At 10:08 PM -0400 3/31/08, Harvey Sachs wrote:
>First, I don't remember seeing (many, if any) treadless tires Back
>Then. I wasn't in the Biz, and not often in the hotbeds of activity,
>but to me a vintage bike looks more normal with some tread. But,
>that's aesthetics, not performance.
I agree about tread making tires look better, more vintage, etc. However, hand-made tires often were smooth in the old days, simply because they didn't have any way of making the tread. (In later days, Dugast et al. bought treads from larger makers.) For some vintage machines, smooth tires - even all-black ones (remember the 6-days machines) - may be appropriate.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com