Stella74

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for suggestions for a gumwall tire for a vintage Schwinn Collegiate. The current tires it has (that are really old, maybe even the original ones) are 1 3/8". It's my sister's bike, she'll just use it for biking around the city, not really off-roading. The Michelin 26" World Tour, with the gumwall option is currently out of stock in the US, after searching many websites. I was considering purchasing the Panaracer Col de Vie Randonnee or the Panaracer Pasela, but what difference is there between them? They seem to be wider at 1 1/2", but a website claimed it would still work on a 1 3/8" bicycle. Some people like the Paselas, others say they tend to get flat often or have a thin gumwall (prone to getting flat).

There are people out there that reccomend the Kenda tires, saying their inexpensive and ride nice. What are your opinions and experiences? I just want a tire that'll look nice on the bike, ride nice and last some good time on it.

Thanks everyone in advance! :-)

Chuck M 

Schwinn 26" wheels are often a different animal. Someone with better knowledge than me will be along to shed more light on that subject. But I feel that Pasela tires are far better than Kenda. I also suspect what some people are saying about the Pasela having a thin gum-wall is incorrect and they are actually talking about skin-walls which isn't going to be more prone to flats.

daka

If it has 26 inch wheels you are going to need to find tires compatible with the Schwinn S-6 size. This size (ETRTO 597) is different than a 26 x 1 3/8 (ETRTO 590) for a British 3 speed or a 26 inch (ETRTO 559) mountain bike tire.

veganbikes

In terms of tires make sure you are matching the tire you have on there. I have used tires with the same ISO diameter that were very much not compatible. Listen to daka

Stella74

Do you think so? The Tire on the Collegiate currently has reads 26" x 1 3/8". Do you think it will need a smaller tire?

Also, I have a 1977 Schwinn Breeze that I bought some tires for online earlier today, and it also has on the tire written 26 x 1 3/8" (I bought the Michelin World Tour.. I heard it would fit vintage bikes.. I hope it was the right choice now.).

On the Collegiate, the bicycle is mostly original and the rim it has seems to be either like the S-6 Endrick or S-7 Middleweight.
The source of the image with the rims came from another article on the forum "Determining Schwinn S-something rim size?" from a member called Scooper.

Pompiere

Here is an article about 26 inch bicycle tire sizing: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/26.html

My wife has had a Collegiate since eighth grade and it most definitely has the Schwinn sized S-6 tires. If you can find a bike shop that was a former Schwinn dealer, they may have the correct tire in stock. The selection is likely to be limited to Kenda ore Sunlite brands.

nlerner

The current tire hopefully also has the size 590 or 597 somewhere on the sidewall (e.g., 37-590). That refers to the bead seat diameter of the rim itself. As that Sheldon Brown article describes, 597mm was found mostly on early British road biks as well as on lots of Schwinns for some odd reason. Standard "3-speed" wheels as found on many generations of Raleigh Sports and also lots of Schwinn 3-speeds was 590mm or 26 x 1 3/8" or EA3 (any of those markings might be on the sidewall of your tire). You can still get both sizes, but 597mm is pretty limited; 590mm less so (I just bought a pair of Schwalbe Delta Cruisers in that size, which seem promising so far). There's also been lots of recent talk about 590/EA3 tires on the very long "For the Love of English 3-speeds" thread. Start here and work your way down for some tire recommendations and user experiences.

juvela

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in mounting a non-Schwinn tyre to an S6 rim it can be difficult sometimes to get the tyre's bead to seat onto the rim's bead seat

if you should encounter this products such as Rubber Lube, Slicks n' Slides drain opener or just soapy water can be helpful


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veganbikes

No you need a tire that is the same as the tire you currently have on it. Unfortunately with those old basically defunct sizes you need to match pretty much exactly. Check the ISO for sure but matching is very very key. Pull the old tire and match it with the new one and if it is different find one that isn't different. It sucks a lot but I and others I have worked around have had issues with the 26" sizing that isn't the standard 559 ISO diameter. Those fractional sizes get fractionally sillier because they have very similar tire sizes that are completely different and even sometimes within the ISO if the tire is not the same tread it may not work and just blow off which happened to me years ago.

