[CR]Super champion "Mixte" rims

(Example: Framebuilders:Alex Singer)

From: "Norris Lockley" <Norris.Lockley@btopenworld.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 11:50:39 -0000
Subject: [CR]Super champion "Mixte" rims

"Mixte" in French means "co-educational" or "open to both sexes" , so that the mixte bikes built by the likes of Peugeot, Motobecane et al really are designed for women and men, and it is a common sight in France to see men doing the shopping on just such a bike. By corruption of language "mixte" has alos come to mean "dual-purpose" which is what i think the Super Champion rim is supposed to be ie for tubulars or clinchers.

I can't actually recall this particular rim but I do remember efforts in the early 80s by rim and tyre manufacturers to work together, and I think it was about this time or a few years later that the tyre maker Wolber bought out Super Champion.Also about that time some tyre manufacturers, notably Clement in Italy, attempted to introduce a new type of tubular clincher whose real claim to fame was that it had small hard flaps of rubber moulded into the lower flanges of the tyre which was shaped like an inverted "U", the purpose of the flaps - hard ones - being to engage with the beaded edge of the clincher rim.

What the claimed advantages of this type of tyre/rim collaboration was supposed to be, I'm not certain, but I think it was suggested that it would be posible, "in extremis" to also stick a tub on the slightly wider than normal beads. I recall trying to use these Clement tyres - I think that the models were "Evolution" and "Revolution", one being a narrow about 20mm black slick, and the other a silver yes I wrote silver, it's not a misprint, 20mm file tread. I still have a pair of each hanging somewhere in the workshop.

The tyres were quite rigid due to the stiffened "base-tape" and could not be folded and shoved under the saddle - hence the need to carry a spare tubular. As I recall , repairs were effected by injecting a sealing fluid through the valve hole. The old fellow at Dugast got together with another old-timer to make a hand-made version of this hybrid tyre ,but the idea never caught on.

i suppose in a sense some part of the idea has been carrried on by the Czech. manufacturer, TUFO, who still produces a type of hybrid/sealant repairable tyre in quite a variety of tread patterns.

Maybe somewhere in and amonst those reminiscences there might be an answer to the purpose of the Super Champion Mxte rim

Norris Lockley