PUB TALK

It was the local VMCC’s Low Power Run at the weekend, which is aimed at cyclemotors, mopeds, small and vintage models, etc. and is to be encouraged. PUB intended to ride the sidevalve HRD, rather than the Firefly with which the round trip mileage would have been really arduous. Unfortunately, come Sunday morning the HRD’s front tyre was observed to be flat – oh dear. She did pop out to the start on the modern bike to commiserate with the organiser, for it had turned out very wet and entrants were likely to be few anyway – actually just one on a vintage bike, although half a dozen turned up at the café in cars.

So the HRD’s wheel had to come out for investigation, without enthusiasm because of the memory of how difficult that Taiwanese tyre had been to fit. Being a 1926 machine it uses ‘beaded edge’ tyres – a concept that not all readers will be familiar with, so there are diagrams and pictures somewhere nearby. Instead of wires embedded into the ‘bead’ of the tyre to hold it on (the bit you have to lever over the rim) these earlier tyres were moulded with a protruding lip that hooks into the folded-over edge of the rim. Only tyre pressure holds them hooked together, so it is important to keep it fairly high (PUB keeps hers at 30-40psi for 26x3 and 26x2.5x2.25 sizes).

Actually the idea that they must be run at much higher pressure than wired edge is