Vintage Schwinn

If your Collegiate is the Chicago Schwinn electroforged frame Collegiate with its original factory steel S5/S6 wheels....IT REQUIRES 597mm AND THE ONLY AVAILABLE CHOICE IS THE KENDA K23 Schwinn S5/S6 37-597mm 26 x 1 3/8 597mm tire WHICH IS AVAILABLE IN Gumwall or Blackwall versions, and sometimes production runs of Whitewall versions are produced, but typically Whitewall versions aren't continually produced like the Gumwall & Blackwall........recently there was a production run of whitewalls, but prior to that it maybe had been at least six years or so since the last whitewall versions.

There was a regional Miami Florida only Auto Parts Store/Bicycle parts & accessories store with maybe four to half a dozen stores there that are brick/cinder block stores that are the size of an old Advance/O'Reillys/Auto Zone/Napa/Car Quest/Western Auto building. This Miami area local parts seller chain stores did at one time have within the past five years have a 597mm tire that my guess was manufactured for them. This Miami Auto Parts chain is huge in the Cuban, Spanish speaking community there, and does web and telephone/mail order with overseas residents in Spanish speaking locations. They are on Ebay, at least the last that I checked a couple of years ago. They are popular with the old car/street rodder/custom antique car, do it yourselfers because they carry all types of underdash A/C units, and a whole lot of new oem replacement parts for recent vehicles not sold in North America. Have a lot of oem replacement parts for recent vehicles common in South America, and Europe, and for those sold in Cuba. I don't know much about them other than my neighbor sourced a new underdash AC unit for an old classic car that he re-did. I would guess that they are still in business, and probably still on ebay...........you might have to search for something like universal AC underdash unit, or universal A/C condensers........they had a large number of both of these in plenty of different sizes......my guess is some were oem new replacements for certain models from other markets outside North America. I cannot recall the name of this Miami business right now. My guess is that they probably do not have the unique unknown maker's 597mm bicycle tire now, but if anyone in North America does, it might be them.

Everybody on the web that is large and carries a lot of bike parts and tires, does generally carry the 597mm KENDA k23 Schwinn s5/s6 tire 26 x 1 3/8 597mm tire.
Try bikesmiths, trailthis, bells bike shop, and folks like that..........to find them just GO to Ebay and SEARCH All Categories for: Kenda (37-597) Schwinn 26 x 1 3/8 597mm tire and also SEARCH All Categories for: Schwinn (37-597) 26 x 1 3/8

There was also a bicycle tire and wheelchair tire supplier in Australia that had a 37-597 wire bead 26 x 1 3/8 597 mm tire just a couple of years ago. It seems there was an obscure wheelchair that may have been once common there that required the wire bead 26 x 1 3/8 597mm tire. My guess is given the pandemic of the past 2 + years that you will not locate any new 597mm 26 x 1 3/8 (37-597) tires from anywhere in the world, other than the KENDA k23 597 mm 26 x 1 3/8 tires that are currently available everywhere at major online bikeshops-parts/tires sellers here in the USA with ebay stores,

