the euro brand Weinmann (Belgian(?)-produced in the early 1970's) who seemed to occasionally have quality-control issues with respect to the bead-seating diameter of their non-hooked-bead rims. Early-1970's Schwinns sometimes had one of their two Weinmann rims mis-sized, such that a 27" wired tire could blow off at pressures above 70-75psi(!).
Typically it was the OEM versions of these rims where such problems surfaced, likely due to heavy price discounting and accelerated delivery timetables that bike makers such as Schwinn negotiated on their huge purchases of rims.
Even the Japanese OEM rims thus were not entirely immune to having machining defects adjacent to their welded rim joints (single-walled rims typically had welded rim joints, and poor machining often left this spot along the rim with a reduced width between the brake pads, causing heavy pulsation while braking).
Tire inflation pressure depends heavily on the weight that the tires carry, and on the ACTUAL width of the inflated tire. A "1-1/4"-wide" 27" tire can usually get by with only 70psi in it for riders up to 190 pounds or so, but it's the actual width of the inflated tire that is what counts, not so much the printed width on the tire, as some brands of 27x1-1/4" tires (and the rims that they're mounted on) are considerably wider than others! At lower pressure, a bike tire's tread wears longer, and the tire is less likely to blow out as the tire's casing ages! Having the tire blow off of the rim seems like perhaps much less of an issue to worry about, especially when the rims were made by Araya or Ukai.
It was actually the early hook-beaded narrow rims from the Japanese makers that were less tolerant of high pressure than with their earlier non-hooked-bead rims, and I have twice had such rims let go of an aged front tire's bead after heat from heavy, sustained braking actually caused the tire bead to creep over the edge of the rim.
Those aged tires (one was wire-beaded, the other was folding) had completely lost the rubbery grip around their bead edges, and had thus become quite slippery against the mere "half-rounded" bead "hooks" of these early "hooked-bead" Araya narrow rims!
Last edited by dddd; 05-30-22 at 09:38 AM.
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