Now if the TIRES on said bike are so old that they pre-date the International standard sizing markings ( that ERTO number which is in Millimeters which tells you the Bead Seat Diameter size of the specific wheel to end previous confusion of the oh heck, which one do i need because the tire sizes seem to read the same...
No need to remember this but on some of those real ancient tires both the 590mm & 597mm versions, might have said fits EA- 1 while the other size would have said fits EA-3, and sometimes way back in the day some replacement tires that Sears and Goodyear stores carried would say FITS SCHWINN, or NOT FOR SCHWINN.
***** All you need to KNOW is that SCHWINN(Chicago made bikes) are 597mm 26 x 1 3/8 37-597 and that EVERYBODY ELSE'S BIKES for 26 x 1 3/8 are 590mm (37-590). The tires WILL NOT interchange!!! The innertubes certainly will interchange, so if the tube says 26 x 1 3/8 , you are good to go for either tire. NOW, The GIANT made bike badged as a Schwinn Collegiate in 1983 & 1984 has the common 590 wheels, and thus takes the 37-590 tires. The GIANT made Collegiate has a 3 piece crank and a lighter weight lugged frame and this bike first appeared in 1983.
There are a few really obscure exceptions to this statement that 597mm is SCHWINN ONLY and 590mm is EVERYBODY ELSE'S BIKES:
There are some obscure now rare English bikes that did use the 597mm tire in the 1940's and early fifties, and some very ancient SCHWINNS back in the 1940's had wheels that specified a 599mm tire. Basically those are the only exceptions! Many cabers can successfully wrangle the current 597mm tire on to eighty + year old wheels requiring that 599mm tire that probably hasn't been manufactured since about 1960. DO NOT TRY TO INTERCHANGE the 597mm and 590mm TIRES because YOU CANNOT DO THAT as that 7mm difference is too great........Schwinn 597 tire WOULD BE WAY TOO LOOSE TO FIT on the Common Everybody Else's 590 wheel....and you would destroy any Common 590 tire trying in an attempt to mount it on a Schwinn 597mm s5 or s6 wheel.
----Don't worry about the s5 or s6 designation as it applies to the 26 inch 597mm Schwinn wheel to really basically only designate whether it has a slight hump visible near where the spokes attach to the center of the wheel, or if it has a smooth flat (no hump there). Other than that the wheels are essentially the same in strong steel construction. I think that specifically the name terminology for the visible style distinction is Westrick or Endrick, although I probably misspelled the actual names.
The SCHWINN COLLEGIATE had the wheels with the visible center hump UNTIL mid to late 1972 as the 1973 on models are smooth flat(no hump). So you'll see S5 refers to the version with the center hump (1964 -1972) and S6 refers to the smooth flat(no visible hump) wheels (late 1972 onward). Functionally there is no difference in those steel wheels. Neither version is better than the other, and I don't believe there is any difference in ride quality. Braking is exactly the same.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/293600550454

the_bikesmiths (99.8%) 229,651 transactions...Milwaukee WI.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/154807182268

jcolbart2012 (99.9%) 8194 transactions....Edon OH



******* Full disclosure: I have ordered multiple times from both the_bikesmiths and jcolbart2012.
I have previously ordered tires multiple times from Bikesmiths, including several of the 597mm Schwinn Kenda tires.
The tires were always fresh tires and in perfect shape and received them quickly. I highly recommend Bikesmiths for ordering the tires.
I have not ordered any tires from jcolbart2012, but have ordered other Schwinn parts and other bicycle parts. Perfect every time and shipped really fast, and all of his new replacement bearings , for BB, headset, wheels were quality Taiwan made replacements. You'll certainly want to bookmark jcolbart2012 of edon ohio on the bay because he's got most all the needed new parts for about any basic 1950 - 1982 Schwinn and other bikes too. He's got new aftmkt longer seat posts in all sizes, quality brake pads, axles, spokes, various hardware items, sprockets...way to much to talk about..... I highly recommend jcolbart2012 but given that Bikesmiths probably sells probably ten times as many 597mm tires per month than he does, it is my guess that Bikesmiths inventory will have likely been in Kenda's factory last week........(meaning a fresh as you can get).
I hope this information is useful.

randyjawa 

I am not sure about the range in sizes but I do like the looks and performance of the Michelin Dynamax gumwalls that I purchased for my late sixties Torpado. Not the best tire on the planet but, at $20 a piece, certainly good enough for this old bike. In fact, today when I go to the city, I plan to order two more sets from a local bike shop. I want a set for my Legnano and my Marinoni...

nlerner

Are those the size the OP is looking for?

Vintage Schwinn

Randyjawa: THOSE THAT YOU MENTIONED WILL NOT WORK on the OP's 1977 SCHWINN with 26 x 1 3/8 (37-597) factory wheels!!!


REMEMBER THAT WHEN IT COMES TO the 26 x 1 3/8 Bicycle Tire:

******* 597mm is for SCHWINN (made in chicago until 1982 when the chicago plant closed.* )

******* 590mm is for EVERY OTHER MANUFACTURER'S BICYCLES



+++++++++++++++ KENDA is currently the only tire manufacturer that is known to currently produce the 597mm SCHWINN TIRE today!






* = see post#10 from Vintage Schwinn .